If it's not one thing...

[Mikey_]

...it's another. i noticed something strange while playing medal of honor allied assault today. everything just, started to go extremely slow. at 1st i thought it was lag but it was this way in every server i joined. shortly there after i began hearing strange loud "tick" sounds from my pc maybe, every 2-5 minutes. also noticing that my pc is heating up alot faster. not sure what this is about cuz my room is usually a freezer (yes i like the cold). i scanned for viruses and stuff and found nothing. at that time everything, and i do mean EVERYTHING was going to hell as far as speed goes. just opening up My Computer took about 10 minutes.

i rebooted into safe mode and i got some message about how ntoskrnl.exe was missing and blah blah blah. in safe mode i looked through my pc to see if i'd find anything strange. nada. while in safe mode i googled and downloaded a ntoskrnl.exe file, emailed it to myself, rebooted back into xp, then i was gonna place the .exe into the system32 directory and asked if i wanted to replace the one there. now, thats odd considering one of the lines about the error said that its either missing or corrupt.

i still have the .exe and its of different size than the one currently there. i'm not sure what to do with it? what's the file for? does anyone recommend i replace? and just why the hell is my pc making these ticking sounds. i also noticed that windows messenger kept launching itself even though i manually shut it down maybe 34617946 times. i deleted that folder from both my hard drives and for some strange reason my pc is faster. but i still hear the ticking from time to time and im' worried. i wonder if my pc is dying out. anyone please help!!!! lol

[linkinkampf19]

How much did you google it, m79/ There are a few sites out there that I found that might solve your problem. Here are a few:
Remember, these are just googled, so sorry if they're duplicates
http://www.ozzu.com/ftopic24580.html
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000631.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/294690?
http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6127-0....ssageID=565922
On this page. go directly to the third meesage, cuz some a$$ decided to blantatnly reply with "you have to reinstall Windows."

This page might help you with other things, like unneeded processes and the like:
http://www.blackviper.com/
Just go to the OS Guides on the left hand side and that'll help you with other problem hopefully.

And BTW... What was the exact error message, number codes and all? And waht OS and hardware do you have? It might even be useful if you run dxdiag, if you can. As for the clicks, I have no idea, but you might wanna check that none of your hardware is actually failing. Good luck.

[Mikey_]

no i mean, i googled for the .exe file that the error mentioned. when i was gonna reboot in safe mode, it asked if i wanna reboot in safe in xp or windows, i was curious so i chose xp and it said that it can't boot into safe mode cuz that .exe file was either corrupt or missing. that file i found out later was on my pc, so it may be corrupt. not sure. my pc runs xp pro. dxdiag? is that a command i can use in Run? thanx for the help.

[linkinkampf19]

I have XP Pro too. dxdiag is kinda off topic with your problem, but you never know. It's used to test DirectX, and you can run it from the RUN command, or I believe it is also in the Control Panel.

As for the ntoskrnl.exe, the name of it kinda explains its operation, kinda. NT OS Kernel, so it could be something to do with your memory. I am not wholly sure about that, but your memory could be failing, or something else... I really don't know. Hate to say it, but check the M$ newsgroups. They can be a pain in the ass, but sometimes you will get an answer, else, jump back over here and I'll see what I can do, if anything at all. Sorry man.

If worst comes to worst, a would say to use the recovery console and see what that can do before trying to replace the file with someting you found on the Web... risky business. But otherwise, I wish you luck, and I hope I helped.
ntoskrnl.exe

[GODJonez]

ntoskrnl.exe

Is the core of Windows NT system. It means that all things between your OS and processor is handled by this item. Like every request to open a file or put something in RAM is done by this. With very powerful tools you can even kill its process but immediately when you push "Kill process" button everything freezes, because it is no longer sending to and receiving commands from processor.

Oh, do you have Pentium 4? It has a wonderful thing to slow itself when it's over heating so that it wouldn't burn to ashes (I have a video of that, if you want to see). So I think that your cooler might be malfunctioning, that sound you hear may be from it. Maybe a new cooler might solve the problem. You know, over heated processor might cause all kinds of error messages.

[master]

Hi, M79.

1. your cpu could be heating up, and you probably need a new fan, or something.

2. the tinking could be your hard drive going bad, and it could have corrupted that file.

I would suggest keeping your computer in your refigerator. You might need to do a recover...

That's all I can think what it would be.

[Pyro_420]

I think I know exactly what he is talking about when it comes to the ticking sounds because my PC is doing the exact same thing, and it only happens when I am using Spysweeper to scan for spyware and the like, or when I am using Trend Micro Internet Security 2004 to scan for virii. My buddy told me that the ticking sound is what happens when your RAM is full and must be cached to the swap file on your HD, so the arm on your HD quickly swipes across the platters and writes the data, and then your RAM empties so that the cycle can start all over again. I don't know if that is the case with you, but that's what is going on with my machine...BTW, I am running XP Pro with SP1 slipstream edition

[Mikey_]

thanx all for your inputs. i moved my pc from where it was before. it has more space to breathe lol my room is usually cold but i'm also making an extra effort to have my pc cool down better by having my windows open. i do this since its pretty damn cold here at night when i use my pc so it has an added way of cooling. i just did these 2 things and now my pc isn't even remotely warm in any way and there's no more ticking. seems my pc was over heating. thank goodness i moved its position.

[master]

whooo. that's good. I bet your computer is 100% happier.

[Mikey_]

well last night i froze my ass off with it in its new spot. i only heard it tick once or twice in a matter of about 4 hours or so. and the slowdown wasn't as bad as before. maybe its time for a new pc

[master]

well, m79, if you do buy a new computer, try getting a barebone. You can put all your current stuff, like your hard drive, cd-rw/dvd's, etc. into it.

Normally you get a case, mobo, and cpu and sometimes memory with it. It lowers the cost dramatically.

www.tigerdirect.com and www.pricewatch.com are good places to look for cheapy barebones.

[Mikey_]

thanx for the recommendations. barebone sounds good. from my pc i'd just wanna keep my sound and video cards (the vid card managed to play doom 3 and i was shocked), my 2nd hard drive, ram i guess, umm...thats it. i think. i want a better processor.

[master]

what processor do you have now? either Intel or AMD is good. 64 is ok, but some games don't work on it... really, the only bad cpu's I saw were the pentium 3 processors. pentium 2 had the worst reputation for dying so fast...

[Mikey_]

oh. its AMD. so p3's are bad, what about p4's?

[Pyro_420]

p4's suck a$$...The instruction sets are turned down on them so they only do about half the work per clock cycle as compared to an AMD chip of the same speed

NOTHING but AMD chips go into MY case