In any case, even if it’s working right now, unless you can pinpoint where it went wrong, start saving up for a new computer immediately.

Heather – De-lurking here…

Nice to meet you. :o)

I had a motherboard battery start to fail on me causing weird, intermittent problems like this. In particular, your comment about it being fine if the system had just recently been on rang bells to me.

I hadn’t considered that, mainly because i’ve never had a CMOS battery fail on me before. As per intothesystem’s comment, though, my system clock does seem to be fine. Anyway, i shall add it to my list of possibilities to consider (and it wouldn’t have occurred to me in a month of Sundays if you hadn’t suggested it, so thank you), although it is currently looking slightly like the faults may have resolved themselves…

intothesystem – sorry about the problems you had with your comments. I’ve de-spammed the first one (have no idea why it got marked as spam, btw), and deleted the third one that was replacing it – hope that was ok.

Linux does prefer Fat 32, but it is possible to get NTFS up and running in ubuntu.

Ah, i was right: things have moved on. :o)

Hope you get it sorted!

Heather’s suggestion of CMOS battery may also be worth ruling out.

Kapitano – it’s just occured to me that the problem might be an intermittant hardware fault on your video card – one that doesn’t prevent display, but does make it fail to respond when being accessed by this particular .SYS file.

That’s a worryingly plausible explanation. It would also explain why the graphics sometimes fail altogether. The very occasional problem with the hard drive failing to power up could be ‘just one of those things’, and only seeming like a problem because i’m rebooting such a lot at the moment.

(2) a virtual PC running XP, for trying out possibly-dangerous software

That’s a really good idea. It would have saved me a lot of hassle just a short while ago… ;o)

It doesn’t make Windows any safer, but it does reduce fragmentation a lot

Ah, i see. I used to stress out about fragmentation, but these days i’ve decided life’s too short. Plus, windows has usually collapsed in a quivering heap for other reasons long before fragmentation becomes a serious issue…

Thanks for the tip about the unistaller. :o)

intothesystem – well, i’ve been meaning to give Linux another go for a while now, and going with a version that boots off CD would obviously make sense. As i have my data on a different drive to my windows installation, though, i don’t have to back stuff up before reinstalling.

Actually, i’m slightly surprised to hear that Linux would be able to see inside a Windows (NTFS) drive in order to back up. When i last looked into Linux (which was ages ago, to be fair), that was a real problem with running a dual-boot system – that you’d inevitably find that the data you wanted was on a drive formatted for the other OS. But, like i say, that was a while ago, so things have probably moved on. :o)

gun street girl – this made me laugh too. I’m reading this on the very early train from Leeds to London and it was my first laugh of the day.

I’m pleased you enjoyed it! I imagine laughs can be fairly thin on the ground on the early train from Leeds to London, so i’m glad to have been of service. :o)

I hope you get your computer problem resolved tout suite, but I have to admit that I laughed at “All I have really been able to deduce from this is that (like its owner…) my computer apparently enjoys being stripped naked and prodded. “

LOL…this made me laugh too. I’m reading this on the very early train from Leeds to London and it was my first laugh of the day.

If your computer is working in linux then it is presumably a windows issue.

xx

Ah yes, sorry. A lot of people have difficulty with the difference between logical and physical drives, and have only one physical drive anyway. So I’ve got into the habit of simplifying things for them, and only talk about “drives” if it doesn’t make a practical difference.

This is one of the things that has me confused – the intermittency of the fault(s).

Indeed. Me too. But it’s just occured to me that the problem might be an intermittant hardware fault on your video card – one that doesn’t prevent display, but does make it fail to respond when being accessed by this particular .SYS file.

I’d say try reinstalling Windows just to make sure it isn’t a hardware fault like that.

BTW, I once had a system which crashed on boot because of an out of date mouse driver (!). And another that only booted if you kept ejecting the CD drive.

I’ve done the installing a second version of windows thing once

Completely off topic, but I’ve got:
(1) a second, un-stripped-down installation of XP that I use for the 2 or 3 occasional tasks that need it, and
(2) a virtual PC running XP, for trying out possibly-dangerous software, and making portable verious of the ones I decide to keep.

* Try to install programs on a different drive from the system

That’s the first time i’ve come across this piece of advice. What’s the advantage?

It doesn’t make Windows any safer, but it does reduce fragmentation a lot. And even more so if you use a pagefile.

And yes, you’d still have to re/de-install in the usual way. Speaking of which, I recommend Revo – it’s free, portable, and uninstalls programs much more cleanly and completely than Window’s own uninstaller.

Kapitano – If your information is on a different drive from the system

My data is on a different logical drive, but the same physical drive (well, i have two physical drives in the machine, but the secondary one is fairly small, so the bulk of the data is on the same one). I’m ok if i have to reinstall windows, but not if there’s a hardware problem with the physical drive. But i am reasonably confident that there isn’t.

as you presumably have a second computer

I don’t have a second computer. I posted the post (and this comment) from the one that has the sequence of intermittent faults. Thus far, i’ve always ultimately got it to boot, though sometimes (including just now) only after i’ve given it a bit of a prodding. This is one of the things that has me confused – the intermittency of the fault(s). In particular, i have difficulty understanding how atisgkaf.sys can be corrupted/ replaced with malware/ whatever if the computer can sometimes launch the file and boot through to completion. Though my inability to understand is very possibly (probably?) a function of my ignorance. :o)

I’ve done both these several times, and they’re not as scary as they sound to most people.

I’ve done the installing a second version of windows thing once, when i was briefly trying Windows ME in parallel with Windows 98. Swapping hard drives in and out of different machines is something i’ve done a lot of, both for myself, and for other people. Does this mean i don’t count as ‘most people’? I’ve always hoped it made me slightly geeky… ;o)

* Try to install programs on a different drive from the system

That’s the first time i’ve come across this piece of advice. What’s the advantage? Is it that it decreases the likelihood of malware corrupting the system? Presumably the software would still have to be reinstalled with each fresh install of windows. Unless i was sensible like you and used portable versions of apps, that is… :o)

* Invest in a copy of Acronis True Image, or something similar, to take restorable system-and-software backups on (say) a monthly bass

This is a very good piece of advice, and something i know i should do, because it would make the hassle of a windows reinstall so much less of a hassle. The trouble is i’m just too damn lazy… But when i next have a working DVD burner (i probably haven’t mentioned that the one i have is ok for reading discs, but can’t burn them anymore) i am determined to turn over a new leaf.

Hmmm, that was an incredibly long and boring reply that could basically been summarised in 6 words – thanks for the excellent advice, Kapitano – wasn’t it? Sorry. :o)

saveyoursanity – I hope you get your computer problem resolved tout suite

Thanks. :o)

I laughed at “All I have really been able to deduce from this is that (like its owner…) my computer apparently enjoys being stripped naked and prodded. “

I’m glad!