Wirehead Studios

I have been having some major trouble with my PC recently. It seems that any big archived data I come by, either from the Internet or from disk is supposedly corrupted. I have been all over the net trying to find out what is causing the problem but they all say "your file is banjaxed, go and get a new one".

Here is why I know that this isn't the case:

This problem first arose when I bought GTA San Andreas. I installed the game and got a CRC error message saying that a file installed to my HD didn't match that on the DVD-ROM with three options: retry, abort and ignore. I hit Retry and the installation failed. I tried again and this time the CRC error was in relation to a completely different file. This time I ignored it and the game continued to install and run completely fine.

Last week I picked up a copy of Juiced on the cheap and while it was installing I got three of the same errors. Ignoring them still did the trick.

However, I have now discovered that pretty much every single zip and rar file I have backed up (the only exceptions being the smallest of them) come up with a CRC error no matter what, and while the error in any one archive can relate to the same file on each attempt, the corrupt header is always different.

I have three master hard disks for my computer which I use for different purposes. Two of them have not been used in months, and one of those two is pretty much brand new as it is only ever used as backup. I am getting these errors with them all. I've checked them all for viruses, and found none. Even a reformat and fresh install of Windoze XP hasn't solved the problem. It is worth noting that one zip file in particular gave a CRC error on one drive but not on the other two.

I have tried absolutely everything I can think of, even going so far as fitting a new set of IDEs and NOTHING is helping in the slightest. I've managed to rule out my CD and DVD drives, as I get the errors even when they are not used.

Which is why I'm resorting to the expertise af anyone who uses this forum. I can still use my PC as it stands, but this problem means that I now have a number of programs which won't even install. Could it be a motherboard, RAM or processing issue? I am willing to try anything.

My regular PC specs are as follows:

AMD Athlon 800Mhz
Inno3D GeforceFX 5500
640MB RAM
Matsushita DVD-ROM drive
Memorex 32x CD-RW drive
40GB Maxtor Master HDD
80GB Samsung Slave HDD
My motherboard is a Mainboard something or other with a built-in sound card.

Only the hard disks are ever changed.

I am at a complete loss. If anyone can come up with anything othere than that mentioned above I would be most grateful.

I used to get the same problem opening RAR files. The header is corrupt or something like that.
 On my wifes`s PC everything worked perfect so I assumed it must be something to do with Winrar.
Uninstalling & Reinstalling Winrar didn`t help until I used a newer version, 3.4. Now everything works OK.
               Hope this helps!!

I would have said it was bad sectors on the HD, but that doesn't seem to be it. Have you tried scanning the discs? You probubly have, so it must be something more complicated.

could be your IDE interface, or how strange as it may sound it could be your PSU. I've had many strange errors with HHD's going slow, puters freezing etc by just a bad PSU.

i have had it before usually by getting a virus with a winzip or rar or iso, there's not a whole lot you can do other than try to open it with a virus checker and see if that works

Do a virus check first, and also do a spyware check.  I'd also check your system RAM.  It sounds like something could be flipping in memory.  There's a great utility called memtest86 (http://www.memtest86.com/) that will torture-test your RAM.  The catch - you need a floppy drive and have to boot from it.  It'll run indefinitely, and it takes a LONG time to do everything so it's good to start a test before going to sleep and checking on it in the morning for a multi-pass run.  If you prefer to monitor it, set aside a few hours and read a book while checking the screen periodically.  If any errors show up it should report them.

If the RAM checks clean, try moving the PC off any surge supressors you have and running off a clean AC wall plug.  Weak power supplies can cause all sorts of trouble.  Also check your system temperature, and try killing off any unneeded running programs before doing the CRC check.  If you installed anything recently you might look at what it is, and try removing it.

Well, it would seem that it is to do with the RAM. I tried removing one of my RAM chips (the oldest one) and suddenly everything is behaving as it should. That said, I've just downloaded Memtest and I'll probably reinsert the chip tomorrow and let it do it's thing.

Pho: You were saying about weak power supplies. I'm not using any circuit breakers at the moment but my setup is currently running off a six-socket plugboard. Could this be a cause?

I only mentioned it as a possibility because a lot of power strips, if they take a jolt from a surge or just wear out over time, can provide weak AC to the main system.  One person I know had this problem where the PC would not boot on the first try nor would it shut down properly.  I said to plug it straight into the wall, and it worked fine, so just be aware that a defective multi-outlet strip can cause that sort of thing.

If you pulled a RAM chip and the problem went away, then I'd say it's either the RAM or the RAM socket on the mainboard, but most likely it's the RAM chip.