Weird computer problem

[kleinluka]

So....I unplugged a digital camera from my computer at home on the weekend (normal usb cable, nothing fancy). I didn’t see the little icon for “remove hardware safely” so I just unplugged it. Well, an hour later I got a blue screen and my computer restarted itself. Then it kept restarting itself every 10 minutes and now I get a blue screen whenever I boot and it re-starts itself before I even get into Windows. Sometimes I get a message “Disk read failure. Press Alt+Ctrl+Del to reboot computer”.

I formatted my C drive yesterday and re-installed Windows and it’s still happening. Wtf? Is it possible that a simple USB device could corrupt my entire computer like that?

I’ll bring it back to the store today for repair but I wanted to see if you guys had any idea if it could have really been caused by unplugging the camera.

[skdr]

Check device manager if it is still showing your usb-device.

Did you use the usb port which is going straight to your motherboard or something fancy like frontpanel port etc.?

[kleinluka]

I used the USB port in the back.

I can't even get into Windows anymore so I cant check device manager

[hessi]

check for temperature of your CPU. bluescreens might occur when there is some cooling problem.

[skdr]

there are thousands of reasons why bluescreens occur. I'm pretty sure this has something to do with klein's USB right now.

Can you get in to BIOS? Does BIOS show any USB devices?

[Minos]

You probably damaged your mobo. Open your case and check if there are any weird spots around the usb port you used.

I had a similar problem once. I couldn't find the "remove hardware safely" button and just removed my pen drive by hand. It damaged both the USB port and the pen drive and I could never open any pen drives again on my old PC.

[Psy]

I never, ever "safely remove hardware".

[e-freak]

yes the safely remote stuff is bs but it can lead to such problems. which step do you reach when booting? can you get into the bios? then try to deactivate all USB/Peripheral stuff. if you get to the point there windows loads the bootscreen (windows logo) then try to press F8 before it gets there to start in safe-mode (or use a Linux Live CD). if that doesn't help at all, open your case and check if you can jumper your mobo to deactivate all USB-Ports instantly, try to deactivate everything that's not essential.

[⌐■_■]

I never, ever "safely remove hardware".

i dont either. but i did damage my usb port once, wich lead to rebooting whenever i tried to plug in.

[kleinluka]

I was able to boot windows SOMETIMES, only my screen resolution would be 640x480 and it wouldnt recognize most of my drivers like video card etc. Some other times it even loaded my Windows installation on my D drive which was my really old windows that I used on my old computer. LOL. It had the old desktop background and icons and all that... but mouse and keyboard didnt work.

When it ran chkdsk it would get to stage 2 and then reboot itself before it finished.

Now it doesnt start windows at all anymore. Sometimes when I boot I simply get a message in white text on black background "Disk Read Failure. Press ctrl, alt del to reboot machine".

I can go into the boot menu but I brought the PC back to the store already for repair. I think it seems like my mobo is damaged because a format of the drive didn't fix it. This kind of thing really shouldn't happen when you unplug a USB cable. It's ridicolous. Good thing i've only had this computer for 3 months and I have a 3 year store warranty on it. I think this kind of incident should be covered by store warranty. It's not normal for your hardware to get corrupted like this.

[Ginger Lord]

I once tripped over a USB lead going into the front of my PC, luckily my Camera was on the floor so it didnt go flying but it yanked the cable out of the PC, bent a pin creating a short which then fried the internal USB card and then the mobo.

Could be what happened.

[kleinluka]

well i didnt trip over it. I just unplugged it.

[Nysuatro]

Tried to plug the camera in and see if it still gives a connection ?

Then you know for sure that connection is not defect and is not giving a bad signal to your motherboard.

[Ginger Lord]

well i didnt trip over it. I just unplugged it.

Could also do the same thing if unplugged sharply or just at a wrong angle.

[kleinluka]

Yeah but really, how likely is that? also, i unplugged the cable from the camera, not from the back of the computer.

We'll see what the technician says. Maybe the blue screen and my pc dieing had nothing to do with it at all and the two events just happened to occur around the same time. Could be. I asked the IT guy at Eidos and he said I did nothing wrong and that it could be a RAM or HDD problem.