System Freeze

I have been trying to figure out a PC that has been freezing intermittently. I loaded XP Pro. and updated all drivers hoping this would help. I ran all windows updates, have current virus definitions, and no viruses. STILL NO HELP.I can run it for days, but when connecting to internet and especially when the kids chat on ICQ it locks up. I think that the hard drive is going bad, but I would like any opinions.
The System Event is telling me when the errors occur. 1st: "The drive detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0\D" and than 2nd: "the IPSEC services service terminated with the following error: the authentication service is unknown". And this is where it freezes. That is the order the errors.
When they had Windows 98SE and I ran scan disk it would frequently show that it had fixed errors on drive. I have a 7GB drive and I will try it to see what it does.

1. RE: System Freeze
lbyard May-20-02 02:07 PM
In response to message 0

Do you mean bad clusters (probably)? I would check the drive with XP, See http://duxcw.com/faq/win/xp/scandisk.htm. If it has many bad clusters I would do a backup of critical data ASAP (http://duxcw.com/digest/guides/hd/rules.htm) because the drive may be doing a death chant. Larry

2. RE: System Freeze
DAM May-20-02 09:17 PM
In response to message 1

Larry, I believe that you are right. Bad clusters would make since being the smallest unit for storage in a file.It shows Windows has corrected the file system, I guess that just like saying bad clusters. Anyways I backup critical data and I believe this Hard drive is toast. I will play around with WD/HDD on my bench model. I am repairing this to prove a point, that the thing does not need all new guts as one PC repair shop wanted to do. My friend built it and I think even though it is a few years old it still has some life left.
Thanks for fast response time and you confirmed what I was thinking, that the hard drive is going bad.I believe this to be the best site that I have used to get quality information