Solved Lost power during Defrag, now Vista screwy

Hi Folks,
I am new to the forum. Thanks for having such a resource.

I was performing a defrag last night and lost power while in the middle of it.
My system is a Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop and unfortunately my battery was dead. After power was restored, I rebooted my laptop and it booted ok but...

Noticed immediately a jerky motion to the mouse and when I play music or any audio it hangs repeatedly.
I assume I have messed up a Windows system file when the defrag failed?

Tried a system restore from the day before but it failed. Tried defragging again and it completed but the problem is still there.

I tried tried a repair from my windows vista disk but the only option there that seemed logical was repair startup. I tried it but found no errors. My system still boots.

I am trying to fix this without having to reinstall the operating system and all my programs from 5 years of owning this PC.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I appreciate your help in advance.

Thanks, Mark
PS,,, I am running Vista SP2

Welcome
Run a full chk dsk (might be called scan disk in Vista)
Run an SFC
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66978-system-files-sfc-command.html
Make a full defrag, When making defrag always scan disk, first.
If nothing is found make a full Hard Drive Test.

Harddrive scan usings SeaTools - SeaToolsfor Windows | Seagate - Both long and shorttests

I think that part of the Hard Drive may be damaged.

Hi Richc46,
Thanks for your input. I did what you suggested and it did not work.
Scan disc found a few errors but said it fixed them. I then did another defrag. The problem still persists.
I could not get the seagate software to work? to do a full hardrive check with it.

Scratching my head here???

Dell has a self diagnostic test. Here is a crazy question, can you find your manual?
It will tell you how to test the hard drive.

Look in the closet, under the dust and boxes. Most manuals are there.

richc46 said:

Dell has a self diagnostic test. Here is a crazy question, can you find your manual?
It will tell you how to test the hard drive.

Look in the closet, under the dust and boxes. Most manuals are there.

Click to expand...

LOL. You are funny.
I am not like most. I have all manuals and all software for this PC. I have already run the dell diagnostics today. All checked good on the hardrive.
I did have one test that failed.
"system failed rtc accuracy test".
With a little research I determined this is the realtime clock located on the motherboard. Could this be causing my error? Can a failed defrag cause this?
I wonder if there is a driver or somthing that was corrupted during the failed defrag?

You must be like me. I have file cabinents and all computer related material is in one drawer.
In any event, defrag rearranges the hard drive. You stopped in the middle. Lets give this a try:
Try another mouse in another port.
Go to search by the start button and type device manager. In DM, look or any small yellow marks near the drivers. They may have become corrupt.
Lets see if another program is causing the problem, try in safe mode. Work any better?

Hi,

Device manager was one of the first things I tried to find the problem. No conflicts there. I have several mice that I can try. I do not expect it to be a mouse problem as it seems like a momentary "Hang up" of every thing> Mouse/ video/audio/ even when the hour glass is up it hangs for a fraction of a second every 5 seconds or so. If that makes sense? when listening to audio on youtube or a song you hear pop pop pop then normal then pop pop pop but more of a digital sound. When dragging the mouse cursor straight across the screen in one movement, the cursor will stop for a fraction of a second, then catch up. Like I said, it happens about every 5 seconds.

I am sorry for the vague description of the problem. This is the best way I can describe it.
I am going to run another diagnostic on the motherboard and do some more research. I am not sure that a defrag could cause a problem on the motherboard.
Thanks very much for your efforts. Much appreciated.
Mark

Be sure to try in safe mode. If it works that will give us a heads up.

richc46 said:

Be sure to try in safe mode. If it works that will give us a heads up.

Click to expand...

Roger!

Hi richc46,
The problem has been fixed. I am not sure exactly how. Let me explain. I did two check discs yesterday. The first time, it showed 5 errors and fixed them. When that completed, I restarted the pc. The problem was still there. I performed the dell diagnostics like mentioned earlier and only found the RTC error. When I did the second check disc, it found no errors but the problem still persisted. Last night, I shut the PC down completely instead of restart. When I started it today, the problem was GONE! Not sure if shutting it down completely allowed things to reset properly but hey, I am happy.
Thanks for all your help. I added to your reputation. Hope you have a nice Holiday weekend.
Later, Mark

Im glad that you got it sorted Mark. Its always best to do a complete shut down rather than a restart in a situation like this. It seems that my initial hunch was correct, stopping in the middle of defrag required a chkdsk to correct the errors that were on the hard drive. In fact, always shut down at least once a week. Thanks for the kind words.