Gaming Mum's computer had an improper shutdown, now it runs like crap

RupeeClock

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I'm trying to figure out what the hell has gone wrong with my mother's computer. Just a week ago her friend impulsively hit the power button and forced a total shutdown when the system suddenly came out of sleep mode, and since then there's been plenty of issues with the system.

Simply logging onto Windows can take a very long time, as does starting up any new programs. Even task manager is prone to becoming unresponsive.
Virus and malware scans suggests no infection, Windows Experience Index has not decreased after re-assessment (it was actually better).
The gist of it is that things are abormally slow, I took a look in the Event Viewer and events are the improper shutdown a week ago are quite concerning.

In particular, this computer is one of those computers built into a touch-screen display, and uses laptop/mobile hardware.
http://www.itechnews...all-in-one-pcs/

The thing that kicked this all off was the Critical Kernal-power error on Thursday 19th at 9pm.
"The previous system shutdown at 21:14:06 on ‎19/‎04/‎2012 was unexpected."
"The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."
When that happened, the computer was running a game, she had lost all her game progress as a result of the power-off.

After that, a new Error event "atapi" shows up frequently after booting up, multiple times.
"The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort0."

This is coupled with other troubling events that didn't show up prior to the improper shutdown, some examples, spoilered for length.
Warning: NTFS "The system failed to flush data to the transaction log. Corruption may occur."
Error: Service Control Manager "The Task Scheduler service hung on starting."
Error: volsnap "The shadow copies of volume C: were aborted because of an IO failure on volume C:."
Error: NTFS "The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume D:." (Seems okay now though)
Error: Service Control Manager "The Diagnostic Policy Service service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 120000 milliseconds: Restart the service.", "The Windows Firewall service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 120000 milliseconds: Restart the service.", "The Windows Defender service terminated with the following error: Error performing inpage operation.", "The Windows Update service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 60000 milliseconds: Restart the service."

Error: Application Error
"Windows cannot access the file C:\Windows\System32\mssph.dll for one of the following reasons: there is a problem with the network connection, the disk that the file is stored on, or the storage drivers installed on this computer; or the disk is missing. Windows closed the program Microsoft Windows Search Protocol Host because of this error.


Program: Microsoft Windows Search Protocol Host
File: C:\Windows\System32\mssph.dll

The error value is listed in the Additional Data section.
User Action
1. Open the file again. This situation might be a temporary problem that corrects itself when the program runs again.
2. If the file still cannot be accessed and
- It is on the network, your network administrator should verify that there is not a problem with the network and that the server can be contacted.
- It is on a removable disk, for example, a floppy disk or CD-ROM, verify that the disk is fully inserted into the computer.
3. Check and repair the file system by running CHKDSK. To run CHKDSK, click Start, click Run, type CMD, and then click OK. At the command prompt, type CHKDSK /F, and then press ENTER.
4. If the problem persists, restore the file from a backup copy.
5. Determine whether other files on the same disk can be opened. If not, the disk might be damaged. If it is a hard disk, contact your administrator or computer hardware vendor for further assistance.

Additional Data
Error value: C0000185
Disk type: 3"

The general gist I'm getting from this is that the improper shutdown may have screwed up the primary harddrive. I don't think an actual diskcheck has been run though, since it requires restarting Windows and Mum hasn't had the patience to do that yet.
I'm going to try running CHKDSK as the last Event suggests and see if the system doesn't improve.

I guess ultimately though all I'm asking for with this thread is any opinions you have of the situation, if anybody's been in a similar position.
 

FAST6191

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Run a proper disk check (if you have a CD you can run a version of windows from (see bartpe or something like hirens) then even better) and get back to us- if it has detected a basic error in the SMART readings or in general errors windows sometimes likes (this especially applies to servers but general operating systems do it is as well now) it will tend to want to vet parts of the filesystem and system files and points like logon are good for it.

After the disk check you might also want to run the SFC command ( http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html - fairly similar for most versions of windows although earlier ones might ask for an install disc to read files from).
 

RupeeClock

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After running CHKDSK at boot, nothing appeared to be wrong at all. no corrupted sectors, no problematic files, etc.

I'm going to try SFC command as you've suggested.

Edit: I ran sfc /verifyonly and it returned "Windows Resource Protection did not return any integrity violations"
 

RupeeClock

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May sound silly but did you try defragging the HD?
Yeah it does sound silly, but sometimes these problems are the stupidest things.
It was recently defragged and our defragging program showed it didn't really need to be done, but a deep defragging, I dunno might resolve SOMETHING...

The weird part about the computer performance is that it sometimes will boot without a qualm, and sometimes can take a while, but eventually you're bound to experience a sudden lock-up where you just can't do anything with the system for a few minutes.
 

Pong20302000

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so basically

HDD check
then i recomend wacking in windows disk and doing a repair if still seems trouble

then get CCleaner
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/download/59834dc473299e9dcc82cfca1f499481/
will get any big like mem dumps and remove them from the temp and also cleaner your registry
(two different tools in te program)

then report back
 

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