Is it my Mobo or Hard Drive thats giving me errors?

[MrMercyGG]

For the longest time now, I've been having problems that give me errors in the security client of Windows.

It also has prevented me from installing any updates to my firmware, interfered with my Razer mouse's client to prevent me from customizing my mouse settings, prevent me from accessing some of my PC's settings and more.

I've had numerous discussions on this site about what the problem could be and no one really seems to have an answer except that we've narrowed the problem down to either being a bad hard drive or a damaged motherboard. I have reset and re-installed Windows numerous times to no affect, run every diagnostic recommended to me yielding no abnormal results, and even physically looked at my motherboard to find no significant damage...so I don't know what's going on.

I'm in the process of making my Christmas wishlist right now and if I can determine for sure what component is giving me the problems, i can ask for it for Christmas and be done with this problem once and for all. I'm also looking to upgrade my GPU and RAM (not because there's anything wrong with them, I just want better ones to play my games better) and those things combined can be expensive.

I don't think I can ask for a GPU, more RAM, a new replacement Mobo AND a new Hard Drive (for which I'd have to go through the whole process of installing Windows again which I'd rather avoid unless necessary). Is there anything I can do to troubleshoot to say with absolute certainty which component is malfunctioning? I don't need to know what's wrong or how to fix it (cause I'm quite sick of dealing with this), I just wanna know where in my PC this problem resides.

Edited thread body to remove wall of text to help improve thread comprehension.
Moderator
Lutfij

 

[Lutfij]

When posting a thread of troubleshooting nature, it's customary to include your full system's specs inclusive of your OS. Please list them like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Peripherals:

You will first need to rule out that your installer isn't corrupt. Recreate your bootable USB installer and proceed to reinstall your OS. The next order of business is to make sure your chipset drivers are all up to date prior to installing your remaining device drivers, of which one is your peripherals. Pertaining to the Razer device, have you ruled out a corrupt installer of the Synapse app, by reinstalling it after downloading it from their site?

 

[MrMercyGG]

When posting a thread of troubleshooting nature, it's customary to include your full system's specs inclusive of your OS. Please list them like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Peripherals:

You will first need to rule out that your installer isn't corrupt. Recreate your bootable USB installer and proceed to reinstall your OS. The next order of business is to make sure your chipset drivers are all up to date prior to installing your remaining device drivers, of which one is your peripherals. Pertaining to the Razer device, have you ruled out a corrupt installer of the Synapse app, by reinstalling it after downloading it from their site?

CPU: AMD FX 6300
Mobo: Gigabyte 78LMT-USB3 rev 6.0
Ram: 2x 4GB GDDR3 Crucial Ballistix Sport
HDD: 1TB WD Blue
GPU: Gigabyte Radeon R7 370 2GB
PSU: EVGA 500 W
Chassis: Fractal Design Core 1000
OS: Windows 10 Home
Peripherals: Razer Deathadder Chroma (Overwatch Edition), Logitech K120 Keyboard

I have re-installed the OS half a dozen times and it never fixed the problem. When it comes to my drivers, I can't update them because of this problem. My security client blocks the updates and I can't get into the security client to see why due to the errors I've been getting. Also after talking with Razer support a while back, they think that my Microsoft .NET framework is corrupted because Synapse relies on that to be working to properly communicate with the mouse.

 

[Sedivy]

This happens to you right after reinstall of your OS? Or after installing something?
What about when you install the OS with some other mouse, does it still happen?

 

[Bluesh1ft]

There could be corruption in data once installing things onto computer. This would most likely be due to bad sectors on the hard drive if it is in fact corruption of data. to check this download crystal disk info and check the health of the drive.

 

[MrMercyGG]

There could be corruption in data once installing things onto computer. This would most likely be due to bad sectors on the hard drive if it is in fact corruption of data. to check this download crystal disk info and check the health of the drive.

I've run a test on the health of the drive before and everything came back fine.

 

[Bluesh1ft]

There could be corruption in data once installing things onto computer. This would most likely be due to bad sectors on the hard drive if it is in fact corruption of data. to check this download crystal disk info and check the health of the drive.

I've run a test on the health of the drive before and everything came back fine.

What is the name of security client. Also could you screenshot what it says when you try to do something that gives you error.

 

[MrMercyGG]

There could be corruption in data once installing things onto computer. This would most likely be due to bad sectors on the hard drive if it is in fact corruption of data. to check this download crystal disk info and check the health of the drive.

I've run a test on the health of the drive before and everything came back fine.

What is the name of security client. Also could you screenshot what it says when you try to do something that gives you error.

It's just Windows Defender. Please see my other two threads about this same issue below:


http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3234172/windows-defender-errors.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3363316/automatically-install-updates-errors-0x800706ba-0x800706be.html

 

[Bluesh1ft]

Press Windows key. Type "services" press enter. Scroll down to Windows Defender. Right click > Properties > And under startup type change it to disabled. And restart.

 

[MrMercyGG]

Press Windows key. Type "services" press enter. Scroll down to Windows Defender. Right click > Properties > And under startup type change it to disabled. And restart.

I wasn't able to access Services on my main profile as Defender blocked access. I was able to get on through my secondary Administrator account but the startup option to change the start-up type (as well as pretty much everything else in properties) is grayed out an not changeable.

 

[Bluesh1ft]

I hate windows 10. It doesn't let you work around anything :/

 

[Bluesh1ft]

Well, All i can really tell you is wherever you got your installation medium from is either bogus. Or you used a usb drive with bad sectors on it. Something somewhere in the installer is broken. No other reasonable explanation. Find an installation image somewhere else. use a diff usb. Use a dvd. idk

 

[MrMercyGG]

I hate windows 10. It doesn't let you work around anything :/

I've given up trying to fix it...I just want to know which component is flawed so I can just replace it.

What are the odds that it's something wrong with my motherboard vs something wrong with my hard drive?

 

[Sedivy]

I don't think it's your hardware at all. Did you try scanning your system like it was suggested in one of the links someone gave you? Like this?
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161

 

[MrMercyGG]

I don't think it's your hardware at all. Did you try scanning your system like it was suggested in one of the links someone gave you? Like this?
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161

Yes. I've done that multiple times in the past and everything comes back as fine. The repair command also completes successfully and nothing is fixed.

 

[Sedivy]

Ok, how about this. Can you make a usb bootable linux installation, such that you're not installing anything, just booting straight into it on the usb. That way you can scan and check your hardware, try doing things and see if it gives you any errors hardware wise. I still can't figure out if this is windows derping in some fashion or if it's your hardware, or if it's windows balking at some hardware drivers or what.

 

[MrMercyGG]

Ok, how about this. Can you make a usb bootable linux installation, such that you're not installing anything, just booting straight into it on the usb. That way you can scan and check your hardware, try doing things and see if it gives you any errors hardware wise. I still can't figure out if this is windows derping in some fashion or if it's your hardware, or if it's windows balking at some hardware drivers or what.

Well I ran some scans on my hard drive and it came up with no errors so...motherboard then?

 

[Sedivy]

If you're able to run linux without errors of any kind, and with no mouse troubles, I'd again say something is wrong with your installation or with the drivers.
If corruption occurs over time even though you have good copy of windows, then it's usually the hard drive that's the issue. I'm not sure what to tell you but if you want ideas for upgrade, go for an ssd (can be 275gb just for system files) as it does offer a nice speed boost to a regular hdd and is not outrageously expensive. There's nothing really to point at a faulty mobo specifically so not sure what to tell you there.

 

[MrMercyGG]

If you're able to run linux without errors of any kind, and with no mouse troubles, I'd again say something is wrong with your installation or with the drivers.
If corruption occurs over time even though you have good copy of windows, then it's usually the hard drive that's the issue. I'm not sure what to tell you but if you want ideas for upgrade, go for an ssd (can be 275gb just for system files) as it does offer a nice speed boost to a regular hdd and is not outrageously expensive. There's nothing really to point at a faulty mobo specifically so not sure what to tell you there.

That's good news if it is indeed just the hard drive because I already have a spare blank hard drive I can use to replace the old one.

 

[Sedivy]

If you already have it, it's certainly worth a try. Just remember if it's the same copy of windows you're installing on the second one, unplug the previous hdd before you restart with the new one, so as to not confuse the boot sequence.

 

[MrMercyGG]

If you already have it, it's certainly worth a try. Just remember if it's the same copy of windows you're installing on the second one, unplug the previous hdd before you restart with the new one, so as to not confuse the boot sequence.

Should I also use a different flash drive with the Windows installer on it to avoid any chance of the installer being corrupted?

 

[Sedivy]

Yes. Considering your windows key is saved on your motherboard, it costs you nothing to just download a fresh new windows 10 install file off of microsoft's site and install it on a different usb. You won't have to re-verify it, just make sure your old hdd is unplugged when you plug in the new drive and start install.

 

[MrMercyGG]

Yes. Considering your windows key is saved on your motherboard, it costs you nothing to just download a fresh new windows 10 install file off of microsoft's site and install it on a different usb. You won't have to re-verify it, just make sure your old hdd is unplugged when you plug in the new drive and start install.

This all started after a Microsoft customer service person helped me resolve an issue where my product key for Windows wasn't being recognized as registered. They fixed that issue and it was eventually recognized as registered, but that's when I started getting this error. Is it possible that some aspect of Windows could be corrupted on the motherboard? If the product key is stored there, maybe this has something to do with it

 

[Sedivy]

Try this. Make a microsoft account if you already don't have one. Then log into it on their site. Register your copy of windows with them (it'll upload your key so it's associated with your account), and then see what the key says. Usually it'll give you a version of the windows like windows 10 Home or Pro or any of the other subcategories they have, and see if there's any weird tags it gives you. If it just lists like a regular windows key then don't worry about it, download new iso yourself from their site, it could just be the installation file you had was weird or corrupt for some reason. Make sure you get the iso matching whatever description your key gives you for your windows version. So if the key says Home version, don't get Pro iso etc.
If there are still issues with that key, they should show up when you register your windows version, in the version description.

 

[MrMercyGG]

FINALLY. ITS FIXED.

I got a new hard drive, installed windows on it and POOF. PROBLEM FIXED. So yes, it was something corrupted on my hard drive causing that error, probably something having to do with the way the tech person took control of my PC that one time.

So if you are getting this error, a new hard drive will solve your problem. Just be sure to back up your stuff beforehand.

if someone can quote this post so I can post it as the solution, id appreciate it. I can't choose my own posts as the solution.