Freezing Computer

Thewanderer_ie

I am having a serious problem with my computer freezing on me. It has been progressive over the last couple days-- it happened a few times on Monday, more yesterday, and now it wont stay on for more than a few minutes before freezing.

Basically just using the computer, doing very basic tasks, and it would freeze completely, the cursor would not move, the keyboard would not accept input (i.e. pressing Caps did not turn on Caps light). Only solution was to turn off with power button and reboot. It seemed to recurr faster and faster, to the point where it was freezing almost as soon as it was booted. I left it for 15 minutes and came back, and I got about 10 minutes use before antoher freeze. I thought maybe overheating, but the case is still off from a hard drive switch weeks ago, and the fans seem to be working. It wont stay on long enough now for me to install any motherboard monitor to check temperature.
I unistalled the last update patch, and then got about 20 minutes use before it froze again. It was too late at night to go on.
I have done a thorough check of the memory sticks--all seems fine there.
Every Registry scan and error checker I have tell me that htere is no problem. Neither the CPU or RAM are maxed when it happens.
Help please!

yoyo

Have you tested the hard disk with the diagnostics utility to ensure its not that causing the problem?, also what anti virus are you using? Or firewall, anti malware products? Also you should be able to check system temperatures from the bios, most bios will have a system monitoring section which will give cpu temp etc...

Nick

blackgold>>

Switch out your psu and see if that solves it.

Thewanderer_ie

Thanks for the responses guys.

I do not have a spare psu to switch out, and am not going to spend the money on that right now.

The hard drive passed the diagnostic tests just fine.
I am using the latest version of norton, it finds nothing wrong.
Only Windows Vista firewall, again no issues
NO active Malware protection at the moment.
Windows defender, Error Doctor 1.5, and a scanner from Yamicsoft all say no problem.

I suspect overheating-- the heatsink was clogged with dust, and I couldn't find my thermal paste when I put it all back together, will buy some more today.
BUt from what I have seen, overheating usually results in a restart, not a freeze.
I will check the bios temp and settings tonight-- unfortunately have to wait for the kids to go to bed, they just LOVE pulling wires out of things...

Cheers,
J

biologikal

Might be worthwhile re-seating your RAM while you have it open, and all cables and connections (sata, ide, pci, etc) while you're at it.

Biggins

You might want to also install an application that will better list the startup applications that are running right away when you turn on your system.

It sound like one of these has become faulty and/or has been infected, etc.

Something like "Tuneup Utilities 2008" or similar will list all the startup apps and allow you do temp' (or permanent) disable and/or delete anything suspicious.

It would bet on my years of repairing systems that thats where the fault lies.
Re-installing windows sometimes don't catch these apps as they are independent of the Microsoft operating system.

Need such an app, pm me and let me know - I will pass on a download location.

azezil

Biggins wrote: »

You might want to also install an application that will better list the startup applications that are running right away when you turn on your system.

It sound like one of these has become faulty and/or has been infected, etc.

Something like "Tuneup Utilities 2008" or similar will list all the startup apps and allow you do temp' (or permanent) disable and/or delete anything suspicious.

It would bet on my years of repairing systems that thats where the fault lies.
Re-installing windows sometimes don't catch these apps as they are independent of the Microsoft operating system.

Need such an app, pm me and let me know - I will pass on a download location.

Eh you could just go, start - run - msconfig

Biggins

azezil wrote: »

Eh you could just go, start - run - msconfig

Very true but that route only allows you to remove items - not disable them all or one by one in a process of elimination.

Being able to disable them and re-invoke them later is a great way to narrow down the problem area/section.

yoyo

Biggins wrote: »

Very true but that route only allows you to remove items - not disable them all or one by one in a process of elimination.

Being able to disable them and re-invoke them later is a great way to narrow down the problem area/section.

You can do that with msconfig, just un-check the checkbox next to a item... Can re-check it later if you wish

Nick

projectmayhem

Thewanderer_ie wrote: »

I suspect overheating-- the heatsink was clogged with dust, and I couldn't find my thermal paste when I put it all back together, will buy some more today.
BUt from what I have seen, overheating usually results in a restart, not a freeze.
I will check the bios temp and settings tonight-- unfortunately have to wait for the kids to go to bed, they just LOVE pulling wires out of things...

Cheers,
J

I would guess overheating too. The timings make sense.

Ironically my PC is freezing too, but only in certain circumstances during games. The thing freezes and there's a loud, continuous beep from the speakers (not the system itself). I can't nail down the issue at all because all the temps are fine, all the parts are new (and re-tested). I even re-installed Vista. There's no driver conflicts or anything!

Thewanderer_ie

I can't seem to find any thermal paste in Waterford, does anybody know where I can get some? I don't feel like waiting for an ebay purchase to make its way here from England (over the weekend and everything...)

I don't have the energy to deal with it anymore tonight anyway...

It might be a corrupted service, but it isn't consistent-- sometimes it all locks up before everything is loaded, sometimes it waits a few minutes after completing all the warm up exercises. It just doesn't sit right with me-- nothing has changed for at least a week before this problem started, that is a lot of time for a corrupted file to wait...

Thanks for the help so far,
J

Thewanderer_ie

Well, everything seems to be on track now. Not really sure why though...

It wasn't overheating-- I re-aplied new thermal paste, the CPU has never gone over 60C, runs about 55 with no load. (Is that still hot?) Anyway, the problem persisted.

I uninstalled every service that wasn't Micro$oft, the problem persisted.

I installed another hard drive as the first was getting close to full, moved the page file to a new partition, and defragged the PC. Been working away for a couple hours now, longest stretch since the problem started!
The main drive still had 8GB of space, can't see why it would matter, but it looks like it was a combination of low disk space and a very fragmented volume....

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

J

Spiritine

it might hav been heat, 55 degrees is a little hot for idle i would think...What processor do u have?, usually they should idle around 40 degrees

Thewanderer_ie

Well, I got about 3 hours out of it last night before freezing, turned it off and went to bed..

Today I got about 2 hours until the first occurance, after whih it was 5 minutes, then 4, then didn't even get past the boot up screen with the KITT-style green bar flashing acros the bottom. When that stopped, I walked away...

The chip is a dual-core Pentium IV 3.0 GHz on a Prescott 800 Motherboard. It has been running sweet for a few years now with no problems, although I never thought to monitor the heat before so don't have a benchmark level.

Maybe it takes a while for the heat to bleed over to whatever sensitive point there is, after which it takes a while to cool down and cooperate again.
As it has happened before windows is loaded, I can't see it being corrupt windows or services.
Whatever it happening, it is starting to get very annoying!!!

Do water-cooled systems really help that much? Should I go through the effort, or is there anything else that can be done?