Computer freeze-up

tom9042

OSNN Senior Addict
Joined
7 Dec 2002
Messages
314
My computer has been freezing after about 20 to 30 minutes. After acting normally, any icon I click yields nothing. If I go to the desktop, clicking any icon will not open a program. If I hit control/alt/delete, I can't even get into the Task Manager. The only way I can reboot, is from control/alt/delete shutdown. I can't even do this from the Start button.

Any ideas on what is causing this -- or is it time to format and start from scratch.


BTW, I have XP Pro.
 
Heat starts becoming an issue this time of year. Watch the CPU temperatures as it runs for a while (use mother board monitor MBM or sisoft sandra free edition). If CPU goes over 55 deg C it could be a problem. Get some "canned air" and with the power off and unit unplugged blow off the CPU HSF, the power supply, MB, RAM and video card HSF.

Also make sure your fans are all spinning. Don't use your finger it hurts, I know from personal experience.

Locking up usually isn't "software install" related so reformatting probably won't help.
 
Thanks for the response LeeJend.

I thought that heat might be a problem, especially since I "fold" with the Folding at Home team. I blew out a lot of dust last week and left the side off the machine. The temperature is down to 44 degrees celsius, from my normal 50 degrees.

One thing I did do was take out my two hard drives and put in an old drive with Windows 98 to run an old program. That drive was in the machine for only an hour and the two regular drives were replaced.
 
What Mobo do you have and how old?

If the board is around 3 years old there was a problem with bad capacitors installed on them. You can pull the side off and look at the caps to see if any look out of shape or have brown stains on them, tops bulged.
Freezing is one of the effects of bad caps.

Also Intel has a Bios update to correct a problem like this on some Intel boards. I have one system with the D865GBFL that had this problem and the new Bios fixed this. I think it's in the P24 bios readme if I remember right.
 
My Mobo is an Asus A7n8X (not the deluxe). Thanks for the idea. I'll search on the Asus site to see if anyone else has this problem.

I keep thinking that it is a security problem. Something is preventing all programs from executing after a period of time. I'm going to look at that also.
 
I think I finally have solved my problem. I went to the startup memory using msconfig and deleted one or two (I can't remember how many - duh) from the list and I haven't had the problem since. I assume this was the fix; but who ever knows about these problems.
 

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Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
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Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
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