Compaq Presario 5000 Freezes

  • Thread starter Thread starter John the WebTV Man
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John the WebTV Man

OK...how about an old [maybe not that old] computer problem? I am
prepping a Compaq Presario 5000 [700 MHz, 256Mb RAM, Win2K Pro] for my
son-in-law. Everything runs good, all loaded with all the needed Win2K
updates, Office 2K, IE/OE6, etc]...but it has a problem!! After about an
hour using the Internet, it freezes...no Mouse, no Keyboard, no response
at all...last screen fully visible, PC fans and power supply still
running. Strangely, it is apparently NOT a thermal/time problem as it
can sit for hours downloading Internet updates, but only seems to happen
with changing screens, pages, clicking links, etc. The only problem that
I seem to have noted is that a lot of the PC functions are using the
same IRQ11 [a problem?]. Any ideas on what to look for and how to
identify the problem? TIA...John
 
John said:
OK...how about an old [maybe not that old] computer problem? I am
prepping a Compaq Presario 5000 [700 MHz, 256Mb RAM, Win2K Pro] for my
son-in-law. Everything runs good, all loaded with all the needed Win2K
updates, Office 2K, IE/OE6, etc]...but it has a problem!! After about an
hour using the Internet, it freezes...no Mouse, no Keyboard, no response
at all...last screen fully visible, PC fans and power supply still
running. Strangely, it is apparently NOT a thermal/time problem as it
can sit for hours downloading Internet updates, but only seems to happen
with changing screens, pages, clicking links, etc. The only problem that
I seem to have noted is that a lot of the PC functions are using the
same IRQ11 [a problem?]. Any ideas on what to look for and how to
identify the problem? TIA...John
Click to expand...

Where did you get the video drivers? If you're answer is Microsoft (or
Win2K just recognized my card) or Compaq/HP, go and get the drivers from
the card manufacturer. If you're using onboard video, use the drivers
from the motherboard manufacturer.

This is only one possibly thing that could have gone wrong, but it's
easy enough to try, and I've seen it fix that exact problem before.
 
John said:
OK...how about an old [maybe not that old] computer problem? I am
prepping a Compaq Presario 5000 [700 MHz, 256Mb RAM, Win2K Pro] for my
son-in-law. Everything runs good, all loaded with all the needed Win2K
updates, Office 2K, IE/OE6, etc]...but it has a problem!! After about an
hour using the Internet, it freezes...no Mouse, no Keyboard, no response
at all...last screen fully visible, PC fans and power supply still
running. Strangely, it is apparently NOT a thermal/time problem as it
can sit for hours downloading Internet updates, but only seems to happen
with changing screens, pages, clicking links, etc. The only problem that
I seem to have noted is that a lot of the PC functions are using the
same IRQ11 [a problem?]. Any ideas on what to look for and how to
identify the problem? TIA...John
Click to expand...

You could test the processor and memory with Prime95. When prompted to
"Join GIMPs" or "Torture Test", select the Torture Test option. You
can stop and quit the program, if no errors are detected in a
few hours of usage. The program stops on the first error it finds,
and if it stops rather quickly (couple minutes), then you'd suspect
a processor or memory problem.

http://www.mersenne.org/gimps/p95v255a.zip

256MB seems a relatively small amount of memory. I have
Win2K on a machine with 1GB of memory, and at bootup,
Task Manager shows 260MB in use. (With an AV program
running in the background.) I expect with a smaller
amount of memory available, Win2K won't be quite as
wasteful.

You could leave Task Manager open, while surfing the
Internet, and see what the free memory looks like
as time passes.

Some motherboards that use Slot 1 processor modules,
have a problem with the connector. Sometimes, pulling
the processor and reseating it, then securing the
processor in place, will provide temporary relief.
You can try that, and see if it runs better for a
few days.

For a video card test, you could try the demo loop on
3DMark2001SE. But with 256MB of memory available, I
don't know if that would load OK or not. If Prime95 is
passing, I'd want to find something to load up the
video card, and see how sensitive it is to a workout.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download99.html

There are some older video card benchmarks, but they don't
sustain a test for very long, and I don't think they can be
set in a loop.

When a computer appears to freeze, one test you can do,
is try pinging it from a second computer. You can use
"ping <ip_address>" from a DOS window (command prompt),
to see if the frozen computer is really frozen. If the
machine answers a ping, then you know the processor
is in fact still running. That may tell you the problem
is just with the video, and a frozen display subsystem.

Paul
 
Here's the latest..

The problem still is that the computer will run normally for a period,
then "stall" and not espond to either Mouse or Keyboard. By pulling the
Power Plug and then reconnecting and restarting right away, it will
again run normally for a period of time. AVG will provide a pop-up
Threat Alert for a Trojan Horse Generic4.TAB detected in the "smss.exe"
file. If I click "Ignore", the computer may continue to run. I have made
online downloads where the computer ran for over an hour without
stalling/freezing.

The "Beast" is a Presario 5000 with a 900 MHz AMD Athlon CPU, 256 Mb
RAM, 30 Gb Quantum Fireball HD, Windows 2000 Pro SP4 with ALL the
upgrades, 56K PCTEL Platinum v.90 Compaq modem, SMC 10/100 Compaq LAN
card, gForce nVidia Compaq Video card, CDROM, CD-RW, 3-5" 1.44Mb FD.
Installed s/w includes... AVG 7.5 Anti-Virus, MS Office 2000, SpyBot
S&D, Ad-Aware, and some lesser applications.

I have spent the best part of yesterday and this morning playing with
the computer and have tried a number of things to no avail. Here are
some of the things I did, that made no difference to the problem:

[1] Ran a complete Anti-Virus scan using AVG 7.5 with latest
updates...it found nothing....made no improvement.

[2] Ran SpyBot S&D new update install and it picked up 12
items...removed them and rebooted....made no improvement.

[3] Ran new instal and updaatel of Ad-Aware and it detected 56 Cokies
items which I deleted...made no difference

[4] I replaced the2 256Mb RAM sticks with 2 new known good ones....made
no difference, still had the Freeze condition.

[5] Removed 2 USB Flash Drives [that both share IRQ 11] I had installed
and that made no difference as I still got a Freeze.

[6] I have rechecked and installed ALL the Microsoft Win2K
Updates....all 65 of them and it made no difference afterward...still
got the Freezes.

[7] I ran the defrag [even tho it didn't really need Defrag] and after
restart, that made no difference as a stall happened about 20 minutes
later.

In GOOGLE checking the "smss.exe". I found that a problem was a sign of
a Trojan infection. Said that the SMSS.EXE file should be located in the
C:\WINNT\system32\config folder...and if not, that was a sign of the
Trojan problem. I have not found a "fix" to correct that problem and any
help or suggestions are ost welcome and appreciated.

Sorry for the long post....TIA....John
 
John said:
Here's the latest..

The problem still is that the computer will run normally for a period,
then "stall" and not espond to either Mouse or Keyboard. By pulling the
Power Plug and then reconnecting and restarting right away, it will
again run normally for a period of time. AVG will provide a pop-up
Threat Alert for a Trojan Horse Generic4.TAB detected in the "smss.exe"
file. If I click "Ignore", the computer may continue to run. I have made
online downloads where the computer ran for over an hour without
stalling/freezing.

The "Beast" is a Presario 5000 with a 900 MHz AMD Athlon CPU, 256 Mb
RAM, 30 Gb Quantum Fireball HD, Windows 2000 Pro SP4 with ALL the
upgrades, 56K PCTEL Platinum v.90 Compaq modem, SMC 10/100 Compaq LAN
card, gForce nVidia Compaq Video card, CDROM, CD-RW, 3-5" 1.44Mb FD.
Installed s/w includes... AVG 7.5 Anti-Virus, MS Office 2000, SpyBot
S&D, Ad-Aware, and some lesser applications.

I have spent the best part of yesterday and this morning playing with
the computer and have tried a number of things to no avail. Here are
some of the things I did, that made no difference to the problem:

[1] Ran a complete Anti-Virus scan using AVG 7.5 with latest
updates...it found nothing....made no improvement.

[2] Ran SpyBot S&D new update install and it picked up 12
items...removed them and rebooted....made no improvement.

[3] Ran new instal and updaatel of Ad-Aware and it detected 56 Cokies
items which I deleted...made no difference

[4] I replaced the2 256Mb RAM sticks with 2 new known good ones....made
no difference, still had the Freeze condition.

[5] Removed 2 USB Flash Drives [that both share IRQ 11] I had installed
and that made no difference as I still got a Freeze.

[6] I have rechecked and installed ALL the Microsoft Win2K
Updates....all 65 of them and it made no difference afterward...still
got the Freezes.

[7] I ran the defrag [even tho it didn't really need Defrag] and after
restart, that made no difference as a stall happened about 20 minutes
later.

In GOOGLE checking the "smss.exe". I found that a problem was a sign of
a Trojan infection. Said that the SMSS.EXE file should be located in the
C:\WINNT\system32\config folder...and if not, that was a sign of the
Trojan problem. I have not found a "fix" to correct that problem and any
help or suggestions are ost welcome and appreciated.

Sorry for the long post....TIA....John
Click to expand...

So with that processor, it probably isn't based on a slot 1 Intel processor :-)
I notice in the Crucial.com memory list, there are many sub-models of
Presario 5000.

What I would do, seeing as you could potentially be facing two problems
at the same time, is boot Knoppix (knopper.net) or Ubuntu (ubuntu.com)
Linux LiveCDs. These are versions of Linux, where you don't need to install
anything on disk. You can even leave your hard drive in the computer while
testing (if it is NTFS formatted, then it probably won't be mounted in
Linux automatically - NTFS capability exists, but if available in a
distro, may be read only).

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-info/index-en.html

"What are the minimum system requirements?

32 MB of RAM for text mode, at least 96 MB for graphics mode with KDE
(at least 128 MB of RAM is recommended to use the various office products)"

Both of those distros are a 700MB download. You need a CD burning program
that can take an ISO9660 image and burn it to a CD. The first time I did
it, I actually had to purchase a new burner, because the archaic one I
had previously, wouldn't even do 700MB. I used the Nero that was bundled
with the new burner, to prepare the CD.

Once you boot from the CD, and the Linux desktop appears, you can use
Firefox (browser) and go to mersenne.org and find the Linux version of
Prime95. Download the executable package to your home directory.
Then run Prime95, to see if there is a processor or memory
stability problem. (The nice thing about Linux, is you can run multiple
copies of Prime95 if you want, as long as each copy has its own directory
to play in.) You download each time you boot into Linux, because if using
a LiveCD, there may not be any permanent file space to save stuff.
Prime95 may be too big to keep on a floppy (although I've put other
test programs on a floppy, for testing via this method).

So Linux can be used as an independent verification of a hardware problem.
For example, on my 440BX box, I was having problems with graphics freezing
when more than 512MB of memory was present. I thought the problem was
with Windows, until one day on a lark, I booted the Linux CD. Within
10 seconds or so, Linux froze too. Which told me there was a problem
with the hardware (as both OSes were doing it, and there would be no
virus present in the Linux bootup). If I only installed 2x256MB on
that machine, it was as stable as a rock (I could run Prime95 for
16 hours). The instant I used 3x256MB or 4x256MB, it would freeze
in no more than a minute or two after the desktop appeared.

So the only potential limitation with a technique like that, is the
minimum amount of memory that will work with those boot discs. It
would seem you meet the minimum, but I've never tested on a
machine with less than 512MB.

Paul
 
Well, at 2am this morning events dictated a new approach as things had
gotten to the point that the PC would no longer boot windows before
freezing. I threw in the towel....wiped and reformatted the hard drive
and did a clean install of Win2K Pro. All seems OK now...I need to
install Win2K SP4 [a 130Mb download] and then all my protective
stuff...AVG 7.5, Ad-Aware, Comodo and SpyBot S&D. When that is stable
and working OK, then I will install all the applications software.

The problem was definitely Malware of the "Downloader" or "Backdoor"
Tojan type that spoofs the Windows "SMSS.EXE" and takes over the PC.
From the GOOGLE search, it is detectable but apparently not "fixed" by
many [if any??] anti-virus programs. It displays a variety of symptoms
including the stall/freeze of the Mouse and Keyboard as I first saw.
None of the protective applications I had installed [AVG 7.5, Ad-Aware
and SpyBot] detected it on full scans...only AVG came up with periodic
"Threat Alerts" regarding trouble with the "SMSS.EXE" file. Here's
hoping my problems are all behind me now.

Thanks for all your thoughts, emails and postings....it was a great
comfort to know that there are others interested enough in a [my]
problem to offer their help.
 
John said:
Well, at 2am this morning events dictated a new approach as things had
gotten to the point that the PC would no longer boot windows before
freezing. I threw in the towel....wiped and reformatted the hard drive
and did a clean install of Win2K Pro. All seems OK now...I need to
install Win2K SP4 [a 130Mb download] and then all my protective
stuff...AVG 7.5, Ad-Aware, Comodo and SpyBot S&D. When that is stable
and working OK, then I will install all the applications software.

The problem was definitely Malware of the "Downloader" or "Backdoor"
Tojan type that spoofs the Windows "SMSS.EXE" and takes over the PC.
From the GOOGLE search, it is detectable but apparently not "fixed" by
many [if any??] anti-virus programs. It displays a variety of symptoms
including the stall/freeze of the Mouse and Keyboard as I first saw.
None of the protective applications I had installed [AVG 7.5, Ad-Aware
and SpyBot] detected it on full scans...only AVG came up with periodic
"Threat Alerts" regarding trouble with the "SMSS.EXE" file. Here's
hoping my problems are all behind me now.

Thanks for all your thoughts, emails and postings....it was a great
comfort to know that there are others interested enough in a [my]
problem to offer their help.
Click to expand...

There are some antivirus products, with a 30 day trial.

When I got some malware from a motherboard web site, I downloaded
and used Kaspersky. It removed the malware just fine. When the
30 days were up, I purchased the product at a local store.
It is a slightly annoying product, but seems to work, as I
haven't had any trouble since.

There are also web sites that offer advice, such as Castlecops.
Various sites now, have a forum where you post the contents of
a Hijack-This log, and they suggest a tool to do removal with.

This is another page, with some advice. The multi_av thing
apparently uses more than one on-line scanner, to check a
system. When I clicked the link in the second section, it
downloaded an ~800KB file. The rest of the info it would
download, would be done on the fly.

http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html

In casual reading, the only thing I've seen them quit on
fixing, was a machine with a not-completely-detected rootkit.
Generally, if the malware is of a recognized and researched
type, there'll be some kind of fix for it.

This site does comparisons of the commercial AV packages.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/

I presume this one is checking how many of the known malwares are detected.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2008_02.php

Detecting new malware - comparison of heuristic detection properties.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2007_11.php

Paul
 
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