PC Freeze Problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter endlessmug
  • Start date Start date
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endlessmug

Hi.

I'm running XP SP2. I have a 3.6 GHz P4 & ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe
Motherboard with a 500W Power Supply. I have 1GB (2x512MB) DDR2 RAM.
And I have two 250GB Western Digital SATA HD’s. I own a Radeon
X1800XT 512MB. If you need more specifics I can post my DxDiag.

As of late, I have been having some freeze-ups while using my PC. It's
not just gaming it's browsing as well. I thought that people in my
family had been turning it off incorrectly too much or just not
taking care of it like I do. So it got to the point where I decided
to wipe the primary drive and re-install XP.

I did this. And I made sure everyone would take care of it correctly.
I even did a full Norton Virus Scan, a Drive-Scan, a Windows-Scan,
& Ad-Aware scan. I even defragged both of my HD’s. But the
freezing seems to continue. It doesn’t happen all the time. I believe
it has only frozen three times since I re-installed. It seems to just
do it at random intervals. However, freezing causes immediate boot
problems because of improper shutdown. This means I have to leave it
off for a while for it to boot correctly.

I had the suspicion it was only gaming for a while because most of the
freezing had happened during WoW. But it recently happened while I was
just browsing my HD or internet. The other reason I didn’t really
think it was gaming was because of my high end graphics card. I’m
able to run games like HL2 at full quality with no problems.

I’m not sure what’s going on and I really don’t know what seems to be
failing.

Can any of you help?
 
endlessmug said:
Hi.

I'm running XP SP2. I have a 3.6 GHz P4 & ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe
Motherboard with a 500W Power Supply. I have 1GB (2x512MB) DDR2 RAM.
And I have two 250GB Western Digital SATA HD’s. I own a Radeon
X1800XT 512MB. If you need more specifics I can post my DxDiag.

As of late, I have been having some freeze-ups while using my PC. It's
not just gaming it's browsing as well. I thought that people in my
family had been turning it off incorrectly too much or just not
taking care of it like I do. So it got to the point where I decided
to wipe the primary drive and re-install XP.

I did this. And I made sure everyone would take care of it correctly.
I even did a full Norton Virus Scan, a Drive-Scan, a Windows-Scan,
& Ad-Aware scan. I even defragged both of my HD’s. But the
freezing seems to continue. It doesn’t happen all the time. I believe
it has only frozen three times since I re-installed. It seems to just
do it at random intervals. However, freezing causes immediate boot
problems because of improper shutdown. This means I have to leave it
off for a while for it to boot correctly.

I had the suspicion it was only gaming for a while because most of the
freezing had happened during WoW. But it recently happened while I was
just browsing my HD or internet. The other reason I didn’t really
think it was gaming was because of my high end graphics card. I’m
able to run games like HL2 at full quality with no problems.

I’m not sure what’s going on and I really don’t know what seems to be
failing.

Can any of you help?
Click to expand...

Did you install motherboard chipset drivers etc.. ?
Check memory with memtest.
Swap dimm's over and try each one on its own.
Check that everything is seated properly, gfx card, memory etc..

Is the pc locking up, requiring a manual powerdown?

if not....

Check for antispyware, virus scanning in the background.

Disconnet the net and disable all antivirus, spyware etc esp Norton
Look in task manager and disable stuff u dont need.

If this cures the prob, enable 1 thing at a time until u find the cause.

I would def remove norton, this is known to bog down systems!

HTH
 
Cookiewrote:
Did you install motherboard chipset drivers etc.. ?
I reinstalled the latest chipset drivers from the web just incase I
forgot that.
Check memory with memtest.
Swap dimm's over and try each one on its own.
Check that everything is seated properly, gfx card, memory etc..
Click to expand...

I ran 3 passes of the mem test and there were no errors. I didn't see
the need to go any further than that. I checked that everything was
sealed and they were.
Is the pc locking up, requiring a manual powerdown?
Click to expand...

Yes. It would lock up and then start for a few seconds. Finally it
would just freeze and I would have to manually power down.
I would def remove norton, this is known to bog down systems!
Click to expand...

I have used Norton products for years without any problems. What do
you suggest instead?

The situation is worse actually. After
the memtest, etc. I tried booting and the HD started making noises.
Then I couldn't boot. After many attempts, BIOS wouldn't recognize my
primary HD. I take this as a HD failure.

I'll have to find a replacement for now, but I was wondering if this
HD was the problem all along. Could possible missuse of shutting down
my PC while I was away have led to a HD failure? Or is the problem
somewhere else and am I still prone to failure/freezing in the
future?
 
----- Original Message -----
From: "endlessmug" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2006 9:03 AM
Subject: Re: PC Freeze Problem

Did you install motherboard chipset drivers etc.. ?

I reinstalled the latest chipset drivers from the web just incase I
forgot that.


I ran 3 passes of the mem test and there were no errors. I didn't see
the need to go any further than that. I checked that everything was
sealed and they were.


Yes. It would lock up and then start for a few seconds. Finally it
would just freeze and I would have to manually power down.


I have used Norton products for years without any problems. What do
you suggest instead?
Click to expand...

I use Bit Defender, has antispyware, antivirus an firewall. works well for
me.

When you get pc sorted keep using norton if it worked well for you.
To get better framerates in your games close it down when not using the
internet.
The situation is worse actually. After
the memtest, etc. I tried booting and the HD started making noises.
Then I couldn't boot. After many attempts, BIOS wouldn't recognize my
primary HD. I take this as a HD failure.

I'll have to find a replacement for now, but I was wondering if this
HD was the problem all along. Could possible missuse of shutting down
my PC while I was away have led to a HD failure? Or is the problem
somewhere else and am I still prone to failure/freezing in the
future?


I'll have to find a replacement for now, but I was wondering if this
HD was the problem all along
Click to expand...

Missuse of shutting can cause HD failure esp if the drive
was working hard at the time it was switched off.

Possibly the freezing caused the HD to fail or vice versa only way to know
is replace HD
 
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