System Completely Freezes or Spontaneously Reboots

[C. M.]

Hi,

I've been trying to solve this for almost two weeks now, but I'm completely at a loss of what else to try. I'll give the symptoms, what I've already tried, and what my lines of thought and troubleshooting have been thus far..

First, very rarely, my system will spontaneously reboot. This does not happen often.. Maybe four or five times in the past two months. I generally leave my PC on 24/7, and it never seems to reboot while I'm at it and actively working, only when idle while I do other things. I've also noticed that sometimes, after it reboots, it does not recognize my SATA drives, on the regular ATA drive and DVDRW drive. (I have one WD 200GB ATA drive which is my primary boot drive, one WD 350GB and one Maxtor 500GB SATA drive, and a Sony DVDRW ATA drive.) I also recently had another WD 350GB SATA drive that failed and was replaced by the one I'm using now. All this may have just been coincidence or related, but for now I'm considering it a more minor issue that is more a symptom of the next..

While the previous is spontaneous and unpredictable, the system freezes are like clockwork, and only in certain conditions (although I'm not entirely sure what the exact conditions are, else I'd know better where to look for the problem): When playing some games, most notably ones that have some sort of Direct-X and/or 3-D capabilities, sometime between 10 and 20 minutes of gameplay, it just freezes my entire system. Even the soft power switch stops working; I have to unplug it or force a hard reset. It does not seem to affect other types of games.. There are a few I can play for hours without problem, but it does seem to rely on the game using the 3-D modeling capabilities of Direct-X and my video card. (Also note that OpenGL games, or games where I can switch them to OpenGL instead of Direct-X, do not freeze, hence why I'm not ruling out a Direct-X problem.)

I also do not think it is in the memory, mainboard or the video card and video subsystem; I can have very intensive graphics applications and editing going on for hours, including 3-D modeling via Blender and ray-tracing with POV-Ray, without a single problem or freeze. It only seems to happen in full-screen 3-D type games that initialize Direct-X. Games that freeze so far include Sims 2, Gore, Delta Force, Doom 2, Empire Earth 2, and Warcraft 3. Most other games work fine, as do non-game applications--even those that use Direct-X.

I've tried just about every diagnostic, test and burn-in procedure, application, etc, that I could think of or find, including one which I do not know them name of, but I got when I worked as a tech for a mail-order pc vendor which runs a 48-hour intensive burn-in test. (Which includes firing up the Direct-X 3-D engine and runs around a maze of 3-D objects for an hour.) That all passed without detecting a single problem. I've also recently totally updated every driver and software I can find updates for and installed Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Direct-X 9.0c in an attempt to isolate or eliminate the problem. I've tried looking through debug logs, alerts, and any other kind of log or record I can find to see if I could find anything else they have in common prior to the freeze. All to no avail.

I've also disabled, shut down, terminated and otherwise trimmed my running tasks down to the bare essentials for system functioning before trying to run any problem games. Likewise, I've tried everything I could think of to force and reproduce the problem in a controlled environment, but could not. Finally, I've replaced various hardware with identical hardware (I have another almost identical system), but the problem persists.

Here's my system information:

Windows XP Home Edition, updated to Service Pack 3 and the latest drivers and updates available from the Microsoft and other hardware websites. (Build 2600.xpsp.080413-2111/SP3)
System mfg is listed as RS480_, with Phoenix-Award ACPI BIOS, v6.00PG.
Mainboard is ECS/EliteGroup RS480-M (I do not have the stats handy.. Can Google it if needed. On-board video disabled; I am using the on-board Realtek AC97 sound, however.)
CPU is the AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3000+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.8GHz.
I have 1GB RAM installed, and a 2GB pagefile on the main drive. (I've already described my drives, above.)
Video card is MSI NX6600 (nVidia GeForce 6600 PCI Express, x16).. ForceWare v169.21, 256MB RAM, Video BIOS 5.43.02.57.00.
Direct-X 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904), and I do not have the OpenGL version info handy.
Case is a unbranded case, with three cooling fans, and I've sampled the airflow and taken temp readings at various points, so I do not think it's simply overheating. I do not overclock the CPU or anything else. Most everything in the BIOS is set at their defaults, as well, nothing fancy.

Please let me know if I can provide anything else to help figure out and fix the problem.. I have lots of diagnostic, testing, and information software; I know how to read and test (short of any equipment like an oscilloscope, which I do not have) chips, etc; and many years working with PC's, both hardware and software (but this problem eludes me.. sigh.) So just ask.

Any thoughts, suggestions, ideas to try, _anything_, would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

 

[C. M.]

Well, it finally rebooted with me sitting at the keys. I was in the middle of composing an email when the screen just went blank and rebooted. Nothing in the logs, either.. The last entry was 4 minutes before it rebooted and pretty much a routine entry. No freeze, no blue screen.. The only thing I noticed that was odd was that I heard the DVDRW start to spin up, but it was so close, I couldn't tell if it started before or after the system reset. (Normally, it takes a copuple of seconds after rest/power-on before it spins up.)

As far as the freezing goes.. I switched back to the on-board display, installed the drivers (ATI Radeon Xpress 200) and reinstalled Direct-X, and now it does not freeze up. However, I can no longer access the display properties.. I'm stuck in 640x480x8 mode, unable to set wallpaper, screensaver, or other desktop/display settings in the video property sheets. (At least not using the control panel and/or display properties.) That continues to be the case even after switching back to the nVidia card.. But on the bright side, the games no longer freeze up (they do switch to the higher resolution I've set them at without problems.)

I'll be getting a new video card this weekend, on the off-chance _both_ nVidia cards have failed or maybe there's a bug in the nVidia drivers. In the meantime, anyone have any ideas on fixing and accessing the display properties? I do suspect that part _is_ the nVidia drivers, since they do a lot of customizations with the display property sheets.

Any ideas would be appreciated. (Sorry if I sound terse or disjoint.. was up all night messing with this and am very tired..)

Regards,
C. M.

 

[Gerry]

CM

I have studied the information you provided earlier.

I was not aware that Avast could require so much memory. Which version
do you have? Do freezes coincide with Avast carrying out a full scan?

In your original post you said your pagefile was 2 gb but the Disk
Defragmenter report shows it as 1.5 gb.

Your pagefile is multi-fragmented. This probably because you Let
Windows Manage the Pagefile. Is my guess correct?

You did not include the Most fragmented List, which can yield further
clues.

What graphics programmes are you using? These often incorporate undo
features, which can generate significant demands for memory. If they
happen to have memory leaks leaving them on 24/7 could create the type
of problem you are seeing.

Another suggestion. You might find HD Tune gives you a clearer picture
of what is going on.
HD Tune only gives information and does not fix any problems.

Download and run it and see what it turns up.
http://www.hdtune.com/

Select the Info tabs and place the cursor on the drive under Drive
letter and then double click the two page icon ( copy to Clipboard )
and copy into a further message.

Select the Health tab and then double click the two page icon ( copy to
Clipboard ) and copy into a further message. Make sure you do a full
surface scan with HD Tune.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[C. M.]

Aloha Gerry,

The responses to your questions have been inserted directly into the quoted
message, below.

--
C. Mitchell

CM

I have studied the information you provided earlier.

I was not aware that Avast could require so much memory. Which version
do you have? Do freezes coincide with Avast carrying out a full scan?

It is unusual for Avast to take that much memory. It usually takes a lot
less.. At the time I did the report, though, I had been doing some other
work, including working with some large (>1GB) archives. I also usually turn
it off entirely when playing games.

In your original post you said your pagefile was 2 gb but the Disk
Defragmenter report shows it as 1.5 gb.

Your pagefile is multi-fragmented. This probably because you Let
Windows Manage the Pagefile. Is my guess correct?

It was 2GB at the time. A tech on web-board suggested I try letting Windows
manage my pagefile, and 1.5GB was the size it picked. I've tried to reduce
the pagefile fragmentation even more, but none of the tools I've tried seem
very effective in that regard (I do not think they are very effective in any
regard.. Most seem little more than pretty interfaces on top the same
Windows defrag API that Windows' own defrag uses.) I did try using a fresh
pagefile on a blank drive, testing if it might be the fragmented pagefile.
The blank drive also has faster access times, etc. As near as I could tell,
it made no difference, other than Windows' complaint that not having the
pagefile on my primary drive would interfere with debug and error reporting
stuff. I even experimented with multiple pagefiles on multiple drives.

You did not include the Most fragmented List, which can yield further
clues.

Sorry, I did not think that would be useful, as most are insignificant, like
the restore snapshots, and not likely to even be accessed normally. (I do
not know why the WCI stuff is there, I do not use it and have the service
turned off.. Same for the Google Desktop junk.) I have not done a new defrag
or anything since I posted, and I did not save a new VolumeC.txt file after
the defrag (but I did defrag), so here's the rest of the file.. (Note that I
edited some of the file/path names to remove any numbers, hashes,
descriptors, etc. I doubt they're a security risk, but.. If they are
important, let me know and I can send via private email.)

Fragments File Size Most fragmented files
18,949 1.33 GB \System Volume
Information\catalog.wci\00010004.ci
598 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP138\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
587 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP145\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
551 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP135\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
547 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP151\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
542 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP141\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
524 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP147\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
522 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP139\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
514 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP149\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
514 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP144\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
509 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP148\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
504 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP143\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
504 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP157\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
503 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP142\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
494 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP146\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
488 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP140\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
484 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP136\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
218 40 MB \Documents and Settings\ladmin\Local
Settings\Application Data\Identities\{?GUID?}\Microsoft\Outlook
Express\microsoft.public.windowsxp.general.dbx
192 114 MB \WINDOWS\Installer\c6422a.msp
141 41 MB \Program Files\FireFly
Studios\Stronghold\binks\intro.bik
123 1 KB \WINDOWS\system32\config\system.LOG
101 19 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP157\snapshot\_REGISTRY_USER_NTUSER_?SUID?
70 12 MB \Program Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE
56 200 MB \Documents and Settings\ladmin\Local
Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Desktop\?HASH?\rpm1m.cf1
53 63 MB
\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\?HASH?
50 200 MB \Documents and Settings\ladmin\Local
Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Desktop\?HASH?\rpm.cf1

What graphics programmes are you using? These often incorporate undo
features, which can generate significant demands for memory. If they
happen to have memory leaks leaving them on 24/7 could create the type of
problem you are seeing.

I do not usually leave them on, because as you noted, graphics programs tend
to be resource/memory hogs ;-).. I use Paint Shop Pro X, and occasionally
Windows Paint (My editing needs are pretty modest on this machine.. I do
most of my gfx editing on a Linux machine on my LAN ). I use IrfanView as
my main image viewer/manager, along with some Perl scripts that I wrote
myself to help. Again, I usually shut most things down when not in use, not
needed, or if I'm going to do anything I know will stress the machine. Like
game playing.

As far as what I usually have running.. I keep Apache 2 and MySQL 5 running
on my LAN, with redundant backups on this machine. Both also occasionally
access the file shares on this computer. I also keep a syslog daemon running
on this machine as a backup. (Most things I keep on here are backups, which
is why I can shut them down for short periods when I play games.)

Another suggestion. You might find HD Tune gives you a clearer picture of
what is going on.
HD Tune only gives information and does not fix any problems.

Download and run it and see what it turns up.
http://www.hdtune.com/

Select the Info tabs and place the cursor on the drive under Drive
letter and then double click the two page icon ( copy to Clipboard )
and copy into a further message.

Select the Health tab and then double click the two page icon ( copy to
Clipboard ) and copy into a further message. Make sure you do a full
surface scan with HD Tune.

I have downloaded HD Tune, but I won't have time to run it tonight.. I'm in
the process of copying any important files/info and services to a new
machine, since I no longer consider this one reliable enough. I will
follow-up with the results when I can.

In the meantime, any ideas on my display properties problem? I've been
peeking around the registry and my system files, but in this case, I really
have no idea where to look. I have noted that when I try to bring up display
properties, that rundll32 quickly appears then disappears from the task
list. I do not know if this is normal or something that nVidia did with
their customizations.. My suspicion is that their modified property pages
are exiting if they cannot communicate with the gfx card, but instead of
simply not showing their custom pages, they're preventing anything at all
from showing. (I am also filing a support request with them regarding the
issue.)

Mahalo!
Cas

 

[Gerry]

Hi Cas

The responses to your questions have been inserted directly into the
quoted message, below.

Aloha Gerry,

The responses to your questions have been inserted directly into the
quoted message, below.

snipped



It was 2GB at the time. A tech on web-board suggested I try letting
Windows manage my pagefile, and 1.5GB was the size it picked. I've
tried to reduce the pagefile fragmentation even more, but none of the
tools I've tried seem very effective in that regard (I do not think
they are very effective in any regard.. Most seem little more than
pretty interfaces on top the same Windows defrag API that Windows'
own defrag uses.) I did try using a fresh pagefile on a blank drive,
testing if it might be the fragmented pagefile. The blank drive also
has faster access times, etc. As near as I could tell, it made no
difference, other than Windows' complaint that not having the
pagefile on my primary drive would interfere with debug and error
reporting stuff. I even experimented with multiple pagefiles on
multiple drives.

There are two schools of thought on managing the pagefile. The majority
advocate letting Windows manage the pagefile. The disadvantage is a
multi-fragmented pagefile. The problem as I see it is that this
fragments free space and a direct result causes any new files of any
size to immediately fragment. There are two ways to avoid this problem.
You either set a large pagefile on a minimum=maximum basis in the
Windows partition at a time when the free disk space is 60% or more or
you place it in a dedicated first partition on a second drive. If you
have less than 60% free disk space you can be frustrated trying to get a
contiguous pagefile because the pagefile is normally placed in the
middle of the partition and other files already there cause the pagefile
to be non-contiguous. If you have the main pagefile on a second drive
you need a small pagefile in the Windows partition -say 200 mb. I rely
on the Microsoft Disk Defragmenter and appreciate that third party Disk
Defragmenters offer other alternatives.

If you create partitions, you can move files that rapidly fragment (
because they are constantly being written to) out of the Windows
partition. My Outlook Express mail and news folders are in a dedicated
partition as are my general data files. It simplifies housekeeping and
backing up.

Defragmenting helps to create better performance, especially if you run
cCleaner and Disk CleanUp to trim System Restore points first. You only
see, however, dramatic improvements if the partition was overfull and
has not been defragmented for some time.

Sorry, I did not think that would be useful, as most are
insignificant, like the restore snapshots, and not likely to even be
accessed normally. (I do not know why the WCI stuff is there, I do
not use it and have the service turned off..

Your WCI file presents an issue I have not seen before. You are unlikely
to be able to defragment a file that is 1.33 gb. The corresponding file
on my system, with the indexing Service turned on, is 45 mb. You need
to deal with it before reducing the size of the System Restore
allocation. The link below (5 pages) contains suggestions.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/10/tattletale_convenience/

Same for the Google
Desktop junk.)

I have never looked into using Google Desktop. Do you have the latest
version? You might check / limit what it indexes. Another link, which
may help:
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/03/optimize-google-desktop-for-search.html

I have not done a new defrag or anything since I
posted, and I did not save a new VolumeC.txt file after the defrag
(but I did defrag), so here's the rest of the file.. (Note that I
edited some of the file/path names to remove any numbers, hashes,
descriptors, etc. I doubt they're a security risk, but.. If they are
important, let me know and I can send via private email.)
Fragments File Size Most fragmented files
18,949 1.33 GB \System Volume
Information\catalog.wci\00010004.ci
598 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP138\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
587 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP145\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
551 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP135\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
547 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP151\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
542 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP141\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
524 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP147\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
522 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP139\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
514 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP149\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
514 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP144\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
509 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP148\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
504 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP143\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
504 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP157\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
503 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP142\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
494 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP146\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
488 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP140\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
484 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP136\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
218 40 MB \Documents and Settings\ladmin\Local
Settings\Application Data\Identities\{?GUID?}\Microsoft\Outlook
Express\microsoft.public.windowsxp.general.dbx

In Outlook Express place the cursor on Local Folders and select File,
Work Offline followed by File, Folder, Compact All. Do not attempt to
interupt or stop the process until it has completed.

192 114 MB \WINDOWS\Installer\c6422a.msp
141 41 MB \Program Files\FireFly
Studios\Stronghold\binks\intro.bik
123 1 KB \WINDOWS\system32\config\system.LOG
101 19 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP157\snapshot\_REGISTRY_USER_NTUSER_?SUID?
70 12 MB \Program Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE
56 200 MB \Documents and Settings\ladmin\Local
Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Desktop\?HASH?\rpm1m.cf1
53 63 MB
\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\?HASH?
50 200 MB \Documents and Settings\ladmin\Local
Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Desktop\?HASH?\rpm.cf1

You have over many System Restore points. Restore points more than 7 /14
days old are not worth retaining.

The default allocation to System Restore is 12% on your C partition
which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700 mb. Right click your My
Computer icon on the Desktop and select System Restore. Place the cursor
on your C drive select Settings but this time find the slider and drag
it to the left until it reads 700 mb and exit. When you get to the
Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk
CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest
System Restore point.

I do not usually leave them on, because as you noted, graphics
programs tend to be resource/memory hogs ;-).. I use Paint Shop Pro
X, and occasionally Windows Paint (My editing needs are pretty modest
on this machine.. I do most of my gfx editing on a Linux machine on
my LAN ). I use IrfanView as my main image viewer/manager, along
with some Perl scripts that I wrote myself to help. Again, I usually
shut most things down when not in use, not needed, or if I'm going to
do anything I know will stress the machine. Like game playing.

You do appreciate that closing a programme that has a memory leak does
not always result in the release of the memory. You can only be sure the
memory is released when you shutdown and restart the computer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_leak

As far as what I usually have running.. I keep Apache 2
http://www.apachelounge.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8937

and MySQL 5

Another programme known to be associated with memory leaks

running on my LAN, with redundant backups on this machine. Both also
occasionally access the file shares on this computer. I also keep a
syslog daemon running on this machine as a backup. (Most things I
keep on here are backups, which is why I can shut them down for short
periods when I play games.)

I have downloaded HD Tune, but I won't have time to run it tonight..
I'm in the process of copying any important files/info and services
to a new machine, since I no longer consider this one reliable
enough. I will follow-up with the results when I can.

I look forward to seeing the results.

In the meantime, any ideas on my display properties problem? I've been
peeking around the registry and my system files, but in this case, I
really have no idea where to look. I have noted that when I try to
bring up display properties, that rundll32 quickly appears then
disappears from the task list. I do not know if this is normal or
something that nVidia did with their customizations.. My suspicion is
that their modified property pages are exiting if they cannot
communicate with the gfx card, but instead of simply not showing
their custom pages, they're preventing anything at all from showing.
(I am also filing a support request with them regarding the issue.)

I cannot help with nVidia problems.

Mahalo!
Cas

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[C. M.]

Aloha Gerry,

Again, I'll insert my replies in the quoted text.

Mahalo,
--
C. Mitchell

There are two schools of thought on managing the pagefile. The majority
advocate letting Windows manage the pagefile. The disadvantage is a
multi-fragmented pagefile. The problem as I see it is that this fragments
free space and a direct result causes any new files of any size to
immediately fragment. There are two ways to avoid this problem. You either
set a large pagefile on a minimum=maximum basis in the Windows partition
at a time when the free disk space is 60% or more or you place it in a
dedicated first partition on a second drive. If you have less than 60%
free disk space you can be frustrated trying to get a contiguous pagefile
because the pagefile is normally placed in the middle of the partition and
other files already there cause the pagefile to be non-contiguous. If you
have the main pagefile on a second drive you need a small pagefile in the
Windows partition -say 200 mb. I rely on the Microsoft Disk Defragmenter
and appreciate that third party Disk Defragmenters offer other
alternatives.

If you create partitions, you can move files that rapidly fragment (
because they are constantly being written to) out of the Windows
partition. My Outlook Express mail and news folders are in a dedicated
partition as are my general data files. It simplifies housekeeping and
backing up.

Defragmenting helps to create better performance, especially if you run
cCleaner and Disk CleanUp to trim System Restore points first. You only
see, however, dramatic improvements if the partition was overfull and has
not been defragmented for some time.

I was aware of both schools of thought (and others).. I am not familiar with
how Windows manages it's pagefile to choose which option is best, however.
Un*x-ish or based OSes, such as Linux, are generally better well-known.. In
case of my Linux partition, I do keep the pagefile on it's own, dedicated
partition. I would be happy if I could do the same with Windows. (Notably,
my 350GB disk is the fastest disk I have, and I have it on it's own
controller to cut down on conflicts when the system tries to access more
than one disk or DMA channel.) I will continue looking into what I can do to
better manage and defrag the Windows' pagefile, and am appreciative of your
advice.

Your WCI file presents an issue I have not seen before. You are unlikely
to be able to defragment a file that is 1.33 gb. The corresponding file on
my system, with the indexing Service turned on, is 45 mb. You need to
deal with it before reducing the size of the System Restore allocation.
The link below (5 pages) contains suggestions.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/10/tattletale_convenience/

I agree. That's way too much space for something I do not even use. I'd
rather just delete it completely.. I'm just not familiar enough with Windows
to know what I can safely delete without causing problems. Same with the
Google Desktop. It installed as part of Google Earth and other Google tools,
but I do _not_ use the Desktop or search features.If I can eliminate both
without adverse effects, I will.

In Outlook Express place the cursor on Local Folders and select File,
Work Offline followed by File, Folder, Compact All. Do not attempt to
interupt or stop the process until it has completed.

I have done this (both before you suggested it, and again just now to make
sure all my p's and q's are in order..), but have seen little or no effect.
It might be something with my settings (for instance, I only download
headers--I do not know why that one file is so big and won't reduce) and the
way my free space is so fragmented, keeping it from being able to compact it
effectively. However, I've not noticed any adverse effects to date on system
performance with the way things are. I'll keep trying to "tune" my settings,
though.

You have over many System Restore points. Restore points more than 7 /14
days old are not worth retaining.

The default allocation to System Restore is 12% on your C partition
which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700 mb. Right click your My
Computer icon on the Desktop and select System Restore. Place the cursor
on your C drive select Settings but this time find the slider and drag
it to the left until it reads 700 mb and exit. When you get to the
Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk
CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest
System Restore point.

I will try that.. Note that I usually archive all the backups and such (that
I know of) whenever I do updates, since updates like to eat up a lot of disk
space and I rarely uninstall one. I am not sure if this is the "system
restore" points you mention. I am just not familiar enough with Windows' way
of doing some things..

You do appreciate that closing a programme that has a memory leak does not
always result in the release of the memory. You can only be sure the
memory is released when you shutdown and restart the computer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_leak

On the contrary, I'm very aware of that. I've been programming since the DOS
3.3 days, and cursed many a time when Windows 3.x software would lock up
because of improperly allocated and unreleased resources. I was even among
the first to jump on the 32-bit Windows (95 and NT) bandwagon, and it's
promise to eliminate such issues by putting every process in it's own
virtual machine and process space. (I still have fully operational 95 and
NT4 boot partitions on my other PC.. Even a DOS6+WFW3 partition!)

Anyhow, I am quite aggressive in monitoring how my system is used, and I
often run several tools and utilities that try to insure that when I close
or shut something down, it forces everything to be reclaimed. I often simply
reboot as well, to insure that resources don't continue to leak and get
lost. In truth, my initial troubleshooting was along the same lines as you
seem to be thinking now, but excepting that I may have missed something you
or others might think of, I've pretty much eliminated that avenue.

BTW, when I say I leave my PC on 24/7, I'm refering to the power switch. I
reboot almost daily, especially since I need to switch to my Linux partition
from time to time. Likewise, even while experiencing all these problems, I
would reboot often to make sure the problem continued even when everything
was relatively "clean and fresh."

I'm also aware of the "issues" with Apache and MySQL, but to date, I've only
encountered the Apache problem once, and restarting it solved that instance.
Most of the time, between the two, my system resources used by them are very
low (especially since I have very little traffic with either. Only periodic
updates for the backups.), and I do monitor them carefully. Whether or not
the monitoring tools report resources properly, however, is something I am
still looking into.. But so far, I've not had any noticable or significant
issues, except when it comes to those few games. Those had continued to
cause freezes even when I did a clean reboot (even after disabling Apache,
MySQL and some other services, removing them from the startup folders and
registry, etc.)

I still think the problem is in the video drivers and/or Direct-X (most
likely one of those), or even possibly a hardware issue with the GFX card
(less likely since it occurs with both cards but only on XP, not 2K. But I'm
still not ruling anything out..) I just don't know the right places to
_look_ in Windows for clues, hints and other tell-tale signs of what the
exact problem might be.

I cannot help with nVidia problems.

It was more that I was hoping you (or someone else here) has an idea on how
I can restore the basic Windows property pages, (and even preferably)
without any of the additional junk nVidia, ATI, MSI, or whatever, likes to
add to them. I've peeked around the registry and other system files, but I'm
careful not to modify anything that I'm not fully aware of what it does or
how it works. Since this is my only XP PC, I am not even sure that the WMI
snap-ins, control panel apps/dlls, etc, are original and unmodified--I have
nothing to compare them to.. And I've not been as good at making proper
backups as I should be. :-(

I will continue to try the things you suggested, as well as that HD Tune (I
still have not had time, and I did not get the chance to get a new GFX card
this past weekend as I'd planned..) Thank you for your continued efforts to
help!

Cas