Windows XP Freeze

[kzrssk]

Hello everyone,

I've got a question that I'm hoping you all could help me with.

I got this problem with my computer that's happened to me before and cleared up on its own. It didn't happen again until just a couple days ago when I reinstalled XP.

The problem is that my computer will just freeze. Sometimes it will snap out of it, sometimes not. This time it seemed to happen more during setup routines, but it's also happened out of the blue. Going with the setup routines tendency, it might be related to Windows Installer, but it might not, and I have no idea what I did to fix it last time (remember it seemed to clear up on its own). It may be that it resolves itself after a certain number of times of freezing my computer.

The last time it happened I was running Windows XP Professional SP1; this time it's SP2. I'm running a Shuttle AN35/N Ultra, Athlon XP 2500+, 512 MB DDR333 Kingston HyperX RAM, ATI AIW Radeon 9600 PRO 128 MB, and a Samsung hard drive.

This time, the freezing started as early as after I'd installed the NVIDIA chipset drivers, ATI video drivers, Norton AntiVirus Professional 2004, and all the Windows Updates that Automatic Updates downloaded for me. Regretfully, I can't remember how soon the freezing got me during the last time it happened as it was so long ago.

Any ideas, anyone?

Most appreciatively,

Chris

 

[Rashkae]

Have you run memtest86? Try testing your RAM.

 

[kzrssk]

Yeah, I ran it the last time I overclocked. But since then, I updated the BIOS, which ended up resetting everything, and I was too lazy to re-oc it.

EDIT: Oh, I should add that I only ran it for 30 minutes though, but for a whole year and a half or so after I put this thing together, it was fine, and I've never heard of RAM going bad after purchase.

 

[montag451]

run memtest at least over night.
I haven't heard of a lot of things, but ****** still happens.

 

[drum]

that is about the exact same setup I have.
bump for memtest

 

[bluestrobe]

Ram does go bad after use. Had it happen to me. Run memtest for at least 2 hours depending on computer speed. 30 minutes might not get you through 3-4 tests with 1 pass.

 

[kzrssk]

Cool. I ran memtest before I left for work this morning, so when I get back, it'll have done about 13 hours. We'll see what happens. Will update then. Thanks everyone.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: kzrssk
Hello everyone,

I've got a question that I'm hoping you all could help me with.

I got this problem with my computer that's happened to me before and cleared up on its own. It didn't happen again until just a couple days ago when I reinstalled XP.

The problem is that my computer will just freeze. Sometimes it will snap out of it, sometimes not. This time it seemed to happen more during setup routines, but it's also happened out of the blue. Going with the setup routines tendency, it might be related to Windows Installer, but it might not, and I have no idea what I did to fix it last time (remember it seemed to clear up on its own). It may be that it resolves itself after a certain number of times of freezing my computer.

The last time it happened I was running Windows XP Professional SP1; this time it's SP2. I'm running a Shuttle AN35/N Ultra, Athlon XP 2500+, 512 MB DDR333 Kingston HyperX RAM, ATI AIW Radeon 9600 PRO 128 MB, and a Samsung hard drive.

This time, the freezing started as early as after I'd installed the NVIDIA chipset drivers, ATI video drivers, Norton AntiVirus Professional 2004, and all the Windows Updates that Automatic Updates downloaded for me. Regretfully, I can't remember how soon the freezing got me during the last time it happened as it was so long ago.

Any ideas, anyone?

Most appreciatively,

Chris

If the freeze is still present after the RAM test, try uninstalling (fully uninstalling) the antivirus software and seeing if the issue is still present.

 

[kzrssk]

Originally posted by: dclive
If the freeze is still present after the RAM test, try uninstalling (fully uninstalling) the antivirus software and seeing if the issue is still present.

Sometimes my computer can run for hours before it freezes, though, and I don't like the idea of leaving my computer unprotected against viruses for that long. Any other suggestions?

Also, I ran memtest for 12 hours, 38 passes, no errors.

 

[montag451]

next would be a power supply problem.
Can you try a new psu?

 

[kzrssk]

Originally posted by: montag451
next would be a power supply problem.
Can you try a new psu?

Heh, not really. But the one I got's an Antec SmartBlue 350, so I have faith in it. Although, I realize even Antec can have bad units. Is there any psu testing program out there?

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: kzrssk

Originally posted by: dclive
If the freeze is still present after the RAM test, try uninstalling (fully uninstalling) the antivirus software and seeing if the issue is still present.

Sometimes my computer can run for hours before it freezes, though, and I don't like the idea of leaving my computer unprotected against viruses for that long. Any other suggestions?

Also, I ran memtest for 12 hours, 38 passes, no errors.

It would be an easy, relatively fast test. If you must, remove the Norton AV and put another vendor's AV solution onto the machine.

By "Freeze" what, exactly, do you mean? The system will be working, and then suddenly you cannot move the mouse or get any response to keys for ...5 seconds? 10? 20? Is that what you mean?

 

[kzrssk]

Originally posted by: dclive
It would be an easy, relatively fast test. If you must, remove the Norton AV and put another vendor's AV solution onto the machine.

I'll go ahead and try that, but I've had times where I've installed Windows XP and Norton AntiVirus, and the computer was fine. Also, I did a fair bit of searching on Symantec's support site, and I can't find anything about AntiVirus causing Windows XP computers to freeze like that. But like I said, I'll go ahead and try it.

Originally posted by: dclive
By "Freeze" what, exactly, do you mean? The system will be working, and then suddenly you cannot move the mouse or get any response to keys for ...5 seconds? 10? 20? Is that what you mean?

By "freeze," I mean complete unresponsiveness. Any sound playing will stutter, Windows does not respond at all. However, sometimes if I queue up commands right after it freezes (Ctrl-Alt-Del or Winkey-D), there will be a split second window where some of those commands will be executed, but then it's back to the frozen state. After some time (30 seconds, 5 minutes, anything), it either resolves itself, in which case the computer performs normally, or it doesn't, in which case I get mad and restart the computer.

Thanks again everyone for all your help

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: kzrssk

Originally posted by: dclive
By "Freeze" what, exactly, do you mean? The system will be working, and then suddenly you cannot move the mouse or get any response to keys for ...5 seconds? 10? 20? Is that what you mean?

By "freeze," I mean complete unresponsiveness. Any sound playing will stutter, Windows does not respond at all. However, sometimes if I queue up commands right after it freezes (Ctrl-Alt-Del or Winkey-D), there will be a split second window where some of those commands will be executed, but then it's back to the frozen state. After some time (30 seconds, 5 minutes, anything), it either resolves itself, in which case the computer performs normally, or it doesn't, in which case I get mad and restart the computer.

Thanks again everyone for all your help

If you boot in safe mode does this happen?

Can you make this happen by doing any series of events?

If you *remove* all external devices (say, USB) and all non-core hardware (ie everything but a single hard drive, a single video card, no CDROM, no other PCI cards, etc.) does this happen? (This is easier than it sounds - for drives, just unplug the power cable; for PCI stuff, just pop it out.)

Most importantly, what does the Windows event log (application log and system log) say when this happens? In other words, make it happen or wait for it to happen, then immediately look at the logs and see what they say for that time period (and 30 minutes prior).

 

[kzrssk]

All right, so now I've got Norton 2005 installed, because my girlfriend says she's never had a problem with it.

But something that I just thought of: I installed Windows Vista Beta 1 (straight from a Microsoft developer's conference, so not off the Internet), and it was freezing, and I hadn't installed anything. I'm not sure what to make of that one; hopefully this updated Norton will work. I did more research and it seems that some other people had problems with Norton 2004 as well. This, to me, makes it look promising that a newer version will work better.

Anyway, once again, thanks to everyone for your help.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: kzrssk
All right, so now I've got Norton 2005 installed, because my girlfriend says she's never had a problem with it.

But something that I just thought of: I installed Windows Vista Beta 1 (straight from a Microsoft developer's conference, so not off the Internet), and it was freezing, and I hadn't installed anything. I'm not sure what to make of that one; hopefully this updated Norton will work. I did more research and it seems that some other people had problems with Norton 2004 as well. This, to me, makes it look promising that a newer version will work better.

Anyway, once again, thanks to everyone for your help.

If Vista did the same thing without installing any additional drivers or software, that sounds like a hardware problem; I'd return the PC to where you bought it from and buy another.

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: kzrssk

Originally posted by: dclive
If the freeze is still present after the RAM test, try uninstalling (fully uninstalling) the antivirus software and seeing if the issue is still present.

Sometimes my computer can run for hours before it freezes, though, and I don't like the idea of leaving my computer unprotected against viruses for that long. Any other suggestions?

Also, I ran memtest for 12 hours, 38 passes, no errors.

Leaving your computer unprotected? If you are leaving it, and really want to be protected, JUST UNPLUG THE NIC. I have been running on broadband for a couple years now without any AV running, and I haven't gotten a virus. It's all paranoia, don't worry about it.

Your problem is definitely hardware related. Unless you can swap things out, I'd suggest getting it replaced.