Windows XP freezes coming out of standby

[quiksil903]

Argh

I have a Dell Dimension XPS T500 computer that I've upgraded to XP. It has been running the OS stably for 3 years now (so I don't think that's the issue).

All of a sudden (I know, we all say that), without any changes to the computer, it has started to freeze up when left idle. When I leave the system for an hour or soand come back to a black screen, I go to move my mouse to bring the desktop back. The picture of the default XP desktop (green fields, blue skies) comes back with no taskbar and no icons. I can see the mouse pointer but no keys work (including Ctrl-Alt-Del and the Windows key). This has just started happening the last two days and I have no idea what is causing it.

Any insight would be much appreciated.

 

[BG4533]

I think this used to be a pretty common problem with XP, but I thought there was a fix to it. Make sure you have downloaded all the service packs and updates.

Brian

 

[LiLithTecH]

This might give a little insight to your problem.

Computer Stops Responding When You Resume from S3 State in Windows XP

 

[quiksil903]

Thanks for the info BG4533 and LiLithTecH!

This might be right. I did install a second IDE drive, but it was over a month ago, so I'm not sure why the problem would be cropping up in the last couple of days. Also, when I installed the second HD, I didn't set Master and Slave, but instead let it auto detect - I thought this would prevent them both being considered masters.

I am up to date on hotfixes, but I haven't installed SP1 (reported by the Microsoft Article in question to fix this problem) becuase of reported instability.

What have you thought of SP1? After installing it, have peopel found their system funked up? Basically, is it safe?

 

[LiLithTecH]

With all the variables that are present in the different designs of
PC(s), it is always a big ? whether you will have issues after applying SP1.

Actually, SP1a has behaved nicely on 95% of the machines I've seen.
(seems to take issue with ATI Radeons and nVidia FX Ultras though)

Windows 2k SP4 is totally different story ......
(MS should be ashamed of themselves for that mess)