A Windows XP help forum. PCbanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » PCbanter forum » Microsoft Windows XP » Hardware and Windows XP
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

PC Freezes



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old November 25th 10, 10:30 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Mervyn Thomas[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 40
Default PC Freezes

I am getting, several times a week, situations when the PC totally freezes
with no input via the mouse or keyboard but with the screen just as it was
before the freeze. Powering down fixes it.
Can anyone advise how to go about identifying and fixing the problem?


Ads
  #2  
Old November 25th 10, 01:20 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Don Phillipson[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,185
Default PC Freezes

"Mervyn Thomas" wrote in message
...

I am getting, several times a week, situations when the PC totally freezes
with no input via the mouse or keyboard but with the screen just as it was
before the freeze. Powering down fixes it.
Can anyone advise how to go about identifying and fixing the problem?


Power Supply Unit is one likely cause: easily tested and cheaply
replaced at computer repair stores.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)


  #3  
Old November 25th 10, 01:24 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
philo[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4
Default PC Freezes

On 11/25/2010 03:30 AM, Mervyn Thomas wrote:
I am getting, several times a week, situations when the PC totally freezes
with no input via the mouse or keyboard but with the screen just as it was
before the freeze. Powering down fixes it.
Can anyone advise how to go about identifying and fixing the problem?




Check to make *all* cooling fans are clean and running smoothly

If the cooling fans are OK run a RAM test
  #4  
Old November 25th 10, 03:42 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Paul
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 18,275
Default PC Freezes

Mervyn Thomas wrote:
I am getting, several times a week, situations when the PC totally freezes
with no input via the mouse or keyboard but with the screen just as it was
before the freeze. Powering down fixes it.
Can anyone advise how to go about identifying and fixing the problem?


There is one other test that remains to be done.

It is possible, for a computer to have a "GUI failure". That
means the display, keyboard, and mouse could suddenly be ignored
by the OS. If all of that, funnels through one piece of software
in the OS, it means the screen might stop updating, if that
piece of software dies for some reason.

If you have a second computer, and you know the range of IP
addresses being used by your computers, you can use the
second computer to do a "ping test". That sends a test packet
to the frozen computer, and it would send a packet back
in response. It's part of the ICMP protocol on the Internet.

Say, for example, my router has DHCP, and serves local unrouted
addresses when the computers boot, in the 192.168.100.1 to 192.168.100.4
range. The second computer happens to be 192.168.100.3 at the
moment. (Go to command prompt, and type "ipconfig", to determine
the current value of the IP address of the second computer.)
You might not know, what the IP address of the frozen computer
is, but if DHCP is range limited to a few IP addresses, you
might guess at the address being used. Then, with the second
computer, try pinging the frozen one. I'm using three
separate tests here, to try and find the frozen computer.
If your computer had a static address which you knew, then
you'd only need one test line like this.

ping 192.168.100.1
ping 102.168.100.2
ping 102.168.100.4

If you get a response from the first computer, at one of those
addresses, it tells you just the GUI is frozen, and the OS
is not completely dead.

The distinction is important, in terms of your debugging process.
If the frozen computer did not respond to any ping command, then
it is likely a CPU freeze. If the frozen computer was able to
respond to an Ethernet ping, then it could be the video card
is the problem. Possible solutions might be uninstalling the
video driver, and installing another.

You can also use differential analysis, to shed light on the problem.
Boot another OS (a Linux LiveCD), and see whether the computer will
freeze there or not. If the computer doesn't freeze in Linux, but
does freeze in Windows, it could be the Windows OS install which
is damaged in some way.

I had a computer once, that froze in both Windows and in Linux,
and based on that, I could conclude it was a hardware problem.
(As it turns out, an actual design flaw in the motherboard.)

You can run memtest86+ to test the memory. You can run Prime95
(mersenne.org/freesoft) in either Windows or Linux, as a stress
test that checks correctness of computation. That tests CPU,
Northbridge, and memory.

As some of the other respondents have pointed out, instability
can be caused by bad capacitors on the motherboard, in the
Vcore area. Certain recent Dell computers suffered from that,
and other brands to different extents. Bad capacitors can
also exist inside the power supply. (I have a second Antec
power supply, that appears to be failing - I haven't opened it
up yet, but I can smell something.) So it could be a motherboard
problem, or a power supply problem. CPUs are generally pretty
good, in terms of not failing while in service. RAM less
so (I've had lots of RAM go bad here, relatively speaking,
compared to CPUs with zero failures - the RAM fails while
in service, which is ridiculous).

Depending on your funding, you can rush out and start
replacing things. Or you can spend a bit more time
testing, to isolate to what you think is the area of
the failure. It all depends on how much money you
have to throw around, as to what you do next.

There is no guarantee, that an OS log file has an entry in
it, corresponding to the time of failure. If you were
getting a real CPU freeze for some reason, the OS doesn't
always have an opportunity to record an event. So you
may not have anything to go on, in that respect. So while
you could check Event Viewer, look for memory dump files or
the like, that's not likely to be an option for you. If it
was just a GUI failure, then some event might be recorded
(where the OS can't do something to the display etc).

You may also want to run CHKDSK, to verify the file system
is OK. You can run CHKDSK, just to see whether there are
any structural errors. That can happen from all the
freezing, without cleanly shutting down the file system.
And also make sure your backups, are up to date.
Just in case.

Paul
  #5  
Old November 25th 10, 08:52 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Stefan Patric[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 229
Default PC Freezes

On Thu, 25 Nov 2010 09:30:59 +0000, Mervyn Thomas wrote:

I am getting, several times a week, situations when the PC totally
freezes with no input via the mouse or keyboard but with the screen just
as it was before the freeze. Powering down fixes it. Can anyone advise
how to go about identifying and fixing the problem?


It could caused by a runaway process. Such an errant process hogs the
CPU preventing it from updating the system, keyboard, mouse, etc. in a
timely manner, and thus gives the appearance that the computer is frozen
or locked up.

What applications are you running and what are doing when the "freeze"
happens? Does the freeze occur under the same circumstances? What other
tasks are running in the background?

Try running the Task Manager (ctrl-alt-del to access it). Place it on
the desktop so that it is visible at all times. When the freeze occurs,
check it to see if any process or task is using 100% of the CPU's time.
Give it time to update. If the cause is a runaway process, it may take
several seconds to minutes to update.

Stef
  #6  
Old November 26th 10, 12:13 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Mervyn Thomas[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 40
Default PC Freezes

Stephan - I like your reply because it's something I can do readily. I
think the freeze always occurs just after a coming back from hibernation as
I am looking through emails in outlook with nothing else running though
indexing might still be running- I will see!
Thanks
Mervyn
"Stefan Patric" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 25 Nov 2010 09:30:59 +0000, Mervyn Thomas wrote:

I am getting, several times a week, situations when the PC totally
freezes with no input via the mouse or keyboard but with the screen just
as it was before the freeze. Powering down fixes it. Can anyone advise
how to go about identifying and fixing the problem?


It could caused by a runaway process. Such an errant process hogs the
CPU preventing it from updating the system, keyboard, mouse, etc. in a
timely manner, and thus gives the appearance that the computer is frozen
or locked up.

What applications are you running and what are doing when the "freeze"
happens? Does the freeze occur under the same circumstances? What other
tasks are running in the background?

Try running the Task Manager (ctrl-alt-del to access it). Place it on
the desktop so that it is visible at all times. When the freeze occurs,
check it to see if any process or task is using 100% of the CPU's time.
Give it time to update. If the cause is a runaway process, it may take
several seconds to minutes to update.

Stef



  #7  
Old November 26th 10, 05:50 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Twayne[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,276
Default PC Freezes

A quick note: Turn OFF or remove GoBack while you are trouble-shooting. It
will make starts and restartes go faster.

To Paul: Wouldn't the scenario you mention below here result in the
computer beeping an error code (a pattern of beeps)?
I'm not certain it will, but pretty sure.

OP: Are you getting any beeps when you boot the computer other than possibly
one single beep?

Try turning on the Boot Log to see if there are any boot-time errors that
might make this happen? How many hardware problems does it find?

What is your computer level of expertise? Beginner, user, advanced, expert?
etc.?

HTH,

Twayne`
In ,
Paul typed:
Mervyn Thomas wrote:
I am getting, several times a week, situations when the PC
totally freezes with no input via the mouse or keyboard
but with the screen just as it was before the freeze.
Powering down fixes it. Can anyone advise how to go about identifying and
fixing
the problem?


There is one other test that remains to be done.

It is possible, for a computer to have a "GUI failure". That
means the display, keyboard, and mouse could suddenly be
ignored by the OS. If all of that, funnels through one piece of
software in the OS, it means the screen might stop updating, if that
piece of software dies for some reason.

If you have a second computer, and you know the range of IP
addresses being used by your computers, you can use the
second computer to do a "ping test". That sends a test
packet to the frozen computer, and it would send a packet back
in response. It's part of the ICMP protocol on the Internet.

Say, for example, my router has DHCP, and serves local
unrouted addresses when the computers boot, in the
192.168.100.1 to 192.168.100.4 range. The second computer
happens to be 192.168.100.3 at the moment. (Go to command prompt, and type
"ipconfig", to
determine the current value of the IP address of the second computer.)
You might not know, what the IP address of the frozen
computer is, but if DHCP is range limited to a few IP addresses, you
might guess at the address being used. Then, with the second
computer, try pinging the frozen one. I'm using three
separate tests here, to try and find the frozen computer.
If your computer had a static address which you knew, then
you'd only need one test line like this.

ping 192.168.100.1
ping 102.168.100.2
ping 102.168.100.4

If you get a response from the first computer, at one of
those addresses, it tells you just the GUI is frozen, and
the OS is not completely dead.

The distinction is important, in terms of your debugging
process. If the frozen computer did not respond to any ping command,
then it is likely a CPU freeze. If the frozen computer was able
to respond to an Ethernet ping, then it could be the video card
is the problem. Possible solutions might be uninstalling the
video driver, and installing another.

You can also use differential analysis, to shed light on
the problem. Boot another OS (a Linux LiveCD), and see
whether the computer will freeze there or not. If the
computer doesn't freeze in Linux, but does freeze in Windows, it could be
the Windows OS install
which is damaged in some way.

I had a computer once, that froze in both Windows and in
Linux, and based on that, I could conclude it was a hardware
problem. (As it turns out, an actual design flaw in the
motherboard.)
You can run memtest86+ to test the memory. You can run
Prime95 (mersenne.org/freesoft) in either Windows or Linux,
as a stress test that checks correctness of computation. That tests CPU,
Northbridge, and memory.

As some of the other respondents have pointed out,
instability can be caused by bad capacitors on the motherboard, in the
Vcore area. Certain recent Dell computers suffered from
that, and other brands to different extents. Bad capacitors can
also exist inside the power supply. (I have a second Antec
power supply, that appears to be failing - I haven't opened
it up yet, but I can smell something.) So it could be a
motherboard problem, or a power supply problem. CPUs are
generally pretty good, in terms of not failing while in service. RAM less
so (I've had lots of RAM go bad here, relatively speaking,
compared to CPUs with zero failures - the RAM fails while
in service, which is ridiculous).

Depending on your funding, you can rush out and start
replacing things. Or you can spend a bit more time
testing, to isolate to what you think is the area of
the failure. It all depends on how much money you
have to throw around, as to what you do next.

There is no guarantee, that an OS log file has an entry in
it, corresponding to the time of failure. If you were
getting a real CPU freeze for some reason, the OS doesn't
always have an opportunity to record an event. So you
may not have anything to go on, in that respect. So while
you could check Event Viewer, look for memory dump files or
the like, that's not likely to be an option for you. If it
was just a GUI failure, then some event might be recorded
(where the OS can't do something to the display etc).

You may also want to run CHKDSK, to verify the file system
is OK. You can run CHKDSK, just to see whether there are
any structural errors. That can happen from all the
freezing, without cleanly shutting down the file system.
And also make sure your backups, are up to date.
Just in case.

Paul




  #8  
Old November 26th 10, 05:52 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Twayne[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,276
Default PC Freezes

Great ideas if he can see them when the problem occurs. +1

HTH,

Twayne`


n ,
Stefan Patric typed:
On Thu, 25 Nov 2010 09:30:59 +0000, Mervyn Thomas wrote:

I am getting, several times a week, situations when the PC
totally freezes with no input via the mouse or keyboard
but with the screen just as it was before the freeze.
Powering down fixes it. Can anyone advise how to go about
identifying and fixing the problem?


It could caused by a runaway process. Such an errant
process hogs the CPU preventing it from updating the
system, keyboard, mouse, etc. in a timely manner, and thus
gives the appearance that the computer is frozen or locked
up.

What applications are you running and what are doing when
the "freeze" happens? Does the freeze occur under the same
circumstances? What other tasks are running in the
background?

Try running the Task Manager (ctrl-alt-del to access it).
Place it on the desktop so that it is visible at all times.
When the freeze occurs, check it to see if any process or
task is using 100% of the CPU's time. Give it time to
update. If the cause is a runaway process, it may take
several seconds to minutes to update.

Stef




  #9  
Old November 26th 10, 09:29 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Stefan Patric[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 229
Default PC Freezes

On Fri, 26 Nov 2010 11:13:37 +0000, Mervyn Thomas wrote:

Stephan - I like your reply because it's something I can do readily. I
think the freeze always occurs just after a coming back from hibernation
as I am looking through emails in outlook with nothing else running
though indexing might still be running- I will see! Thanks
Mervyn


Okay. I didn't know you were coming out of hibernation. (So, you're
using a notebook computer, not a desktop. Right?) Also, clarify: Is
your system really hibernating or is it suspending? There's a big
difference.

In hibernation, the system is fully shutdown, not powered, but saves the
state of the system to the hard drive, so when it boots, the computer
returns exactly to where you were left off before hibernating. Suspend
(sometimes referred to as sleeping) is similar, but the computer never
fully powers down. Everything running--apps, browser, etc.--are kept in
RAM, and the system runs at minimum power refreshing the RAM, so nothing
is lost. The hard drive, networking, display, etc. are turned off to
save power. Usually, in this state on notebooks, the power light stays
lit, but flashes or changes to a different color to indicate the system
is suspended. With hibernation, the power light is off.

Now, to the point: Hibernation is more problematically than Suspend.
Although, both can cause what you're experiencing. Although, I think
neither is the problem, since the system returns and runs fine for a
while. Also, I don't think you have a runaway process, but continue to
check. It may be a crashed app or process. However, as to what is
causing the problem, I haven't a clue. More troubleshooting is needed.

Check whether you are Suspending or Hibernating. Double check your Power
Management settings to assure everything is set properly. Also, quit
Outlook before hibernating/suspending, and after returning, don't use it
at all to eliminate it as the possible culprit. Do everything else as
you normally would. Does the system still freeze?

Report the results here.

Stef

"Stefan Patric" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 25 Nov 2010 09:30:59 +0000, Mervyn Thomas wrote:

I am getting, several times a week, situations when the PC totally
freezes with no input via the mouse or keyboard but with the screen
just as it was before the freeze. Powering down fixes it. Can anyone
advise how to go about identifying and fixing the problem?


It could caused by a runaway process. Such an errant process hogs the
CPU preventing it from updating the system, keyboard, mouse, etc. in a
timely manner, and thus gives the appearance that the computer is
frozen or locked up.

What applications are you running and what are doing when the "freeze"
happens? Does the freeze occur under the same circumstances? What
other tasks are running in the background?

Try running the Task Manager (ctrl-alt-del to access it). Place it on
the desktop so that it is visible at all times. When the freeze
occurs, check it to see if any process or task is using 100% of the
CPU's time. Give it time to update. If the cause is a runaway process,
it may take several seconds to minutes to update.

Stef


  #10  
Old November 27th 10, 11:55 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Bob Willard
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 273
Default PC Freezes

On 11/26/2010 6:13 AM, Mervyn Thomas wrote:
Stephan - I like your reply because it's something I can do readily. I
think the freeze always occurs just after a coming back from hibernation as
I am looking through emails in outlook with nothing else running though
indexing might still be running- I will see!
Thanks
Mervyn
"Stefan wrote in message
...
On Thu, 25 Nov 2010 09:30:59 +0000, Mervyn Thomas wrote:

I am getting, several times a week, situations when the PC totally
freezes with no input via the mouse or keyboard but with the screen just
as it was before the freeze. Powering down fixes it. Can anyone advise
how to go about identifying and fixing the problem?


It could caused by a runaway process. Such an errant process hogs the
CPU preventing it from updating the system, keyboard, mouse, etc. in a
timely manner, and thus gives the appearance that the computer is frozen
or locked up.

What applications are you running and what are doing when the "freeze"
happens? Does the freeze occur under the same circumstances? What other
tasks are running in the background?

Try running the Task Manager (ctrl-alt-del to access it). Place it on
the desktop so that it is visible at all times. When the freeze occurs,
check it to see if any process or task is using 100% of the CPU's time.
Give it time to update. If the cause is a runaway process, it may take
several seconds to minutes to update.

Stef




If the problem occurs shortly after waking up from hibernation or
suspension, then another possible culprit is the driver for the NIC.
Some NIC drivers did not properly restore themselves from some of
the sleep modes. Check your NIC driver to see if there are options
to leave the NIC alive while the PC sleeps or suspends.
---
Cheers, Bob
  #11  
Old November 27th 10, 02:34 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Elmo[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,260
Default PC Freezes

On 11/25/2010 4:30 AM, Mervyn Thomas wrote:
I am getting, several times a week, situations when the PC totally freezes
with no input via the mouse or keyboard but with the screen just as it was
before the freeze. Powering down fixes it.
Can anyone advise how to go about identifying and fixing the problem?


Have you added any hardware recently, as in just before this first
happened? The major problem I've seen is a conflict between a wireless
nic and a sound card, but there are probably others.

--

Joe =o)
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off






All times are GMT +1. The time now is 12:20 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 PCbanter.
The comments are property of their posters.