Topic: Display problem

[lobo]

@Clive
Try the colour settings at 16 bit instead of 32 bit, it can make a big difference. The other thing to do is to start up in "safe mode" (F8)right click on my computer, select properties, hardware then device manager, check that there is only one display device installed and there is only on mouse device as well, delete any other devices in those categories and re-boot

Brian

[Simon]

That's a good idea, Brian.  Could we, perchance, dream of an end to this saga??  

[Clive]

Thanks Brian.  I've now changed the colour setting from 32 bit to 16 bit and checked that I don't have duplicate drivers (see screen shot)

I feel that the computer is offering us a massive clue as to what is amiss but I have no idea how to interpretate it.  Let's recap:

When I switch it on, it behaves faultlessly for 20 minutes or so, after which it becomes unstable and crashes or re-boots.

After the re-boot it will happily continue to behave impeccably for the rest of the day.

Unless ... I leave it unattended for several hours, after which the "20 minute law" comes into force again and it will crash again.

Surely there has to be some significance in this "20 minute" thing?  What is taking place after 20 minutes, yet doesn't happen again for the rest of the day?  If is a faulty driver surely it would be faulty all the time and not just at 20 minutes?

Edit:  Oops - forgot screen shot  :-[

[Simon]

Out of curiosity, what's 'SnagIt', Clive?

[Sandra]

Dare we ask Simon  

[Simon]

I've just found it - it's a screen capture utility.  Must be why he keeps putting digital photo's of his monitor on here!  

[Clive]

Yes, it's screen capture software which will allow you to capture individual icons etc.  Mrs Clive uses it a lot on her computer.

[Adept]

Do you still have the Logitech Mouse software loaded Clive? Might be worth uninstalling it if you are no longer using a Logitech mouse.

[Simon]

Dare we ask Simon  

I thought it might have been a mis-spelling.  

[lobo]

My last thoughts on this problem are in this order

1. If I was reading it from the start I would say that it was bad memory
2. or a hard drive problem with the computer not writing back to the page-file correctly (XP constantly writes to and reads from the hard drive even when not being used)
3. Video card drivers
4. USB drivers

If you have covered all these then I would say it was the motherboard or damaged system files

There is little else i can contribute to this problem

Brian :'(

PS I see my dogie is still walking

[Clive]

Removing the Logitech mouse driver was my very first attempt at solving the problem.  I was quite surprised that the mouse continued to work after that!  

Now I have another redundant driver installed on the machine for an Alcatel USB BB modem.  I wonder if it might be worth getting rid of it too?  It can't do any harm can it?

Replying to Brian's suggestion of damaged system files, that would suggest that the original installation of Windows was faulty since the problem has always been present.  Is it possible for that to happen?  I can understand Windows degrading over time, but not a faulty installation.

[lobo]

@Clive
Remove all redundant drivers, if they are installed then XP will install them at bootup, yes you can have a faulty installation of XP this can be caused by a fault copy of XP on a CD, you can also have a corrupt page-file which can be removed and will reinstall itself,

Even if you removed the mouse driver from the system files all the information is held in the registry and the Master Boot record

Brian

[Clive]

Yes, it does load on start up and appears in my system tray Brian.  I'll get rid of it tomorrow.

[Clive]

A slight variation this morning in as much that I had longer than my 20 minutes worth and after several screen collapses, it just froze up without generating a BSOD.  Not sure if that is meaningful.

[lobo]

@Clive
I think the time has come when you need to seek professional help with this problem, if the computer is crashing,, freezing showing unpredictable behavior like this there is something defiantly wrong, If I were you I would save all your data format the drive and reinstall XP or another OS if that doesn't work take the computer to a repair shop and let them look at it, a computer that is not reliable is worse than no computer at all and at any time you could loose all your program data and files

Brian :'(.