Topic: PC Freeze

[Serenity]

Hi Guys

I know a few of you already know about my pc freezing problems, but unfortunately its still happening  in fact it has froze 4 times over the space of 45 minutes    I have changed my optical Logitech mouse to a bog standard PS2 mouse but its still happening!  I am unable to use the Ctr/alt/del option when it freezes and my keyboard is not USB.  any ideas?  



p.s. sorry, wasnt sure whether to post this in software or hardware thread  

[Robotochan]

Maybe it's because your so high up the forum today?  

[Simon]

Are you using any particular software when the freezes occur, or is it just random?  Are you accessing files (i.e. in My Documents), when it happens?  Also has your PC taken a bump or a knock recently, or have you had the case open for anything?  When I built the PC recently for my mate, we had a freezing problem following the PC getting bumped in a car journey.  I opened the case, and gently pushed all the cards to make sure they were secure, and the problem stopped, but I can't actually pin it down to a specific answer.

[Serenity]

No Simon, the freeze happens randomly, no specific sites or my docs opened and no I have'nt knocked the casing or anyone else to my knowledge. It seems that once it has frozen it happens again and again very quickly then seems ok for an hour or so then happens again  . I have run almost every program possible to eliminate glitches but with no luck.

[chorleydave]

Hi Serenity.

I had that problem with my old PC, which is now in my son's room.  Everything just freezes and the only way out is to switch off the power and then switch back on.  I temporarily cured it by turning off graphics acceleration, but eventually I put an old graphics card in there and it's worked OK since.

[Adept]

Random crashes are just about the hardest thing to troubleshoot Serenity especially remotely like this. This is because they can be caused by hardware, software or a combination of both.

As Simon says, it wouldn't hurt to take the side panel off your PC and just make sure that every PCI card is firmly in place and that any fans inside are still spinning.

What worries me is that when I was doing the five hour marathon remote support on your PC the other night, it didn't crash once! Perhaps the PC just doesn't like you

[TR]

Try this as you have recently installed XP,Memory tester

XP requires a certain amount of memory (have you installed new memory of late) also could be a PSU problem if you have installed a new hard drive as well.

Just Guessing though..

[Sandra]

Serenity have a look in the error logs and see if you can identify what it says is causing the freezing  

Go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools ,Event Viewer then System.
The best time will be just after you restart again after it has frozen.
Look for something with a red X and double click on it and post a screen shot of it on here so that we can see if it shows anything specific.
Also see if there are any different ones in that same session that it froze on

[Lona]

Is it only when you are online this is happening, Serenity?  What firewall are you using?. I changed recently to sygate and now am having a lot of freezing when trying to view certain sites.  

[Adept]

I changed recently to sygate and now am having a lot of freezing when trying to view certain sites.  

Am I beginning to detect a pattern here

http://pc-pals.com/index.php?board=14;action=display;threadid=6707

[Simon]

I changed recently to sygate and now am having a lot of freezing when trying to view certain sites.  

Am I beginning to detect a pattern here

Don't think so Sean.  

http://pc-pals.com/index.php?board=14;action=display;threadid=6707

[Adept]

Back to the drawing board then

[TR]

Just a thought.. would 2 firwalls have a conflict.

If Serenity is using Sygate and XP firewall together.. could that be it.

Or what about some programs that have been uploaded.. try deleting 1 at a time to see if 1 freezes the puter up.

[Sandra]

I think I have found it guys, anyone fancy a trip to Cardiff to flash Serenity's BIOS  

According to the error log its ACPI BIOS attempting to write to and read from illegal 1/0 ports.

Theres a Windows aticle about it here :

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/tech/onnow/BIOSAML.mspx

[Adept]

Sorry to rain on your parade Sandra. My event log is full of those error messages and I don't get random freezes