Computer Freezes

[5150]

Initially after installing Win2K on my system I encountered some freezing problems so I installed SP2. SP2 did NOT fix the freeze problems and now I have no idea what is going on. I will be doing something and the PC just locks (the keyboard and mouse will not work at all). When it comes back up there are no messages anywhere in Event Viewer so I am clueless as to what is going on. Can anyone here please help?

Thanks In Advance

 

[bcastner]

Could be a lot of things. If the OS had an issue it likely would write to the Event Log if it could. Which suggests starting with hardware.

Common causes of your symptoms:
. marginal power supply
. leaking capacitors
. intermittent contact at keyboard/mouse port, whether PS/2 or USB
. bad or failing network adapter

 

[garebo]

Do you have any issues with cpu usage?
In win xp there is a task mgr where you can check cpu usage, do you have that in win 2k? If so, when the computer freezes up check and see what cpu usage says.
Im looking for malware-trojan, not suggesting you have it, only looking. Since Bill is looking in the other direction i figure might as well look in this direction as well.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[5150]

I don't seem to have any CPU issues. I am currently running Windows 2000 on a 1.1 AMD GHz PC with 1 GB of RAM and I don't really hae a lot of things running when this happens. The strange thing is this happens at different points but I do not get a blue screen. I reformatted my PC from scratch and I am having the same issue. On some of the research I did I thought it was the ATI Radeon 9600 AGP card that I had previously installed because apparently they have issues. I went out and bought a Nvidia GeForce 5500 qith 256 on board RAM and the issue still exists.

 

[garebo]

If cpu usage isnt at or near 100% when you have this freeze then i would suspect the video card and then the ram or power supply. But you have already replaced the vid card.

On the other hand i hate to seem to contradict Bill as he has likely forgotten more than i know, lol.
Bill has listed:
marginal power supply
leaking capacitors
intermittent contact at keyboard/mouse port, whether PS/2 or USB
bad or failing network adapter

You can check for leaking caps fairly easily and get that out of the way, you will see leakage or the top will not be flat, it will be round and then look at the bottom, it may be separated from the motherboard.
That out of the way, its also quick and easy to check the ram by using google and downloading memtest86 and check your ram, one stick at a time.
And its quick and easy to swap out the keyboard and mouse to see if thats the problem.
The power supply, if you have another, swap that out.
If not then you can go to techrepublic and sign in as its a good tech source anyway and they have a great manual on how to troubleshoot a power supply, or you can use google to find another. You do need a multimeter, preferrably digital but i am told an analog will work as well and they are cheap to buy!
Still, in my mind, there is that nagging suspicion of malware\virus at work.
So i would make sure my antivirus is up to date and run that, then some combination of adaware, spybot search and destroy, stinger (Macafee) and there are many more. The ones i mentioned are free and you can google them. I think you do need to make sure its not a bug of some sort, but thats only my opinion.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[Secondgunman]

I am wondering if it maybe an underpowered computer, but I would blame the PSU, RAM & CPU first then them, and check the motherboard for leaks, test the voltage of your power sevice outlets and your power bar (investing in a CUPS for your system would be wise, if you have one unplug your printer and scanner from this and move them to a powerbar.) If these are failing or supplying dirty power it will cause all kinds of problems. Get Ad-Aware and Spybot run them andmake sure you have no spyware running as this can suck-up alot of your system resourses. Another thing to look at is your firewall you pay for what you get if you are using Windows firewalling then you may have a cracker using your system as a file sever or what ever, I would go get a copey of McAfee, Norton, or another topend firewall, a simple Google will ternup a list of good fifewalls, Google this "Best+firewalls" and you should get a list of them. If your CPU useage is low and your system is running slow another thing you may want to think about is deleting some of the MP3s you have on the system and running a defrag and disk clean up, do a ScanDisk aswell. You may just have a bad install of your O/S try a repair install.

 

[5150]

Thanks to all of you for replying. Here are the facts so far :

- Freshly imaged machine with no spyware or viruses (I use AVG and it updates automatically)
- Freezing up was happening before I re-imaged (forced the re-image)
- Freezing has occurred in Outlook, Media Player, IE, sound editing software, and video editing software (each one opened one at a time and not all together).
- I am running a 350 watt power supply with Win 2K, 1 GIG RAM, 3 hard drives, firewire card, USB 2.0 card, GeForce 5500 256 RAM Nvidia video card, onboard audio (Soyo Dragon K7M Plus mobo), onboard LAN (Soyo mobo), USB keyboard, USB mouse, DeskJet 895 CXi printer, Sony DVD burner, floppy drive and a partridge in a pear tree.
- In monitoring my CPU usage the past 20 mins it seems to hover around 63% with the MEM usage 282000 (average) but now it has been running steadily at 11% and I do not see any new processes that have started or ended (which is very weird).
- I am not running any kind of firewall with the exception of a Netgear router for my internet.
- All 3 of my drives were all formatted and now don't have very much data on them (I backed it all up to DVD's).

The weird thing is just how random the freezes are...it is very inconsistent.

 

[firewolfrl]

Do you by chance know what the CPU temp is running at as an average?

sounds like a hot CPU

 

[garebo]

Personally i am still leaning toward the power supply not being up to it on all voltage levels.
What is the make and model of the power supply?
How many fans on it and do the fans have their own separate screen on them or is the screen built into and part of the power supply?
I gave you info on how to check the power supply out above.

On the other hand, it could very well be a hot cpu. You could google a program to check out the cpu temp.
Also, your bios may have that info in it as well.

Lastly, it could be one of those malware bugs that are around, happened to me, my computer would go to 100% usage for no reason. I tried everything never got rid of it and just happened to be in the middle of a trade, got a newer mobo and built a new unit, the bug is still on my old computer. What you could do is go to trend-micro and they will do a free online scan of your computer, you have to allow them but they are a very good and honest, well-known company so its ok, i have done it many many times. Let them do a complete scan of your system and tell us the results.




Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[jimp56]

also maybe run memtest to eliminate the RAM as a possible cause.

 

[firewolfrl]

I do believe garebo is on to something....

Does your case have removable filters in front of the cooling fans?????

I have seen a few overheated boxes because of clogged filters

 

[garebo]

Good point, firewolfrl, and not one we would readily think of, least not me, lol.

And might as well suggest you have a look at the cpu\hs\fan. Take it all apart, remove thermal residue from cpu and heatsink, clean out heatsink, oil fan if needed, apply new thermal grease on cpu and re-seat clean heatsink and fan.

You havent mentioned your fans. Check fans to make sure you have good air circulation. In most cases cool air is drawn in the front bottom and pushed out the top rear. Sometimes that means having to reverse a power supply fan. If you should do that be very careful as power supplys carry a deadly voltage even when not plugged in. But fans can be easily reversed if needed.
Check any fans on northbridge,southbridge, vid card, etc.
Also, another thing you could do would be to take the cover off your computer and have a room fan blowing air onto the vid card, cpu area. That would be just to see if its an airflow issue.

You could also try a bios re-set but check your manual for instructions as they vary between mobo mfgrs.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips