Windows 200 Pro, Mouse/System Freezes

[DrJorde]

I have 2000 Pro on a 1Ghz machine with 256MB RAM & a 40GB HD. It is networked through a router with a Win 98 machine in my Hamshack.

Everything has worked perfectly for 16 months. Suddenly this past week the system freezes up (mouse stops & you cannot get into Task Manager). This has been mostly random, not associated to any task. See execption below.

Then when I attempted to use my scanner, it always locked up the moment I clicked "Recognize" while performing OCR.

Then I tryed to set up the task manager in the corner of the screen so I could possibly tell what is causing the freeze. Twice it locked up just setting up that.

Then I thought maybe it could be the HD since it seems to be getting very hot at the back underside near the power in. However, the problem happens sometimes when I first boot up and the HD is cold.

I went to the Western Digital site and performed a "Health Test" on the HD, it passed. The drive is dated 2/8/01.

I have left the sides off my computer to see if the improved air circulation would help, it has not.

I have 2000 Pro SP3 update, I think I installed it just after this started. I have tried so many things, I have lost track of what was done and when.

The last sofware that I installed, other than Windows and McAfee updates was the scanner software and Adobe Photoshop. That was about 4 months ago and it has worked fine up to now.

Any suggestions? DrJorde
Webmaster

http://plansbyjorde.tripod.com

 

[paltask14c]

This is going to sound very odd, but try removing the network card from the machine. I have had several of my windows 2000 machines behave similiarly because of the nic. In each case, they worked fine for months, then started running almost as if they didnt have any memory (although taskman said the mem was all free) i then swapped out the nics, and everything went back to normal. if this does not work, disable your USB (you should be able to do this in bios.) I've had this work for me once, so it's worth a try. If after disabling usb, everything works fine, install a usb pci card, so that you'll have usb support.

 

[jrjuiliano]

Couple of things:

You say this started when you were trying to use your scanner with OCR functions? Check for the latest scanner drivers, and if you are using a parallel port make sure that, in the BIOS, you have the right type of port (ECP, standard, etc) selected in there.

Usually lockups are due to conflicting hardware or devices. Mostly devices. See if moving device parameters around helps at all.

Power settings. Check your power settings in the control panel and disable them all ("never" under all options). I found that power control sort of sucks at any rate.

Finally, leaving the sides off your computer is actually a BAD idea. The power supplies are specifically designed to take advantage of the covers for air flow. Plus you end up with more dust and dirt in there than you need, which will actually INCREASE temps. Besides, if you had a heat issue you would notice either dramatic slowdowns, or your computer would bump off by itself suddenly. If you're concerned about heat I would consider getting some extra cooling fans in there. Some can even be mounted in a spare slot on your PCI connections (without actually connecting to the PCI bus).

Hope that gives you a place to start! J.R. Juiliano
Information Systems Specialist
Tri-City Emergency Medical Group