System Repeatedly Freezing

Discussion in 'Software' started by Ellume, Feb 27, 2009.

  1. Ellume

    Ellume Private E-2

    I've be redirected here after going through the Malware Forum. The previous thread is http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=183283

    My computer has been repeatedly freezing for several seconds (usually around 5-10) after very short intervals of time (every 10-15 seconds ish). This usually happens when I'm in a game. Although it has happened while listening to Windows Media Player internet radio. And on occasion when I'm typing the system will freeze for a short periods of time (usually around 1 or 2 seconds) and anything typed during that time is lost and the system will make a beep noise.

    I don't remember installing any new drivers. Can anyone help me figure out the problem?
    Many Thanks
     
  2. red death68

    red death68 Command Sergeant Major

    what are your system stats operating system, service pack, and ram for starters
     
  3. Ellume

    Ellume Private E-2

    Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Version 2002, Service Pack 2
    Intel Pentium D CPU 3.2Ghz
    1Gb of Ram
    Nvidia Geforce 7600 GT Video Card
     
  4. red death68

    red death68 Command Sergeant Major

    hmm when you freeze are you doing other things as well as listening to music or typing?
     
  5. Ellume

    Ellume Private E-2

    Problems when typing are irregular and quite infrequent. I've done a little testing after restarting my computer and disabling active scanners and trying to run each thing alone.

    Typing stopped for a short time and made a system beep when
    1. I was typing in firefox without any other programs.
    2. I was typing in notepad with winamp playing music.

    I did not have any problems with notepad without music playing.

    Testing out some games. This is what I've found.

    1. Magi with the following system requirements
    # Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista
    # DirectX 8.0+
    # 500Mhz+ CPU
    # 32MB+ graphic card and screen able to handle 1024x768 resolution
    would freeze for several seconds at a time just on the Menu screen, and very often, but still doesn't seem completely regular. It can take me over a minute to finally get my mouse to click on the exit button. And on occasion the computer will suddenly restart on one of the freezes.

    2. Every Extend. A small windowed game. I couldn't find any system requirements other then windows. After a couple minutes of playing the game froze. Then a couple seconds after the game froze the mouse and music froze for a bit. Then it went through everything I missed in about a second really fast after things started going again.

    3. Aquaria. System Req:
    1.6Ghz
    256MB RAM
    Mid/High-End Video Card
    Latest Video Card Drivers w/ OpenGL support
    Sound Card
    200 Mb Free Hard Disk Space
    I had no problems at all with this game.

    4. Galactic Civilizations 2. System Req:
    Pentium III 800Mhz or equivalent
    256 MB RAM
    32 MB Graphic Card
    Every minute or 2 it would freeze. First the screen would stop moving. After a couple seconds more the mouse and sound would freeze. Then after a few seconds it would work normally again.


    I'm guessing it happens more around particular light effect graphics. It is by far the worst with Magi, which used to work just fine.
     
  6. Ellume

    Ellume Private E-2

    Correction: I played Aquaria just a little longer and it froze once. All the prior time I was playing in a darker region of the game. It froze when I was playing in a lighter region. But that freezes too.
     
  7. red death68

    red death68 Command Sergeant Major

    hmm this is bizare it sounds like the main problem is with your graphics card during the games could your setting be going against the game setting for video?
     
  8. Ellume

    Ellume Private E-2

    It could be I guess. I was thinking it was something with the video card too. I've just updated the drivers for it to the newest version. No change in the problem.

    A couple reasons I suspect it might be something else is that there is the intermittent problem even just running windows. It is a lot less pronounced, but still there. Also it seems to happen generally for all games.

    The degree of freezing however still seems based on how much graphics stuff is going on at the time. I don't remember changing any graphics settings or using any new graphics until just awhile ago.

    Just because of the strangeness of it I thought it was some kind of Malware, but they said they couldn't find anything, and malware isn't something I know very well.

    EDIT: The new drivers I installed are 182.06 geforce winxp 32bit english for the geforce 7 series. Downloaded directly from the nvidia website. FYI
     
  9. red death68

    red death68 Command Sergeant Major

  10. Ellume

    Ellume Private E-2

    Well the results from ProcessScanner are here.

    As for things downloaded recently. I downloaded a little renpy visual novel game called Dream Wish which I believe is safe, an couple anime episode of Soul Eater off torrents, the new driver for my video card, a movie off torrent. That is all I can think of just recently since around the time I started posting my problem in the Malware forum.

    Around the time the computer started going funny (which I can only guesstimate about) there were some nudey videos and pictures from torrents (What I thought was the problem cause), and a couple japanese games downloaded and installed (also a possibility), and some demos from www.scene.org. It seems to me the demos were after the problem started as I was having trouble with them freezing as well.
     
  11. red death68

    red death68 Command Sergeant Major

    hmm have you had any other problems you may have thought to be unrelated?

    and if you still have the files you downloaded virus scan each one indavidualy and let me know the results
     
  12. Ellume

    Ellume Private E-2

    Had an experience with Firefox freezing so I couldn't click anything, move scroll bar, or minimize. I opened up task manager, it opened instantly and said the instant of firefox was "running". I started clicking repeatedly on the firefox window title bar at the top until it maximized, which happened essentially instantly. I had normal control of firefox again.

    I also remember that after the times my computer restarted itself there was a popup message saying something like "Critical System Error" and maybe some more with that.

    I scanned the demos and japanese games. There was nothing. The other files I don't have on my computer anymore. I remember one of the torrents, I will redownload it and scan.
     
  13. Ellume

    Ellume Private E-2

    Well I downloaded and scanned the file. There was nothing detected when I ran AVG and SUPERAntiSpyware on the files. However when I ran SUPERAntiSpyware in custom mode and Adware.Vundo Variant was found in the registry. It was removed.
     
  14. Captain Drift

    Captain Drift Corporal

    Have you got any monitoring software forthe graphics cars, checking the voltage the card recieves?
    Also what power supply do you have?
     
  15. Ellume

    Ellume Private E-2

    I don't have any monitoring software for the video card. And the power supply is just some power supply I got with the a case. I think it is something like 400W-500W.
     
  16. red death68

    red death68 Command Sergeant Major

    hmm this is uturaly bizare do you run regular maintanence and if so what do you run it with?
     
  17. Captain Drift

    Captain Drift Corporal

    Download asus smart doctor from the Asus site. this will monitor fan speed and voltage
     
  18. Ellume

    Ellume Private E-2

    For whatever reason I cannot download a working version of SmartDoctor. I've tried downloading for the N7600 series and the EN7600 series. The N7600 series give me the messages "Cannot create a file when the files already exits." then "Can't start Kernel mode driver service" the "can not load EIO.dll". And for the EN7600 it give the message "Can not find graphics card information."

    As you I said before I have an Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT, and running Windows XP. Not sure what other model to try downloading for.
     
  19. red death68

    red death68 Command Sergeant Major

    hmm sounds like you might be missing system files this could be the source of your problem
     
  20. Ellume

    Ellume Private E-2

    Well, I did a full windows restore. It asked me to insert my Nvidia Network Bus CD #1" but I don't have anything like that so I canceled it twice. I went to check my drivers and my "Nvidia Network Bus Enumerator" seems to have drivers. So I'm not sure what that was about.

    But the problem persists. So it doesn't look like it is system files. I reinstalled my video card drivers just to be on the safe side, no effect.
     
  21. Captain Drift

    Captain Drift Corporal

    If you PM or E-mail me your address, I can send outa copy of the Smart Doctor I have.
    I ocasionally get the error "can not load EIO.dl"
     
  22. Ellume

    Ellume Private E-2

    It seems I need to post 50 times before PM will be activated for my account. I use Gmail though, and if you send a email to my user name at that you will get to me.


    On another note. I've found another problem. I decided to go take a look at an old game I haven't for awhile. On the menu screen the mouse would move around just fine, but when it cursored over a menu option it would not auto go to it. Typically if I moved the mouse over an option it would be highlighted and then if I click it would go to it. But now I had to use my keyboard to up and down to highlight the different menu option. It would still register mouse clicks correctly though. Also when I went into the Jukebox menu and listened to music the keyboard would let me move up for awhile, then it stopped and I could only move down and left.
     
  23. Ellume

    Ellume Private E-2

    Well I formatted my harddrive and completely reinstalled Windows XP. Problem is still there. So it is obviously hardware related. Probably the video card, but still trying to confirm it.
     
  24. Ellume

    Ellume Private E-2

    My friend game me an old video card he had to try out. So I put it in. Once I installed the video drivers for it the screen goes black. I have to start up in safemode to do anything. If I uninstall the drivers I can boot up with normal VGA graphics.

    The strange thing is I am having the same problem with typing that I was with the other graphic card, even in safe mode. Occasionally while I am typing it will cause a system beep (from the computer, not the speakers) and the letter(s) I typed during that time don't appear, or on occasion it will act like I held down the key and type multiple of it. This is with the different graphic card I just put in, and safemode doesn't change get rid of it either.

    So I'm starting to think it may be something other then the graphics card.
     
  25. Ellume

    Ellume Private E-2


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