Windows Xp Randomly Feeezing

I have an old XP SP3 machine that runs pretty well with the exception of the fact that it will randomly freeze right up, and require a hard reboot. There's no real indicator of what prompts it, sometimes it'll just happens when the machine is unused (I'll come back to it and it's frozen), and sometimes it'll happen 3 times in an hour, or sometimes it'll go a week without it happening. My first thought was that it was a hard drive issue, so I ran checkdisk through the properties tab on the C:, which came up with no issues. I also scanned the drive using the disk check utility in Parted Magic, which also came up good. The last thing I did was run sfc /scanow through the command prompt. It's still freezing though. Can anybody give me any suggestions as to what to look at next? Do you think I'm on the right track going with the HDD as the issue? Thanks.

 

Next time this happens you need to go through Start > Run eventvwr.msc and take a very close look at reported events at the time.

 

Should I be looking in the administrator log?

 

XP doesn't have an Administrator log - see pic. Can you post a screenshot? Or is this XP Pro?

 

Sorry I should have mentioned that. It's XP Pro. Do you just want to see a screenshot of the eventviewer window in general, or should I wait until it crashes again?

 

Inspecting someone else's event viewer logs over a forum is completely impractical. Next time it happens you have to closely note the time and then go through the logs looking at errors at that time. That shouldn't be too difficult as the event immediately precedes a freeze so there will be a big time gap to the next recorded event. Start with System and Application but you may need to go through others too. Double click an error to get more information and by all means post the details here. Can't promise we can fix it, only that we will try.

 

How much RAM is installed?
Have you tested the RAM?

 

It has 1GB of RAM, but I actually ended up finding the issue and it was something else. Through EventViewer I noticed that right before each crash it was trying (unsuccesfully) to start IOBit Advanced System Care. This is a little weird because, although I use IOBit uninstaller, I made sure not to install the System Care app which is an option in the IOBit Uninstaller installation. Whst I ended up doing was uninstalling everything related to IOBit, and then running a registry sweep with CCleaner, then manually going into the registry and searching (Ctrl-F) for anything with IOBit or systemcare in the name, and deleting the registry entries. Hasen't crashed since. Thanks for all of your help with this, much appreciated.

 

If possible, increase the RAM.
And, the next time before you install a program, disconnect from the internet. That's how I avoid the junk.

 

You can't install Iobit Uninstaller without a connection. The devious tactics Iobit use with their installers should be a warning to anyone thinking of using their software.

Well done Jools, your persistence has paid off.

 

Thanks.
I didn't know that. And somehow, I'm not surprised.

 

The problem with IoBit is that the pre-checked install boxes for ASC, are so small they are easy to miss. It's one program that needs very beady eyes!

 

Yeah no doubt. I did de-select it though, it was down by the bottom right. Maybe it was somewhere else too that I missed though. Do you guys think that IObit products should be avoided? I've always used the uninstaller, and haven't had any issues up until now, but I'm all ears to any suggestions as to a better app. I used to use Revo, but I had some issues with it not detecting certain x64 programs.Thoughts?

 

IObit software are hosted by MajorGeeks.

GeekUninstaller has gotten great reviews.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/geekuninstaller.html

The free version of Revo Uninstaller hasn't been updated since July 2013, and doesn't detect 64-bit installations.

You can also try this program to avoid unwanted installations.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/unchecky_beta.html

 

Yes, it is in two places - bottom left on the first update screen and virtually invisible - and bottom right on the web installer that then appears, also nearly invisible. I'm not going to pass any comment on the software itself, only to report that running ASC was the only time a new software has brought my system to its knees and I had to re-image it to recover. It's not that though, it's the cheap, sneaky tactics they use to get you on their hook that persuades me they are best avoided.

 

Alright I'm gonna give those other two above a shot and see how they work. If for nothing else, just to see if they're any better. Thanks again for all the advice though.