Computer locks up at random times

I'll be on my computer doing whatever...playing games, listening to music or surfing the net and the computer just locks up. The mouse freezes, keyboard stops working and if I have any sound pumping through the speakers it starts making sounds like a CD is skipping and I have to manually power down the PC and restart it....running Win XP SP2 at the moment. Any insight on what might be causing this? Thanks

 

we need more info than that, post some system specs please.

But for some general info, if it's a hardware problem I would suggest overheating, dying power supply or bad ram. Check in the bios for temps after one of these crashes. Otherwise download memtest http://www.majorgeeks.com/Memtest86_d4226.html and give that a run. It could also be that your power supply is dying. If you had access and the knowledge you could see if the voltages coming out of the power supply are good. Just need to get a spare molex connector coming out of the power supply, plug the black lead of the multimeter into one of the 2 black wires of the molex connector, and plug the red lead of the multimeter into the yellow wire of the molex connector. You should ideally get a reading of around 12V, but if its 10% or lower than 12V it's probably the power supply dying. But dont mess around with it if you dont know what you are doing.

On the software side, I would check for spyware and viruses. You can go over to the spyware forum for help.

But IMHO i think its a hardware problem.

 

I have the intel active monitor and whenever the temps get too high it alarms out really loud and that's not happening before it shuts down. I don't have a multimeter so can't go that route. Here are my system specs though:

3.2 GhZ P4 w/HT
1 GB DDR 400 RAM
Radeon 9800XT 256MB Vid. Card
250GB IDE HDD
250GB SATA HDD
Creative Labs 5.1 Surround Sound Card
2-16x DVD burner

I was having a processor heating issue but I bought one of those weird looking aluminum heatsinks and that dropped the temp by about 9C. I got the side of my case off and have a fan blowing some air into it. Thought I'd give it a try to see if it made a difference or not and it dropped zone 1 and 2 temps by about 3C.

When I try to download that program it saves it and when I open it up my CD burning app opens up. Any idea on how I can make it run correctly? Thanks

 

download this one http://www.memtest.org/download/1.65/memtest86+-1.65.iso.zip

extract the zip file to an easily accessible place, and use your cd burning app to burn the iso that is extracted to a cd. Then boot your pc off the cd and the program should run. The program itself doesn't run in windows.

If you can't boot from cd and have a floppy drive, use this one instead http://www.memtest.org/download/1.65/memtest86+-1.65.floppy.zip. Instructions are included in the zip file I think.

By the way, what temps are you getting?

And if you don't have a multimeter, some bios have a health section where it says what voltages your pc is getting. ie for the 12V line it may say something like 11.95 which would be perfectly fine. Have a look around the bios and see if you can find it.

 

having 2 hard drives in close proximity to each other can cause some major heat problems for the drives. Do you have them spaced apart or have some sort of active cooling for them?

I think you would find them to get rather warm after a few hours use if one is directly on top of the other.

And thinking about it I would like to know what power supply you have, because a system like yours would need a fairly decent one to keep everything working well. The more I think about it, if it isn't the ram causing your problems, I think its the power supply.

It also never hurts to go through your system and make sure all drivers are up to date.

 

the hard drives are in close proximity to each other. i'll space them out. im about to go into work for the night. so i'll have to do that tomorrow and on my way back in i'll pick up a pack of cd-r's so i can use that program.

my intel active monitor right now has my temps at:

processor zone: 45C
system zone 1: 34C
system zone 2: 41C

also the monitor shows the voltage as well which right now the 12V is at 11.813

my power supply is an aerocool 550w power supply. i ordered a 450w but they were out so they upgraded it for free

ill also go through and check the drivers when i get off work. thanks for the info so far though!!!

 

if the ram tests ok, and your drivers are up to date and you have spaced your hard drives and still get problems, i think a trip to the spyware forum is in order. Your temps seem fine and if the voltage is accurate that looks ok too.

 

i ran the memory test before i left for work. i got back and it was still running at the ET was 9 hours and 35 minutes and 36 test had passed and there were 0 errors. should i of left it running until it stopped? im going to space the hard drives in about 30 minutes and i'll see if that makes a difference.

is there a way to check for all drivers being up to date at once or do i have to go through each piece of hardware individually?

 

nah, the memory test never stops. It'll go on forever. 9 hrs is plenty of time.

For the drivers, I would just be looking at updating sound, video, chipset, directx and network adapters.

Do you have a lot of programs on your comp set to autostart when you turn it on. If so, that can cause instability if some programs conflict. Download a program called "Process Explorer" http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4566 , run it straight after your computer has loaded, save the results to a text file and post the content of the text file here so we can look through it.

 

ok. i checked the drivers. they were all up to date except the video card. that is one is now updated as well. so all drivers up to date now. i ran the program you ref. in the last post. i kept getting an upload error whenever i tried to attach the file so i copy and pasted it below....if you would rather me trying to email it to you or PM it to you let me know. thanks




Process PID CPU Description Company Name
System Idle Process 0 46.92
Interrupts n/a 4.62 Hardware Interrupts
DPCs n/a 0.77 Deferred Procedure Calls
System 4
smss.exe 376 Windows NT Session Manager Microsoft Corporation
csrss.exe 448 Client Server Runtime Process Microsoft Corporation
winlogon.exe 472 Windows NT Logon Application Microsoft Corporation
services.exe 516 0.77 Services and Controller app Microsoft Corporation
ati2evxx.exe 684
svchost.exe 700 Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Microsoft Corporation
msmsgs.exe 2972 Windows Messenger Microsoft Corporation
gcasDtServ.exe 3312 Microsoft AntiSpyware Data Service Microsoft Corporation
svchost.exe 756 Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Microsoft Corporation
svchost.exe 796 0.77 Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Microsoft Corporation
wuauclt.exe 3556 Automatic Updates Microsoft Corporation
svchost.exe 856 Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Microsoft Corporation
svchost.exe 880 Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Microsoft Corporation
spoolsv.exe 1040 Spooler SubSystem App Microsoft Corporation
CCEVTMGR.EXE 1160 Event Manager Service Symantec Corporation
CTSVCCDA.EXE 1172 Creative Service for CDROM Access Creative Technology Ltd
NAVAPSVC.EXE 1240 Norton AntiVirus Auto-Protect Service Symantec Corporation
NISUM.EXE 1320 Norton Internet Security NISUM Symantec Corporation
PDSched.exe 1368 PDSched Module
SMAgent.exe 1504 SoundMAX service agent component Analog Devices, Inc.
svchost.exe 1608 Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Microsoft Corporation
symlcsvc.exe 1636 Symantec Core Component Symantec Corporation
wdfmgr.exe 1664 Windows User Mode Driver Manager Microsoft Corporation
MsPMSPSv.exe 1748 WMDM PMSP Service Microsoft Corporation
CCPXYSVC.EXE 1796 Norton Internet Security Proxy Service Symantec Corporation
imonNT.exe 1808 Intel(R) Active Monitor Win9x Background Service Intel Corp.
SymWSC.exe 1860 Norton Security Center Service Symantec Corporation
alg.exe 440 Application Layer Gateway Service Microsoft Corporation
svchost.exe 2540 Generic Host Process for Win32 Services Microsoft Corporation
iPodService.exe 2780 iPodService Module Apple Computer, Inc.
lsass.exe 528 LSA Shell (Export Version) Microsoft Corporation
ati2evxx.exe 224
explorer.exe 428 Windows Explorer Microsoft Corporation
SMax4PNP.exe 2168 SMax4PNP MFC Application Analog Devices, Inc.
SMax4.exe 2176 SoundMAX Control Center Analog Devices, Inc.
imontray.exe 2188 imontray MFC Application
FastTVSync.exe 2196 FastTVSync Module
ccApp.exe 2208 Common Client CC App Symantec Corporation
vbptask.exe 2332 VBPTask MFC Application FarStone Tech. Inc.
ctfmon.exe 2368 CTF Loader Microsoft Corporation
CTSysVol.exe 2372 CTSysVol.exe Creative Technology Ltd
atiptaxx.exe 2440 ATI Desktop Control Panel ATI Technologies, Inc.
gsicon.exe 2452 DSL Modem Monitor GlobespanVirata, Inc.
dslagent.exe 2472
jusched.exe 2496 Java(TM) 2 Platform Standard Edition binary Sun Microsystems, Inc.
type32.exe 2508 Type32.exe Microsoft Corporation
point32.exe 2532 Point32.exe Microsoft Corporation
gnotify.exe 2548 Gmail Notifier Google Inc.
gcasServ.exe 2556 0.77 Microsoft AntiSpyware Service Microsoft Corporation
AcctMgr.exe 2564 Password Manager Controller Symantec Corporation
realsched.exe 2580 RealNetworks Scheduler RealNetworks, Inc.
iTunesHelper.exe 2592 iTunesHelper Module Apple Computer, Inc.
qttask.exe 2624 QuickTime Task Apple Computer, Inc.
Skype.exe 2664 Skype - Free Internet Telephony Skype Technologies S.A.
winFAH.exe 2772 FAH5.03 Stanford University
FahCore_78.exe 3360 45.38
procexp.exe 3828 Sysinternals Process Explorer Sysinternals
iexplore.exe 3860 Internet Explorer Microsoft Corporation

Process: Procexp Pid: -2

Type Name

 

Hey great thread cause I am suddenly having the same prob

I have attached my system process file..

I also went through all the other steps you advised dc and all seem OK

My comp is a P4 3.2 512MB RM NVIDIA GeForce FX5200
Been running like a dream until a few weeks ago....
Also around same time reinstalled NAV and it now takes 3-4 mins to enable itself whereas NIS is instant like they both were....

Cheers

 

also i've been using the microsoft anti-spyware beta test thing they got....i thought it was doing a good job but i just ran spyware s&d and it caught 22 objects and ad-aware caught 11 critical objects. so that may of been causing it also. if im still having the lock up problem i'll head over to the spyware forum if you dont find anything wrong with the system process file that i pasted into the thread.

 

one thing I have noticed is that you are running Intel(R) Active Monitor Win9x. You should update this tool to the XP version.

Also, with things like quicktime, itunes, realplayer they dont need to be set to autostart. Try turning off the autostart features for these items. If you can't from within the program you can search for a program called startup control panel from Mike Lin. You can disable any startup item from there. http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4359. Don't get too click happy in that program, just go for things like I mentioned before.

Definitely goto the spyware forum if you still have problems after all this.

 

Wandaful please post a new thread and provide as much info as possible

 

will do. thanks for all the help!