Windows XP SP3 locks up. Have to unplug computer

Ever since I wiped the hard drive on our 2003 Dell 2350 and reloaded Windows XP, things have not been the same. At the advice of some here, we have a separate Admin account that is not used for surfing. My husband and I each have our own logon so that we can run ITunes to our own iPods.

The problem is that sometimes after my husband logs off his account, the whole computer freezes up with a black screen. It's still on, but nothing shows up. The monitor can be turned off, but will just show the black screen when I turn it back on. The PC however, cannot even be turned off at the power switch. No ctrl-alt-delete for us...just unplug it from the wall and start over.

This never happened before the reinstall. At the same time as the reinstall was the upgrade to SP3 so I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

This does not happen to me with my account or the Admin account. And, it does seem to happen at CERTAIN times of the day, always when I am not home or when I am asleep, leading me to believe something untoward is happening.

Anyone have any ideas before I buy Spector Pro?

:confused

 

The power button needs to be held in for about 10 seconds to force a reboot.

The fact it freezes about the same time of day would point to a scheduled task, like a virus scan. What are you using for anti virus, any other security software?

Spector Pro is a keylogger/overall recorder of computer use, it would not lead you to any solution, it might worsen matters. Save your money, there are better freeware solutions.

Are any errors being recorded in your Event Viewer, under Administrative tools in the control panel?

 

We are running AVG 8.5 or 9 Free version (sorry, I don't remember which one). I tried to load a different anti-virus program after the trojan horse that hobbled us this winter and at that time, something with the install failed, deleted the internet connection drivers, and caused the ultimate wiping of the hard drive. So now I am afraid to try to switch.

It runs its scan at 0400 which is not the time the system is crashing.

I looked at the event viewer and there are scads of entries. What should I be looking for? There were about a dozen entries last night around 1030-1100 pm.

Thanks for helping me with this. My comment about Spector is, well, lets just say I'm not thinking it will help me with the nuts and bolts of this problem, just a possible explanation for why it only seems to happen when I'm not around.

 

Just take a screen shot, (instructions HERE), and post it here.

When you reinstalled the OS, did you have the original manufacturer's recovery CD? Or did you use a generic CD? Just wanted to make sure your drivers are good. Look in device manager, any yellow flags? Probably not as this only happens in one account but you should look anyway.

Your comments on Spector lead me to believe it is something your spouse is doing on the machine? (Hope this isn't the case).

But if this ONLY happens in your spouse's account, you could try creating a third user account for him and see what happens. He can always copy any data files from that to the new and then delete the funky account.

If you have AVG 8.5, you need to upgrade, in the admin account, to 9.0.

 

G`day

I thought I might just add that if your internet connection is good you may try some online live scans.

http://www.windowsecurity.com/trojanscan/

 

Okay, before I do the screen shot, which log viewer do we need here? There is application, system, local, internet, and security. The yellow flags I see are in the system and application menus. They are all time errors "w32time" or something like that, as the clock resets two hours behind every time I have to shut it off. The others are informational and then some red x logos with others for various services.

I might try the online scans too. I will have to finish working on this later tonight.

And yeah, I hope I'm wrong too

 

High there this happened to me what i did was take my modem offline.Then turned on puter with out power to modem . At this point it will let you do one thing then it locks again so i went right to system restore went back to the day before what ever happened. Do the system restore all worked again. However you only get one shot.Again this is for if you get locked out completley.

 

Thanks plodr. I figured it out and disabled it. Lets see if that works. Am I correct in understanding that the clock synchronizes every night at 11:15. So if I am home, I'm usually on the internets at that point. So it synchs. But when I'm not home, my husband is probably already in bed. No one is on the 'net. So it doesn't synch and then we get this failure? This logic saves my marriage, right? :-D

Brandy, thanks for the hint about holding the power button down. Worked!

 

Okay, the clock is fixed, but the problem continues. It only seems to happen when my husband logs out of his account and runs CCleaner before he does so. I have run it on my account and the Admin account, then logged out and the computer does not lock up as described. It only does it when he logs out of his account.

Any ideas?

 

This is a strange one, I am in line with Brandypeppy on the fact of deleting your husband's account all together (allowing him of course to copy any files that need to be transfered by creating a third account). This is only happening when THAT account is accessed and not on yours. If you create the third account then by deleting your husband's original account I feel pretty good that this problem will go away. Now after a little while, you run into this problem with your husband's new account....hmmmmmmm.

Good luck and I hope and pray that it's a result of a conflict of a program he may be using and nothing "worse" than that.

 

Also, you have made references to a key logger to monitor activity, used the language "saves my marriage", and "only happens when I'm not around".

Not certain how much help we can give you here, it sounds like you are rather suspicious of your spouse's internet activity. Plus he runs cCleaner after each internet use???

I personally don't know what websites or internet activity can cause these problems, but I'm certain there are plenty. Is he maybe playing some games or participating in some on-line virtual reality sites? Those I know exist but I don't have any experience with either.

But do try doing what ichase suggests and maybe you just have some system file issues. From a command prompt, in the admin account, type sfc /scannow
Note the space between sfc and the /

Good luck, best wishes.