Non Responsive PC

[kenya74]

I work in the desktop support area of my company. I have pc that will not unlock if you hit CTRL + ALT + DEL. If you unlock the machine in less than 5 minutes it will unlock. But if it is for a longer period the machine needs to be hard booted. Any suggestions as to what is doing this? The machine is Dell GX 270. The keyboard and mouse are PS2 type connections. I don't think it is the keyboard because it works if you unlock the machine in less than minutes of locking it.

 

[cdogg]

The OS or BIOS is freezing on you. If there are a lot of installed devices, or if any upgrades on it were performed recently, the power supply might be overloaded.

It could also be an overheating problem, corrupted Windows install, hardware conflict, etc. You should be able to narrow it down...

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[Freestone]

Is the machine freezing as cdogg suggests or is remaining operational, but not responding to the CAD key sequence?

Perhaps further details may be of help. What OS is in use and what program is being used to lock the PC?

 

[kenya74]

Windows XP. The CTRL+ALT+DEL keys is what is used to lock the machine.

 

[Freestone]

Can you tell if the machine is frozen when unresponsive to the CAD sequence? In Control Panel, Power Options, is there any option set to place the system in Standby or Hibernation?

 

[cdogg]

I would try disabling the CTRL-ALT-DEL requirement and see if you can bring the computer out of sleep or screensaver mode after the "5 minutes". If so, reboot and re-enable the CTRL-ALT-DEL option and hopefully it'll correct itself!

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[tt7601]

If none of the suggestions up above work. update the bios and chipset drivers from support.dell.com and reset the bios and nvram by booting into the system setup, then turn on caps lock scroll lock and num lock, and then while holding down ALT press f, then e then b, the computer should now restart itself, if it doesn't then press esc and save changes and exit. if none of this works, you would be looking at reinstalling the os, or calling into dell to see if it possible is hardware.