System Freeze

[Guest_imported]

OK, I've been having this problem for a week or so and have just begun trying to find a fix.

The problem is that my machine freezes at just about any ol' time of the day. I haven't been able to detect any pattern in these freezes, but what happens is the mouse and keyboard stop functioning, and the power switch no longer works. All I can do to get out of it is use the reset button.

AMD 350
64 MB PC100 RAM
Windows 98
FIC Motherboard

Any ideas as I start on my wild goose chase?

Thanks,
Heel

 

[Comtech]

Boot to safe mode.
Remove everything from device manager.
Restart, reinstall.
Throw away your winmodem, and get a real one. [sig]<p>Jim<br><a href=mailto:reboot@pcmech.com>reboot@pcmech.com</a><br><a href=

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/>Jim

& Sue's Free Files</a><br>Current moderator at

http://www.56k.com<br>

Staff contributor/moderator at

http://www.pcmech.com<br>

Windows 9x/ME instructor.<br>
Jim's Modems:

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/modems/

[/sig]

 

[alcoranna]

Heel,

I found that the most common resolution to Windows' system freeze problem is that the monitor or display adapters or both are the cause. Strange, but very very true. I wish I could take credit for this tip but, I got it from one of those Windows tip/tricks subscriptions.

alcoranna [sig][/sig]

 

[Guest_imported]

I'm not sure exactly what fixed my problem, but I've been &quot;Freeze Free&quot; for two days now. So I thought I'd share my experiences with everyone...

Here's what I did:
1) Turns out that Real Player can cause a system to freeze. The apparent fix to this is go to go the preferences in the program and deselect &quot;Use optimized video display.&quot; I wasn't using RP when the system froze before, but it did have an icon in the sys tray. Which leads me to #2...

2) In an effort to unclutter my system and speed things up, I ran msconfig and shut down all the startup programs I didn't need running. This was a big help in speeding things up as just about every program you install tries to load at startup.

3) Thinking that the problem may have been heat related in some way (mind you, I'm no expert) I found a program called Rain which is supposed to keep your processor from getting too hot. Can't say that I know exactly how the program works, but I haven't had any problems since installing it.

4) Once everything seemed to stabilize, I added a littl RAM to my system. I'm up to 128Megs now and happy as a clam.

5) I uninstalled my modem which I no longer need thanks to my groovy new T-1 connection. I figure the fewer components I have installed, the better off I am.

If anyone would like more specifics about what I did, post questions here and I'll help out as much as I can. Thanks for the previous replies.

Heel