Windows XP Lockups -- despite relatively good management practices

[bballmama]

I am troubleshooting an XP Lockup problem that is driving me crazy. I have a Gateway Solo 600XL, which is their top of the line notebook. It has 512 mb. memory. I am running XP Pro, and have all Service Packs installed. This PC randomly locks up. I routinely defrag the hard drive, have up-to-date Corporate antivirus product, and have run an updated Spybot.

There are no blue screens and nothing is logged in event viewer. The only thing that I see consistently is a w32time message. I have read extensive info on this issue and it does not appear to be able to cause my problem. However, today I edited the registry of this laptop to change the parameters of w32time. Now it should only sync once a week and will sync directly from the Naval Observatory rather than my time server. Then, I went to the command prompt and initiated a manual time sync and it froze.

BTW, I have an identical Gateway Solo bought on the same day, configured identically and it does not have the same problem.

Am I chasing the XP lockups in the wrong direction? Is there something else I can do to document what is happening on this PC other than eventviewer? Or can I change eventviewer settings to log at a higher rate?

Please help! I know this must be something I am overlooking. I would appreciate your input.

Thanks!

 

[bcastner]

I have a test machine that has been doing this since, I believe, the August Cumulative Update for IE. This update was marked as critical, and contained several RPC service patches. I have set several watchdogs on it but the machine essentially freezes with no error log entries being made in DrWatson or an Ontrack utility that is usually good about such things. One clear indication is if you let it sit is that the clock will not update, but this is not a WSTime issue I do not believe, as I have manually updated the date/time using the XP service to request a manual synchronization. The focus will change between windows, but you cannot call up Task Manager, close any open window, view any Tray Icon or the Start button, etc.. The mouse will move and if hovered over the task bar will change to an hourglass, but the machine is frozen.

I plan later this week to remove the update (I think it may not be possible) and test. And then if necessary do a repair re-installation and update nearly every Hotfix but that one.

 

[bballmama]

Thanks for the prompt response. I appreciate your help. Do you know the number of the update I can look at so I can also eliminate it?

 

[bcastner]

Q822925 is the one on my suspect list. You can in IE click Help at the top, About Internet Explorer, and it will show in the box if it is installed.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/822925/default.asp

This again is only a guess on my part. This test workstation is used to test prior to rollout Hotfixes, etc. as part of a SUS service push to the eventual clients.
The only logged entries that I have immediately prior to the problem is Q822925. I have tested RAM and looked for possible other sources of the issue and I cannot find anything else that explains the problem. But I caution you that Q822925 may not explain it either, it just fits the circumstances of when the error started to appear.

 

[bballmama]

I understand, and I appreciate the cautions! I am beginning to work with SUS as well, although I cannot get SUS server to sync with the Windows service. That's anotehr problem.

My lockup is just one of those great undocumented, no errors. I have checked all hardware with my test software and do not get any RAM, CPU, hard drive or other errors.

Thanks for your input.