XP FREEZES

[outofcontrol]

Hello all, I am working on an IBM LAPTOP A31 model running Windows
XP fully patch and office XP fully patch. My problem is that from
time to time my system will FREEZE, usually in screen saver but
sometimes when I am working on it such as typing an outlook message

I have unloaded and reloaded this machine several times and
reformated the hard drive. I have run the machine without the DVD
drive and floppy and all external cards and even the battery.

I am running Norton 2002 firewall and antivirus
I have cisco vpn loaded
and the adobe photo suite

I have checked for viruses using Norton and Housecall.

I am at the end of my rope.
Is there anything that I can look at to find out?

Does anyone have suggestions??

 

[Xemus]

Best way to troubleshoot this is to look at the similarities between when it freezes.
(ie. certain programs running, does the case feel hot?, etc.)

Good Luck,

http://www.closedsocket.com

 

[gpalmer711]

Next time it freezes, restart your machine and take a look at the event viewer. Start > Settings > Control Panel > admin Tools > Event Viewer. Take a look at the Application and System sections and you should see errors relating to the time and date it froze. Let us know the contents of those errors and we should be able to help.

Greg Palmer

----------------------------------------
Any feed back is appreciated.

 

[outofcontrol]

Hi Greg, it froze at 4:25PM today and nothing in any of the logs even close to that time. When I restarted it at 4:40 I do have messages at that point in time.

Any thoughts?

 

[Xemus]

It's normal to have notices when you boot your machine. These will appear as "Information". Any that appears as a warning or an error are the events that you want to pay attention to.
Do you have any of these repeating?

http://www.closedsocket.com

 

[DeChief]

Outofcontrol -

Have you been to IBM's A31 driver site to ensure you have the latest BIOS? Go here:

http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4VGUYW

DeChief

 

[outofcontrol]

Thanks DeChief, I have been to the web site and then downloaded the latest BIOS but no luck, it still locks up. I think it really is the hardware. Sometimes it gets too hot.

 

[DeChief]

You may also wish to ensure ALL your drivers are up-to-date from the IBM site.
Is it still in warranty? You can also try to send it to EasyServ in Tennessee for them to check it out. My expereince with IBM EasyServ has been great. Usually a one or two day turnaround and it gets fixed. If your surmise is correct and it's heatr related, this may be caused by a fan failure which is leadingot a motherboard failure.
Even if it's not in warranty, it may be worth the repair cost to send it to IBM to let them check it out for you.

DeChief

 

[bjestico]

In my experience freezing randomly is often caused by faulty memory. Most of it works until code is being executed from the bad bit which then causes the whole system to hang. Try replacing the memory with somebody elses to prove it.

 

[slider200]

Outof control..
I have read your post and am having the exact problem as you are .Almost every morning I sit at my computer my pc is frozen(winxp pro)
Outlook express seems to be a culprit also,but no real consistent programs running are causing it.
Did you ever find the problem?One replier says possibly bad ram...that does sound very possible.
Let me know how you made out..
thx,
slider

 

[outofcontrol]

Hello everyone, well on Thursday Nov 20, I contact IBM and they had me leave the machine in BIOS mode running memory tests all night and the machine DID not lock up at all.

So IBM blamed WINXP/PRO. I deleted the entire machine after backing it up(ok I missed one folder) and just loaded office and the patches and for 24 hours now the machine has been SOLID!!

Guess something/somewhere corrupted the system. I still have plenty of software to load but will not load it until I am sure that the machine is stable.

I wish I knew what caused the problem. I only really have safe programs on my laptop from Microsoft, Adobe and Sonic so I am not sure what caused it.

Thanks again everyone

 

[BenyG]

outofcontrol,

If it is not under warranty open it up and touch the heatsink the next time it crashes. It should be so hot so that you have to take your hand away in a few seconds. If this is the case then the CPU is over heating. Vacum out all the dust between the heatsink and the fan.

Ben

"To our surprise we have not been able to locate even
one scientific study on the proved harmful effects of addiction"
Dr George H Stephenson, speaking about Heroin at the University of British Columbia,

1956

 

[outofcontrol]

I ended up with the problem again but this time I knew exactly what it was/is. for some reason when I loaded the updated drivers for the display it crashed again.

I reformated the unit one more time and never loaded the drivers again and it has been fine since Nov 23, 2003.

I never thought that the driver from Microsoft would cause this.