XP Pro Freezing/Rebooting

[SpiderElls82]

Greetings,
Lately, I've been having issues with a newly installed OS. After a lengthy period of inactivity, the entire pc will freeze, and the mouse will position itself directly in the center of the screen. Also, while trying to use a webcam or download pictures from a digital camera, the machine often abruptly reboots itself. I keep the registry pretty clean, always run my spyware programs, keep note of my startup menu, degrag regularly, and check for disk errors often. The computer software and hardware specs are below:

Intel 3.4 Processor
1 GB DDR
Maxtor 180 GB HDD
NVidea 512 MB Graphics Card
ViewSonic 19" LCD Monitor
400 Volt Power Supply

ZoneAlarm Free
AVG 7.5 Free
Spybot S&D
Adaware SE PE
EasyCleaner
CWShredder

Any ideas on why this is happening? I've got plenty of fans in the PC to keep the CPU cool and the tower is never even warm to the touch. Any help will be appreciated.

!!ben!!

 

[firewolfrl]

the tower may be cool but if the CPU has any accumulated crud that is blocking the fins then you CPU temp may go up as much as 20 to 40+ degrees hotter

also if the harddrive is getting hot this will happen

just to rule out heat...open the case and have a house fan blow into the case then do everything that creates the problem (after inspection of the CPU fan)

You could have a static event with a USB device...unplug all USB and reboot then plug the devices that are causing issues in and try to see if it will recreate the problem ....make sure you are only using one device at a time.


change your screensaver to the windows XP screensaver to reduce cpu load

zonealarm has been known to cause issues

look at the Event Log

that is a good start for now




good luck

 

[SpiderElls82]

Thanks for the response. I aircanned the innards of the systems last night and opened up the case. Then I pointed a house fan at low about 4 feet away overnight and left the pc running. Its a fairly new system, so there wasn't too much dust or fuzz bunnies in there.

When I woke up this morning, same problem. The system had froze. Mouse and keyboard were inoperative. Control ALT Delete didn't even show activity on the hdd light on the tower. I do have a USB wireless adapter and a USB webcam, to which I unplugged the webcam overnight as well.

The only error I received in the event log last night was a few DHCP errors (to which my wireless is always resetting itself, and this one concerning NAT:

"The Network Address Translator (NAT) was unable to request an operation of the kernel-mode translation module. This may indicate misconfiguration, insufficient resources, or an internal error. The data is the error code."

I wouldn't think that would be what's causing these issues, but who knows. Any other ideas I might be able to try?

Thanks,
Ben

 

[firewolfrl]

uninstall the zonealarm?

there are some computers with major issues because of that software


repeat your test after the uninstall

 

[SpiderElls82]

Uninstallation of ZonaAlarm didn't fix the issue. I now have PC Tools Firewall Plus. Same freezing happening just a often. Anymore ideas?

 

[SpiderElls82]

OK, I did a 'sfc /scannow'. That seems to take care of the freezing. However, I am still getting the occasional annoying reboot. At this point, it looks like a hardware problem/incompatibility. I'm not sure where to proceed next. I've done a memory scan and it hit 600% with no errors. All system benchmarks were nominal (HDD, Processor, Memory, Video). The only thing left is a possible problem with USB devices, but I'm at a loss to find out how to troubleshoot them.

Anymore advice?

 

[SpiderElls82]

OK, am going to backup all my files and reinstall XP. This will at least let me know if it is a software issues, firmware issue, or hardware issue. Anymore advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ben

 

[SpiderElls82]

Reinstall of XP Pro did nothing to stunt the rebooting and freezing. I do believe that it has something to do with the video card. But I've ran a benchmark on it for more than 4 hours last night, no errors. Hard drive is running at about 115 degrees F, which could be an issue. I've tried multiple versions of the video card driver...all with the same issue. Again, all benchmarks and tests check out ok. Anymore advice?

 

[firewolfrl]

get a new video card

 

[gpalmer711]

Lets see if you are getting a blue screen reboot or a hardware reboot.

Click on Start > Right Click on My Computer > Click on Properties > Click on the Advanced Tab > under the "Startup and Recovery" heading click on the Settings button > Untick the "Automatically Reboot" option > Click OK twice.

If it was already unticked then the problem is down to your Motherboard making the machine restart.

Other wise wait until the next restart, hopefully you will get a blue screen and it will give you an error message. Post back with the full message and we should be able to help.

Greg Palmer
Freeware Utilities for Windows Administrators.

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk

 

[SpiderElls82]

Seems that took care of the rebooting. Now however, the program is freezing again. My harddrive monitoring tool reported the HDD got up to 130 degrees during a cd burn at one point. I removed the case cover, and it cooked back down to 122 degrees. Is it possible the hard drive is bad? or perhaps I need additional hard drive coolant devices? The freezing usually happens when I'm running memory hungry programs such as dvd burners/cd burners. However, when running video games I have no issues. I ran a memory test programs, and after 800% it showed no errors. Any additional troubleshooting I should continue with?

 

[lhuegele]

It sounds to me like a memory issue. You could have a bad chip on your memory module(s). If you have multiple modules on the motherboard, try re-seating them first. Then try taking them out one by one or start with one module at a time to see if that clears the problem. If it does, then you might be able to narrow it down to the DIMM that is going bad.

Good luck,

 

[SpiderElls82]

I have one 1024MB ddr 533mhz memory stick. I will try slotting it into another dimm slot to see if the problem corrects itself. I am also going to purchase another gig of RAM to speed up the system a bit. If this does not correct the issue, i will buy a new hard drive, as I'm running out of patience with this issue. I will post back what I find after each hardware upgrade.

Thanks again,
Ben

 

[gpalmer711]

It could be something to do with the power saving options.

Open Control Panel > Go to Display > Click Screen Saver Tab > Click Power Settings button.

Make it so that the PC NEVER goes to standby/hibernation, never switches the harddrive off and never turns the monitor off.

See if that makes a difference. If not try disabling your screensaver.

Greg Palmer
Freeware Utilities for Windows Administrators.

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk

 

[linney]

xp freeze troubleshooting
thread779-935320

What is it like from Safe Mode, or in Normal Mode but as another user?

310353 - How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

316434 - HOW TO: Perform Advanced Clean-Boot Troubleshooting in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316434&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

310560 - How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310560&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH