greatfolios sysop Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 this is odd, my processor just locks up evey once in a while for about 6 - 10 seconds then goes about it's business. any ideas? celeron p800 / 200meg ram / 40gig hd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leezard Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 does it happen randomly or only when doing certain things? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinW Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 what o/s are you runnning? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 Also, is there anything else you have running at the same time it happens? As an example, I have a XP2100 with 256DDR and 100G HD. I am always running Outlook, OE and 5 or 6 IE windows and the big 3 IM programs on a WIN 2K OS. Whenever the Outlook or OE checks mail the computer will freeze until the check is done. My memory usage is at %50 and my CPU usage is no more that %15 until this happens, virtual is set to 384 - 1024. Try and time how long it is between lockups. if it a regular occourance. Then narrow it down to an app if possible. I just have not taken the time to look further into it but I am curious if yours is a similar thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leezard Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 celeron p800 / 200meg ram If i was going to make a guess without knowing anything else about your system, i'd say its the proc trying to keep up with whatever apps you have running. My wife has an AMD 750 w/512MB of ram, if she has to many things going at once her computer will appear to freeze, and then after a few seconds it goes about its business. i doubled the ram and that helped a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-JimE Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 Hi, Is the cooling ok? Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greatfolios sysop Posted June 1, 2003 Author Share Posted June 1, 2003 Sorry for the lack of info, It's Y2k and I frequently run several ap's (sometimes a bunch, 6-ish) outlook express almost always running, a couple of browsers (ie 6) and maybe net objects, or photoshop 7. oddly I seem to remember more closing the IE browser when it locks up, but sometimes it is when the outlook express checks mail. no set schedule that it happens. The cooling may be an issue, the machine is on 24/7 but it is in a cool place.... I'll try to be more aware of when it happens and take notes on what else is running. seems to have developed about a month ago, don't recall it hapening before that. Thanks for the suggestions. Mr. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leezard Posted June 1, 2003 Share Posted June 1, 2003 how often do you run scandisk and defrag? Another thing you might wanna look in to is cleaning up .tmp files. I have a list around here somwhere of all the different "trash" files I'll see if i can find it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leezard Posted June 1, 2003 Share Posted June 1, 2003 What to Throw Away Intended For Windows XP Windows 2000 Windows Me Windows 98 Windows 95 When you install (or upgrade to) a new version of Windows, there are many files placed in your root and Windows directories that can be deleted. These include: In your root directory: Anything with the extensions *.TXT, *.PRV, *.LOG, *.OLD, and *.- - -. If you don't plan on uninstalling Windows, you can delete WIN95UNDO.DAT (Windows 98 only). In your Windows directory: Anything with the extensions *.LOG, *.OLD, *.- - -, *.BAK, and *.000, *.001 (and so on...) Any files with the following dates can also be deleted, for they belong to old versions of Windows: 03-10-92 - Windows 3.1 09-30-92 - Windows for Workgroups 3.1 11-01-93 - Windows for Workgroups 3.11 12-31-93 - Windows 3.11 Do a search (Start Menu -> Find -> Files or Folders) and search for any *.BMP and *.TXT files in the Windows directory. Use QuickView to view them, and delete them if desired. In your Windows\System directory: The entire WIN32S directory under your System directory - this is used only in Windows 3.x to allow certain 32-bit applications to run, but some older applications errantly install it in Windows. If you remove this directory, make sure to remove any references to it in your SYSTEM.INI file, and restart Windows. In your Temp directory (usually Windows\Temp): You should never delete any files from this directory, unless the dates of the files are earlier than the last time you booted up. Your applications use these files to store temporary information, and won't function properly if you try to remove them. Usually, any files in this directory that are more than a day old can be safely removed. Anywhere on your system: Other files that can be deleted include MSCREATE.DIR (an absolutely useless hidden file created by Microsoft installation programs - there may be hundreds of these empty files on your hard disk - see Slack Space.) Any directory named, ~MSSETUP.T - this is a temporary directory created during the installation of a program, and can be freely deleted once the installation is complete. Uninstallation Files: There may be up to 70 megabytes of "uninstallation" information - files kept around if you decide to remove Windows (assuming you've upgraded from Windows 95). The best way to get rid of these files (surprisingly) is to use the Tune-Up Wizard - don't bother with the scheduling of Scandisk and Disk Defragmenter (unless you want to) - it will present you with a list of the useless files you can remove. Hack away! Files NOT to delete: Anything in your SYSBCKUP directory. Your Registry (SYSTEM.DAT, SYSTEM.DA0, USER.DAT, USER.DA0), as well as SYSTEM.1ST, which you can use if the first four become corrupted. Any files in your root directory not mentioned above. If in doubt: If you're not sure if something should be deleted, try moving it to another directory first to see if it makes a difference. Check the file's date - if it's recent, most likely it's still being used. For information on removing a particular application, contact the manufacturer of that application, or refer to the application's documentation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-JimE Posted June 1, 2003 Share Posted June 1, 2003 Hi, Other question, you not got it to set to sleep after say 10 minutes cos that would cause the same problems Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackcat55 Posted June 1, 2003 Share Posted June 1, 2003 Great folios: I understand your using Y2K. I use XP and the last update caused this problem. Microsoft is aware of this check article: Pcworld I dont know if this holds true to your os. Hope it helps.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matman Posted June 2, 2003 Share Posted June 2, 2003 With Windows 2000 you have access to the performance monitor (look under administrative tools), which gives you the real power to troubleshoot this type of problem. You can log the performance of your processor(s) and the threads they are running in order to spot a troublemaker. I may need to write a good tutorial on how to use it, but for starters check these: http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBN/tip6500/rh6512.htm http://www.labmice.net/troubleshooting/PerfMon.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greatfolios sysop Posted June 2, 2003 Author Share Posted June 2, 2003 Thanks everybody, This gives me lots to check on, I'll post the results.... Mr. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 As I am having a similar issue here is what happened to my performance monitor when my system locked. That black line shooting up is my IE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Singer Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 Rob, I'm not familiar with the Performance Monitor image you're showing. You noted in an earlier post you were running Windows 2000 on one of your machines. Is that Perf Mon image from Win2000? or, where can I get that performance monitor - what have I missed? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leezard Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 That black line shooting up is my IE. IE is a HUGE resource hog, if you have netscape or opera, or any alternative browser try using it for a while and see if you still get the same problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greatfolios sysop Posted June 4, 2003 Author Share Posted June 4, 2003 leezard I love your avatar! Mr. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted June 4, 2003 Share Posted June 4, 2003 Rob, It is Win2K. Open your monitor in the Control Panel/Admin Tools. Rignt click, Add Counters. Performance Object = Process. Select %Processor Time, all instances, Add, Close. Right click, properties, update every second. Writing this and opening the perf mon caused my system to hang when I was not actively browsing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Singer Posted June 4, 2003 Share Posted June 4, 2003 Thanks, Rob! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted June 4, 2003 Share Posted June 4, 2003 I installed Opera and still get the same issue. It froze while Outlook was checking mail and I was browsing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted June 7, 2003 Share Posted June 7, 2003 I fixed the freezing on my computer. A co-worker said, replace your RAM and it will fix it. I didnt want to give up my 128DDR but I had a 256 and a 128 133MHZ sitting around so I popped out the old and put the spares in. 4 days and no freezing. greatfolios, if you have some sitting around you may want to give it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greatfolios sysop Posted June 8, 2003 Author Share Posted June 8, 2003 Hmmm.... (looks under papers on desk.) Mr. Bill Kick Me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rick Posted June 8, 2003 Share Posted June 8, 2003 When I worked for a certain major reseller of electronic equipment we had a computer that had been sold three times and in to the service department (located in another city) 8 times. Every time it came back because it would freeze up. When it came back from the shop the last time my manager told me to test it before putting it on the sale table. It froze up. He asked if anyone wanted it for $50 so I bought it. Figured I'd use it for parts and such. I took it home and ran a memory check program and the ram tested bad. Spent another $50 for a new stick of memory and popped it in. That was nearly five years ago. It still runs and never freezes up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greatfolios sysop Posted June 8, 2003 Author Share Posted June 8, 2003 looks like you are on to something! I'll work that direction.... Mr. Bill Rock Sign Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twisted Posted June 13, 2003 Share Posted June 13, 2003 this is odd, my processor just locks up evey once in a while for about 6 - 10 seconds then goes about it's business. any ideas? celeron p800 / 200meg ram / 40gig hd Try adding more ram. However, I don't hold high standards for a Celeron processor. In fact a duron processor may run a little hotter than a Celeron but I have built more duron, Athlon, p4 systems then Celeron only because Celeron don't perform well enough to keep up with programs and I also have noticed stability issues with Celeron systems. My mom has a 1.2GHZ Celeron that I built and it has problems at time also with keeping up. Sometime I may try adding more ram or even give her an amd board with a duron processor just to make her life a little easier. I will not sell Celeron processors anymore. I used to run a Celeron but needless to say that didn't last long. I soon dumped it and went to Athlon XP. Don't take this as a diss because I don't mean it as one. It's just my personal experience with system building. After all I do build computers for a living Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leezard Posted June 13, 2003 Share Posted June 13, 2003 I take em apart for a living (well sorta) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twisted Posted June 13, 2003 Share Posted June 13, 2003 lol I have checked out your site. Very interesting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted June 14, 2003 Share Posted June 14, 2003 Well the new RAM was working for a few days but it has started up again. Looks like I may have to flash the bios. Me thinks I am running out of options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twisted Posted June 14, 2003 Share Posted June 14, 2003 this probably has nuthing to do with the problem but how fast is your hardrive? 5400RPM or 7200RPM. I only run 7200RPM and any comptuer I built because it is pointless to buy a slower hardrive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted June 15, 2003 Share Posted June 15, 2003 7200 rpm 120g Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twisted Posted June 15, 2003 Share Posted June 15, 2003 Check for spyware recently?? Have you ever used a reg cleaner and cleaned up your registry of invalid entries? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twisted Posted June 15, 2003 Share Posted June 15, 2003 Also how many programs do you have running in the background and on start up. If you have a lot of things open on start it up drags down on system resources. Disable some of the start up items Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted June 15, 2003 Share Posted June 15, 2003 no spyware, I have been actively checking. Fresh OS install before this started happening, registry is smaller than my paycheck. The only thing in my startup is my IM software. I am not completely new to computers, I have been working with them since before hard drives and I have my hardware cert so I think I have covered the basics. I am just stuck on this one thing and it is starting to annoy me. Head Bash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twisted Posted June 15, 2003 Share Posted June 15, 2003 Hmm.... I used to have a slightly different problem. The text size on my pages wouldn't ever stay the same size until I found a way to set the default font size to what I desired, which required digging deep into the system to find this one little setting. I will keep thinking of ideas that may be causing the problem. maybe I will even look on the microsoft site a bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted November 14, 2003 Share Posted November 14, 2003 So I have been living with this dang computer freezing every five minutes for the past 4 months trying to figure it out. Well, I have done it. The other day I had upgraded my video drivers for my gForce 4 and now not only did it freeze all the time everything moved like it was a movie with every other frame removed. At the same time my boss at work was having an issue where her video would go blank, get white squares and other strange things. Now I had Googled my issue and hadn't found a thing. I Google her issue and find that on certain ECS K7S5A motherboards with a specific BIOS version running nVidia graphics cards had the issues she was describing. There were also those that had my problem. I look at the website for ECS and they have many BIOS revisions for my board but nothing I could find that specified my issue. Some of the others on the message board I was reading lost their boards not installing the correct one. At this point I figure I have two options. New motherboard or video card. I go to my local computer store and there is an ATI Radeon 7000 for $30. I know it isn't the best card but if I am going to spend much more I may as well get the Dragon motherboard I want instead. I get home, install the card and have not had one minor lock-up or anything. Man, I am glad thats over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lianna Posted November 14, 2003 Share Posted November 14, 2003 All good things will come to those who are patient! Thanks for the update. This might be a little clue for an issue that my Dad's pc has been having for quite sometime. I think that I might delve into it a bit now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greatfolios sysop Posted November 14, 2003 Author Share Posted November 14, 2003 for those who are still interested, my problem went away with one of the last windows updates.... :aarg: Mr. Bill :Nerd: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted November 15, 2003 Share Posted November 15, 2003 Mr. Bill, I share your frustration. Nothing more irritating that a computer that wont listen to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted November 25, 2003 Share Posted November 25, 2003 Grrrrrrr, it has started again. There are two things I have not replaced. My hard drive and my motherboard. One thing I have noticed is that my NIC is using the same IRQ as my vid card. It matters not if I use the onboard NIC or disable it and use my 3COM card. Either way they still use the same IRQ as given by windows and it will not let me change it. I am flustered and ready to give up on this whole computer thing, I am going back to my Commodore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borfast Posted November 25, 2003 Share Posted November 25, 2003 (edited) Rob, first of all, take a deep breath, calm down, meditate for a while if needed Now let's take this thing one step at a time. First of all, I think you should find out where the problem is coming from: Operating System or Hardware. I'm betting more on hardware than OS but then again, you never know. If you have the time and the patience, create a new partition on your HDD and install a different OS (e.g. if you use Windows, try Linux or *BSD). If it works under another OS, then it's probably a problem with the drivers. You mentioned your NIC using the same IRQ as your graphics card... if I'm not mistaken, that's not impossible to happen (can't remember for sure, though... it's been a couple of years since I took Computer Architecture on college). Still, it would be a good idea to remove the 3COM card, disable the onboard NIC and see what happens. If it works without any network stuff, it may still be a problem with the drivers so try to replace them. Another solution would be to force the IRQ using Windows' system configuration tools but you say it won't let you change the IRQ... I'm not sure about that, since I haven't been using Windows for a long long time but I think it's always possible to change that kind of thing. Sometimes it's disabled but if you check a "custom configuration" box (or something like that) it will let you configure it to your likings. Also, with one of the NICs enabled, check the device table that shows up when the computer is booting up. It should tell you which devices are using which IRQs. You can press the "Pause" key on your keyboard to pause the boot process and carefully look at the table. If the NIC and the graphics card aren't using the same IRQ, it means it's Windows that's changing them but it shouldn't. Am I making any sense? 'Cause I'm feeling a little dizzy and I'm not sure if I'm making any sense. Damned influenza, I feel the fever is getting back Well, off I go to bed. Edited November 25, 2003 by TCH-Raul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted November 25, 2003 Share Posted November 25, 2003 I am not really giving up. Ever feel like you have been doing this for so long that you know all of the steps to fix it? This shouldn't happen to "my computer". I need some fresh eyes on it so I am gonna have a go at your ideas Raul. If it werent for the wife I would be running BSD all the way. I am gong to go sit and find out why a fly can't bird but a bird can fly, then I am going home and fix this dang thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borfast Posted November 27, 2003 Share Posted November 27, 2003 Good luck Rob! Hope it goes well and let us know the results Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted November 28, 2003 Share Posted November 28, 2003 Well I havent found out why a fly can't bird but I have found the cause of the problem. After buying a new mobo as ECS and I dont get along it hit me. As I started the computer the hard drive was not found. Some playing and I got it to recognize the hard drive but would blue screen every time the OS tried to load. I then ran Fdisk and reformatted the entire 60 gigs. I tried to load the os and the install would hang every time. I put in a spare 2.1 gig and I got a perfect install. I am off tomorrow to buy a new hd. Funny how things work out. The only thing left to replace is the CPU now and I will have a new computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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