Freeze ups

Bruce Wutzke · Post by **Bruce Wutzke** » 15 Jun 2003 1:32 am

My computer will freeze up to the point of not even any mouse pointer response. It may do it in intervals from 5 minutes to 5 days.
I can be using it or it will occur just sitting idle. In other words, it is completely random without any pattern or clue as to what causes it. Is there any diagnostic software I can run? Open for ideas. Virus software is up to date and I scan regularly.
Thanks.

Mark Ardito · Post by **Mark Ardito** » 15 Jun 2003 5:36 am

Bruce,

Can you give some more details about your system? For example: Windows 98/2000/XP?

Pentium I, II, III, IV, Celeron
Ram? 128MB, 256MB etc

You get the idea

Thanks!
Mark

------------------
Sho~Bud Pro I, Fender D-8 (C6&E13) http://www.darkmagneto.com

Ole Dantoft · Post by **Ole Dantoft** » 15 Jun 2003 6:51 am

What Mark said !

have you done any upgrading prior to this starting to happen ?

Total lock-ups are almost always the result of hardware failure's or hardware-incompatibility's so IF you've changed/added/upgraded anything, that might be the clue to the problem.

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Ole

My homepage !

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 15 Jun 2003 8:05 am

Excessive heat will cause a CPU to lock up, which is almost certainly what is happening to you. This can be caused by many things, such as an overclocked CPU, insufficient or inefficient heat sink, not enough airflow from cables blocking the CPU, dirt and dust, blocked air vents, not enough fans, etc., etc.

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 15 Jun 2003 9:58 am

Yes, all the above.

Power down and clean it out. Use a can of compressed air and get the dirt and dust out of the case.

When you get all done with that do a ScanDisk to check for any errors on your hard drive. Then defrag the system.

I've found that simply cleaning, running ScanDisk and defragging can eliminate or lessen many problems.

Good luck! (I hope you don't need it!)

------------------
My best,
Ernie

The Official Buddy Emmons Website
www.buddyemmons.com

Bruce Wutzke · Post by **Bruce Wutzke** » 15 Jun 2003 2:51 pm

Thanks guys. Sounds to me like a good dust cleaning might be it.
I am running XP with an AMD Athlon 1 GIG
processor. I haven't added anything new for about 6 months and the trouble has been for only 2 months so it all points to a good bj.
I'll let you know.
Thanks again!

Bruce Wutzke · Post by **Bruce Wutzke** » 15 Jun 2003 3:21 pm

WOW!! It even sounds different now. It was pretty dirty so now time will tell.

BTW, the Neighborhood Watch lady walked by
about the time that big cloud of dust rolled down the driveway....now I'm on the computer abuse list for 6 months.
Good lesson though.
Thanks all.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 15 Jun 2003 4:22 pm

Jim Smith, are you saying that if it gets too hot, it will freeze?

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 15 Jun 2003 4:24 pm

Yep, that's it!

And since computers work on smoke and mirrors, if they get too hot, the smoke will escape and they won't work anymore!

Tony LaCroix · Post by **Tony LaCroix** » 16 Jun 2003 5:50 am

Also, NEVER use a screen saver. They don't save your screen and they annoy your CPU when it's trying to do something important.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 16 Jun 2003 6:05 am

Tony,
I'm sorry but I can't take your advice about eliminating my screen saver. I have one imported from Ernie's "Buddy Emmons" site that I just love. The Big E is floating around on my computer screen all day!
Erv<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Erv Niehaus on 16 June 2003 at 07:07 AM.]</p></FONT>

Tony LaCroix · Post by **Tony LaCroix** » 16 Jun 2003 10:13 am

Erv, that's pretty cool! OK, maybe there are SOME exceptions to the above rule...

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 16 Jun 2003 12:24 pm

But it takes him away from much more important things he could be doing.