my computer randomly locks up and i have to reboot.

[Guest]

recently the number of "lock-ups" have been increasing.

here's what happens:
i'll go about doing whatever i normally do on my computer, and all of a
sudden all processes cease, the mouse is glued in one position, and my
computer is silent (nothing but the usual fan).

what's bizarre is that my computer will "lock-up" regardless of what i'm
doing.
examples of times when this has happened: when i'm playing a video game,
listening to music on itunes or winamp, running a virus scan, even just
opening a program or switching from one to another via the taskbar!

help please! it's driving me insane and i'm so baffled.

thanks in advance.

 

[Guest]

usually USB conflicts or IO memory overlapping... Disable BIOS System Cache
in Memory (or it may be called BIOS Cacheable) and diable the Video BIOS
Cache (that also is in the computer's main BIOS settings menus)

You may also have driver files that are corrupted from turning off the power
to the computer before windows has a chance to gracefully shut it down for
you.

Checkdsk /f from the command prompt in Windows Safe Mode Command prompt Only
would be my first task

Defrag the entire drive next

Checkdsk /f once more

make sure no video or BIOS cacheing is enabled in the system BIOS menus

Turn off APM in the BIOS (Advanced Power Management) sometimes also called
APIC. It screws around with USB connections and memory I/O mapping

Start windows in normal mode, let it come up on its own, log in let it do
its thing for about 10-15 minutes - even if it is quiet for a bit, let it go.
Only if everything is frozen for 15 minutes would I pop the power -
otherwise, let it come up on its own, after 15-20 minutes of "rest" the
registry changes should be done, and you can use Start Shutdown buttons to
let windows do a graceful shutdown on its own.

Once it has powered off, start up once more in normal mode and repeat the
last step - you know, let windows come up and rest a while. It gives you a
chance to get to know your computer on a level you probably never knew! This
second bootup and rest is creating your last known good configuration which
is actually based on the successful shutdown the previous time. After 5-15
minutes of resting, you can do a graceful shutdown using Start Shutdown and
let it power off on its own.

If you always power down this way, you will always be able to use the "Last
Known Good Configuration" which is the option you should choose when
rebooting after a serious system failure or device conflict. It's kinda like
magic the way it works when you do it right!

The other guys will here will give you plenty of help on figuring out which
device or setings are actually causing the problem. Odds are, its related to
the video card or a USB device like a mouse, webcam, etc. PC's weren't meant
for games... get a Mac for that!

 

[Guest]

In my experience lockups like you are describing are almost always caused by
hardware, especially in Windows XP. It's still worth it to go through the
troubleshooting tips Perry mentioned but be prepared that you may end up
replacing either memory or motherboard and processor. If you system is fairly
new and under warranty I would go to the hardware vendor first to take
advantage of the warranty.

Most vendors have some sort of diagnostic software available. Check their
website and download whatever they have, then run all the available tests on
System Hardware, CPU, RAM and Hard Disk. I would run the whole set at least
once and, if no failures come up, set the RAM tests to loop so that they run
for at least an hour and see if that will generate an error. You can also try
downloading the 30 day trial of "Burn in Tester" at
http://www.passmark.com/products/bit.htm and check you RAM with that.

Finally, whether it ends up being hardware or software, you should
periodically check to be sure all the fans in your system are running and
that all the airflow holes in the case are free of dirt and lint. It doesn't
take much to disrupt airflow and cause a possibly fatal over temperature
condition.

Good luck and keep us informed.