Random Freezing

[Marisa]

I have been experiencing random freezing on my comp. for
probably about the last month or so. I don't know why or
where it's coming from - it usually happens when I am in
Internet explorer and on the down-click of the mouse -
everything just stops; though that is not always the
case. Sometimes it just freezes in the middle of
uploading something to the web. And when it freezes,
that's it! Ctrl+Alt+Del doesn't work; I have to manually
shut down the computer with power button. I lose
everything i am working on if not previously saved and
waste 5-10 minutes every incident! The first few times it
happened I even tried waiting for about an hour for it to
start working again but to no avail - it was totally
frozen!
That is as much specific info as I can give. Hope someone
out there has some suggestions! Technical info: I am
running Win. XP & IE Version 6.0.2800.1106.xpsp2.030422-
1633.

 

[Marisa]

How do I check the display adaptor and what am I looking
for?

 

[Guest]

I think Ramesh is way out to lunch on this one. I've only seen display adapters lock up random machines about 1% of the time. The majority of lockups can be contributed to drivers that are not up to date or have become corrupted. I don't understand why even the MVPs fail to use the event viewer in your administrative tools found in the control panel. The two most important logs will be the applications and system logs. Double click either one to open the events in the right panel. You will be looking for red X's that correspond to the time that your system locked up. Double click them to open the details window. The information in here may seem to be in some foreign language but most of the time there is a least a reference to the module that caused the freeze and that you can uderstand. Then update. Regular maintenance is a must in XP. Defrag, run chkdsk, clean temp files, clean out prefetch file once a month or so, make sure all of your drivers are the latest ones from the manufacturer not from microsoft. That includes all your stuff, Mouse\keyboard\monitor\sound card\video card and so on and so on. Programs like Everest Home Edition are free and will help you identify all your components as well as give you links to the drivers in many cases. Let us know how you make out. {:~)

 

[zag]

Marisa -
The statement that "Mostly it is the display drivers..."
is a lot of Bull!. If your display adaptor drivers
were OK at one time, they are almost certainly still OK.
A BIG problem with Windows XP for a LOT of people, is that
it FREEZES (or hangs) for MANY different reasons.
1. Overheating of the CPU or memory modules is common.
2. Defective memory modules is a common problem.
3. Defective IDE cables is a common problem.
4. The HUGE number of conflicting Programs and Services
that are typically run under Win XP is IMO the most

common cause of this problem.
It is very difficult to pin down an exact cause. If you
are quite technically savvy, you can perhaps eventually
solve this yourself. If not, the sooner you get help from
a service professional, the sooner you'll be able to put
this behind you. I know dozens of quite sharp computer
users who have fought this problem from day one with XP.
Microsoft likes to pretend that it doesn't exist.
I have occasional freezes of Windows and have never found
a cure... other than running Linux, which has never froze.
z --------------------------------------------------------