System Hanging

[Guest]

From past few days, my Home PC (Windows XP SP2) is hanging in between. What
must have gone wrong? How can I find the culprit? Any diag-tools or Logs
which I can monitor to troubleshoot this problem?

When the system hangs, the HardDisk LED keeps glowing continously. After
hard boot, the system starts again with CHKDSK. Sometimes even after
hardboot, the Intel Motherboard Logo comes and system hangs.

 

[Guest]

Try the event viewer for details,you can also go to run,type:VERIFIER
But get the details on the utility 1st from microsoft.

 

[Michael Stevens]

In

Try the event viewer for details,you can also go to run,type:VERIFIER
But get the details on the utility 1st from microsoft.

Say what? Did anything you advised really help?
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
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[Malke]

Try the event viewer for details,you can also go to run,type:VERIFIER
But get the details on the utility 1st from microsoft.

Andrew - go away. You do no good and a lot of harm would come to people
who follow your loony answers.

Kamlesh - Since the computer is hanging (I assume you mean "locking up")
when Windows is not even loaded, you probably have hardware issues. It
could be that your computer is overheating, the hard drive is dying,
your power supply needs to be replaced, etc. Here are some general
hardware troubleshooting steps:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

Testing hardware failures often involves swapping out suspected parts
with known-good parts. If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are
uncomfortable opening your computer, take the machine to a professional
computer repair shop (not your local equivalent of BigStoreUSA).

Malke

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your responses.

Andrew, there is no information I can see in Event Viewer which can help me.
I checked all three categories of the Event Viewer

Malke, if there is a problem with hardware then the computer should not work
at all. However, this problem happens suddenly in between and I cannot
really simulate this. FYI - from past few days I am not having any problems.
I am not sure if this means that its working fine. Are there any Software
Tools to check the Heating problem of hardware like CPU, HardDisk etc.?

I am having the CA - eTrust Internet Security Suite which has all latest
patches/updates. So I do not see any problem with virus/program.

About "computer heating up", I think this might be the cause because during
week days I hardly use the Home PC. This problem happened during last
weekend. I need to observe this weekend and see if I get the same problem
again.
Malke, thanks for the URL... It contains good information.

1 Question - are you guys aware of any hardware diagnostic tools for Intel
Motherboard? I don't remember if Intel has any such tools which can test
Motherboard and CPU.

From the time I have got this PC, I get lot of humming noise from the PC
cabinet. Is this common with a P4-3GHz HT processor?

More later....
Regards,
Kamlesh

 

[Malke]

Thanks for your responses.

Please see my answers inline (with snippage):

Malke, if there is a problem with hardware then the computer should
not work at all.

This is not correct. Random lockups are usually caused by hardware.
"Random" means they don't happen regularly so it is quite possible to
be using the computer. You could also have a driver problem, but
software issues usually occur at the same time when doing the same
thing.

I am not sure if this means that its working fine. Are there any
Software
Tools to check the Heating problem of hardware like CPU, HardDisk
etc.?

Google for motherboard monitor.

About "computer heating up", I think this might be the cause because
during week days I hardly use the Home PC. This problem happened
during last weekend. I need to observe this weekend and see if I get
the same problem again.

Overheating is a prime cause of lockups, yes.

1 Question - are you guys aware of any hardware diagnostic tools for
Intel Motherboard? I don't remember if Intel has any such tools which
can test Motherboard and CPU.

Google "Intel motherboard monitor". Also go to Intel's website and see
if they have one.

From the time I have got this PC, I get lot of humming noise from the
PC cabinet. Is this common with a P4-3GHz HT processor?

There is no way to answer that question. All computers make some noise
and all are different. It isn't possible to say what is normal for your
specific computer. Processors by themselves don't make any noise - it
is the fans and hard drives that make noise. Hard drives don't usually
hum; fans do.

Malke