A Use For All these Tools,,,,,,

  • Thread starter Thread starter Glyn
  • Start date Start date
G

Glyn

Hi,,,
I am having problems with my new computer Locking Up,,, It Freezes for about
5-10 seconds every now and then. I only see the Mouse freeze but I think the
whole computer is locking up when this happens.,,, Its intermittent ,,,
about 5 to 10 times in an hour and all seems ok in between.
Surely there is some Diagnostic thing or Useful faultfinding tool amongst
all this XP/microsoft STUFF on my Drive.
I have watched Task manager while it is happening and I don't see any of the
Process Memory Usage go into Hi Specs.
I do see the "Performance Graph (CPU Usage) go from about 10% up to 75 to
100%.

System is Pentium 2.8ghz 512MB RAM.
 
You need to look at CPU usage, not memory usage. Tell us which processes
are consuming maximum CPU.
 
In addition to the other information posted in this thread:

First, be sure your antivirus software has the latest definitions and run a
virus scan.

Second, download, install and run Ad Aware:
www.lavasoftusa.com
Note: you should always be well backed up before running an application of
this type.

If your system is clear of viruses, open Control Panel, open System, go to
the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery, remove the
check from "Automatically Restart" under System Failure. This will cause
the system to blue screen instead of restarting on errors and the
information on the blue screen may give a clue as to the source of the
issue.

Open Control Panel, open Administrative Tools, open Event Viewer, look for
errors corresponding to the crash, double click the error, the information
contained within may give a clue as to the
source of the problem.

Assuming you have an XP CD and not a recovery CD, place the XP CD in the
drive, when the setup screen appears, select "Check System Compatibility,"
the report it generates may point to problem hardware or software on your
system. If you do not have an XP CD, you can download this application
known as the Upgrade Advisor from the following site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp
Note: If you have access to a broadband connection it might be best to
download using that as this is a rather large download.

Check for the latest drivers for your hardware, especially your graphics
card and soundcard and all peripherals connected to your system. Do not use
Windows Update for this, go to the device manufacturer's web sites and if
you install updated drivers, ignore the message about drivers being unsigned
by Microsoft.
 
I am having problems with my new computer Locking Up,,, It Freezes for about
5-10 seconds every now and then. I only see the Mouse freeze but I think the
whole computer is locking up when this happens.,,, Its intermittent ,,,
about 5 to 10 times in an hour and all seems ok in between.
Click to expand...
Surely there is some Diagnostic thing or Useful faultfinding tool amongst
all this XP/microsoft STUFF on my Drive.
Click to expand...

Depends whether the problem is above or below the OS level of
abstraction. If it is below the OS level of abstraction, then the
assumption base on which safe OS operation rests is gone, and you
should NOT run Windows again until that's re-established!

(Hint: Windows writes to HD incessently, and it is only the sanity of
the hardware that stops these writes from trashing your data)

I'd do "the prelim", as per...

http://users.iafrica.com/c/cq/cquirke/bthink.htm

....i.e. check hardware, exclude malware (as per...

http://users.iafrica.com/c/cq/cquirke/virtest.htm

....unless you are snookered by NTFS). Go to...

www.simmtester.com
www.memtest86.com

....for free RAM diagnostics, and your HD vendor's site for an OS
agnostic HD diagnostic. ChkDsk /R isn't safe, as it will "autofix"
file system and surface errors without prompting you first.

I'd suspect one/more of:
- dying HD (surface retries)
- networking issues
- overheating and thermal protection
- other peripheral timeout issues
- malware or other software issues


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Click to expand...
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