Bad memory or harddisk?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jez
  • Start date Start date
J

Jez

My Xp freezes after it boots up for a few minutes. Symptom - mouse and
keyboard gets frozen. Even pressing the power-off button on the PC had no
impact. The frozen screen remains. I had to pull the plug from the wall
outlet. After plugging the cord back into the wall outlet and pressing the
power button, PC restarts back to the desktop. After a minute or two, no
matter if I am copying a file or do nothing, the screen freezes, both my
mouse and keyboard are locked out.

Does this sound like bad memory chips or bad harddisk, or anything else?
 
Try starting the system in Safe Mode. Shortly after turning the
computer on, press F8 several times at inervals of about 1 second.
This should give you a menu, on which you can select Safe Mode.

If Safe Mode allows the computer to run correctly, you need to
uninstall one or more of the items that are starting automatically.
Which one to remove? You will need to experiment. Run MSConfig and
look at the Startup list. Make a copy of what is checked now, then
uncheck about half of the items. Start the system and see the result.

Bill Starbuck (MVP)
 
Thanks Bill, but it's too late. I already removed my harddisk and stomped on
it. In essence, I destroyed the harddisk and cut out some wirings. I want
to be sure all the data on the harddisk is not easily retrievable by someone
finding the disk in the trash can. I'll probably throw the PC away as well.
I really don't have time for diagnostics and trial and error.

I just pulled out my old 4 year old laptop (a somewhat of a relic piece of
equipment). I opened the old case, dust off the dirt, plugged in the AC
cord and fired it up. It's running on win98se and I just added some new
utilities. Here I am, writing to the newsgroup and get back to my work. I
probably give up on win XP for a long while. That is, the old laptop has
now become my primary PC (only 64 Mb ram, running on 475 Mhz AMD K6-2).
Actually, it's only 56 Mb ram, the other 8 Mb is reserved for video card.
That's the correct, the laptop does "not" have separate video memory chips.

Yes, I just throw away my money (XP pc). All is not lost though, I'd learned
quite a bit about the NT core and the XP components. The most important
thing I'd learned from XP (pro) is the way the security allocation is set up
for each User. I'd created a few User accts and gave each different levels
of user privileges. I have come to understand the "multi-user" operating
system functionality. It is quite interest really. But the time has time,
XP (NT core) is no longer part of my daily use. It's time to get back to
work, using a more simple but reliable relic device, win98se.

------------------------
 
Could be either hardware or drivers (software). Try to
isolate components and divide and conquer. The previous
post mentioned using SAFE mode. If that works, it points
to drivers or non-standard programs. If it fails, then it
could be hardware, or possibly a corrupt XP installation,
or even a virus.

Try using a boot floppy to run good old DOS (any recent
version form 98 onward). If the PC runs OK, then it is
likely windows-leve software. If it also dies, then it is
almost certainly hardware.

Try using a DOS-based memory tester, such as DocMemory.
There are several free testers out there; just o a web
search.

Try using a floppy-based disk tester. For example,
Seatools form Seagate, MaxDiag from Martox. Every major
disk maker has tools that can test disks, even if they are
unformatted, NTFS, etc. Just avoid "destructive tests"
or "low level format".

Check all wires and cables. A loose wire, inside or
outside the box, can cause a PC to freeze.

TRy a different mouse and keyboard, just in case one of
those is bad.

Good luck.
 
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