computer freezes

[Guest]

Recently my computer started to freeze randomly. This occurs in any program
(IE6&7, Outlook, Excel, etc) as well as during start-up when I enter my
password. Sometimes it freezes relatively soon after starting and other
times I can use if for an hour or so before it locks up.

I do not get any error messages; it just stops responding to any keystrokes.
I have to unplug and remove the battery (it's a laptop) to restart.

I have Windows XP with SP2. I thought this might be due to IE 7, which I
rencently installed, so I uninstalled it but that did not help. I have not
installed any other programs recently. I have current virus SW and spyware
that did not find any issues.

Please help

Thanks
Robert

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. What is the Total, the Commit Charge and the Peak?

How large is your hard disk and how much free space. Right click on
your C drive in Windows and select Properties to get this information.

What is your CPU processor speed? How much RAM memory? Right click on
your My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties to get
this information.

How does the slow performance occur in terms of during start up,
immediately after start up or all the time? Does it occur more when
using particular programmes? If yes name the programmes.

You may find it helpful to know exactly how much of your pagefile is
being used. Use page file monitor to observe what is the peak usage.
Start it to run immediately after start-up and look at the log at the
end of the session.The log is Pagefile log.txt. If you right click on
the file in Windows Explorer and select Send to, Desktop (Create
Shortcut). The same applies to XP_PageFileMon.exe.

A small utility to monitor pagefile usage:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

Note programs using undo features particularly those associated with
graphics and photo editing require large amounts of memory so if you
use this type of programme check these first observing how the page
usage increases when they start and whether the usage decreases when
you close the programme.

You should remove the side panels on the box and check that the fans
are working. Look in the Manual for a diagram showing their location.
If not working the computer can overheat causing memory problems. Dust
can also be a problem. The best way to remove dust is to use an Air
Duster (Compressed Air in a can) available from large computer
stores).

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[FreeComputerConsultant.com]

Look at:

http://www.freecomputerconsultant.com/clean-pc.html
and
http://www.freecomputerconsultant.com/pc-speed-up.html

Sometimes an accumulation of things finally gets to Windows. Cleaning up
can help.

 

[Guest]

Hi Gerry,

Thanks for the advice. Here is the info you asked about
Commit Charge total 394924 Limit 1437724 Peak 556596
Physical Memory total 489904 Available 138916 System Cache 213628

HDD is 92.9GB with 32.1 GB free space. Intel Pentium(r)M 1.60 Ghz

The computer doesn't really run slow when it is working. At times, it just
freezes and there is no error message and none of the keys or mouse works.

I tried to log file and XP_PageFileMon.exe but a search of ALL folders does
not find them on my computer.

Like I said, everything seems to work fine until it freezes. I'll try to
clean it as suggested by FreeComputerConsultant.com

thanks

 

[Gerry Cornell]

How much RAM?

You need to download and install Pagefile Monitor to be able to run
it!

You should remove the side panels on the box and check that the fans
are working. Look in the Manual for a diagram showing their location.
If not working the computer can overheat causing memory problems. Dust
can also be a problem. The best way to remove dust is to use an Air
Duster (Compressed Air in a can) available from large computer
stores).

What are your anti-virus and ant-spyware arrangements?


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~