Computer hanging

[Guest]

My problem is that i am running windows xp professional and my computer
started hanging. I did a system restore to make sure it was a hardware issue.
it didnt work so i reformated my drive and it is still continuing. Ive done a
defrag, and scandisk, a virus scan a spybot scan....everything u can think of
but i cant make it go.

i have a celeron 1.1GHz with 384 mbs or ram

 

[w_tom]

The Titanic is sinking. So you rearranged the desk chairs.
Now the Titanic is still sinking. In the meantime, important
and basic information, such as historical hardware events,
have now been deleted from the system's Event Log.

Why did you try to fix a problem when you did not yet know
what the problem was? First one identifies the problem. Only
then do we attempt to fix it. Why did you 'fix' software?

Start with basic facts. What does the comprehensive
hardware diagnostic report especially when executed in a 100
degree F room (which is normal temperature to any working
computer)? Elevated (also called normal) temperature is how
intermittents are located. Any acceptable computer
manufacturer has those diagnostics available for free on his
web site. Otherwise download and execute those diagnostics
one at a time from each component manufacturer or from third
party diagnostic providers.

What does the 3.5 digit multimeter report for power supply
voltages? What happens on the power supply status line (a
green wire called 'Power Good')? Those readings must be in
the upper 3/4 limits for each voltage - especially 3.3, 1, and
both 5 volt. A motherboard voltage monitor is not sufficient
to provide such critically important numbers.

What does Device Manager report? If you don't know where it
and Event Log are located, then use Windows Help.

What does Task Manager report when the system hangs? Is
something consuming massive CPU time?

These are the first things one does. First collect basic
facts long before trying to fix anything.

 

[Guest]

First of all, i will be just moving my mouse when it hangs 80% of the time.
The task manager reports no cpu usage at all. And the event log doesnt report
any problem with hardware or software......im assuming its missing file but
not sure. Every single scan i run has come out good...everything passes. I am
using pc doctor for these tests

 

[w_tom]

What does Device Manager report? What numbers come from the
3.5 digit multimeter. These tools are far more powerful and
informative than PC doctor. In fact some PC analysis software
has even been observed to cause failures. You must provide
information from everything in that previous post.

XP is so resilient that very little hardware can cause a
software hang. The short list of devices include sound card,
video card, motherboard, RAM, etc. Furthermore, a computer
could have been defective the day it was purchased. But
failure was not observed until room temperature exceeded 80
degree F. Any computer that fails in a 100 degree room (with
only one chassis fan) was defective when purchased. A 100
degree room is the perfect test environment to execute
manufacturer's comprehensive diagnostics. Where is the report
from the manufacturer's comprehensive diagnostics?

Assumption of a missing file is somewhere on the tenth page
of possible reasons for failure. Don't speculate. Get
facts. There is no alternative. The mouse causing failure is
only a good benchmark to prove you have solved the problem. It
provides us with little useful information other than suggest
that Device Manager may report the problem.

You must do everything listed in that previous post - in
part because it is all so simple to do and provides
significant information. Currently we are being starved for
relevant information.

 

[Guest]

OK well this is what i got so far. The device manager reports no conflicts in
hardware at all. Everything is working properly. The Event log doesnt show
any problems. I was checking it as it was hanging and it didnt report
anything wrong. It was very weird actually. I was running the performance
function on the task manager and it showed that only 6% of the processor was
being used when it hung. Barely any cpu power is being used when it hangs. I
can't even identify when it exactly starts hanging because it would happen
when i am doing anything on the computer. I dont exactly know how i could
check the voltages on the motherboard because my computer is a laptop.
lemme know how to do this so i can give more information

 

[w_tom]

A laptop cannot have its voltages measured since there is
not enough 'standard' inside a laptop to explain how to
accomplish that. Measuring voltages on the laptop is out.

Are you saying even task manager hangs? IOW you should then
be able in task manager to close out processes until you find
one that is not responding.

As noted earlier, little hardware can actually cause XP
(Windows NT) crashes. But if one of those hardware is
defective, then you will not fix it. A service center must
perform the job.

Describe hang. Does even the Task Manager stop working?
Mouse not move? Not response from Cntrl-Alt-Del? No response
from the Window key? System ignore everything except the
power on button when held down for many seconds?

Having made this problem repeatable (very important to
getting things fixed), does this laptop have one or two SIMM
memory? If two, completely power down everything and swap the
memory. Characteristic of the hang should change if memory
SIMMs are to blame. Memory being one of the few things that
can crash XP and that you can access.