I would appreciate some (not too technical) help with this problem I am
having:
I am running a PC with Windows XP Home, and at what appears to be
random
intervals (sometimes several times per day sometimes not at all) the
screen
(and everything else) freezes. Nothing works, keyboard, mouse, PC,
nothing!
Then a short while later (typically up to 10 minutes later) it frees up
and
all is fine again.
It seems to be a conflict of some sort but it beats me. It matters not
whether I am on the internet or not, whether using one of my
applications or
not, what I have running or what I have just done (except it normally
seems
to happen just after I have pressed a key or left clicked an option).
It was suggested that my PC was overheating and so I picked it off the
floor
and put it on the desk. Then it was suggested that I download
"Speedfan"
which I have done but don't know how to use it or what it should do!
(Now I
can't get hold of the guy who told me).
My PC is an Orex GS 450 with Intel Pentium D945 3.4 GHz - 512 MB DDR2
RAM, I have got ZoneAlarm, Kaspersky AntiVirus 6.0, MS Office 97, MS
Publisher 98, I.E. 6 and OE6. Connection to the internet is via BT
Broadband.
If this is on the wrong newsgroup, forgive me and would someone tell
where
to send it(?).
you just install Speed Fan, it checks the processor/motherboard type and
configures itself accordingly.
there are some other details you can change, but none really necessary.
Anna said:
PeterO:
Never having heard of an "Orex GS 450" PC I did a Google search on it. I
see
it's apparently a European-marketed PC. During the search I also noticed
you
raised your query in one or more other forums over the past month or so
and
received some ideas as to your problem's probable cause and some
suggestions
as to how you could resolve the issue. I assume none of those approaches
worked since you're still raising the issue.
None of the things I Ihave tried have worked.
While the problem would appear to be hardware-related it's still possible
it
could be due to some corruption of your XP system files. One of the
suggestions you received was to run a Repair install of the OS. Did you do
that?
No - Is the "repair install of the OS" part of the "Help & Support" of
the PC?
If it *is* hardware-related the problem (unfortunately) could be due to
virtually *any* defective or failed component in the PC, e.g., power
supply,
graphics card, processor, CPU fan, etc. Even the motherboard itself. As
you've been informed, probably the first thing to consider (again,
assuming
this is a hardware problem) is a problem with your temperatures, i.e.,
you're overheating. Have you checked this out? Have you been able to
access
your motherboard's BIOS and does the BIOS contain a "hardware monitoring"
element where you can check the various temperatures? Or are you using
some
third-party temperature monitoring program?
No - all I have is Speedfan, as downloaded (apart from selecting
Automatic Fan Speed).
So one might suspect a faulty power supply, although usually when that's
involved the system will shut down. But you haven't indicated that if I
correctly understand you. The system just freezes at some point and the
screen contains all visible elements - it doesn't go black. That's right
isn't it?
Anna
It is, Anna.
Interestingly, Mark L Ferguson suggested turning off my AntiVirus, which
I did do for most of the day, and whilst it is too soon to say if that is
the cause, it has not hung with that s/w off!
Regards & thanks
PeterO
Peter:
Well, that's a promising development, at least for the moment. Assuming your
A-V program is a third-party one - and not the built-in program in XP - it
might even be useful to uninstall it.
By & by a Repair install of the OS may be something to consider should the
problem continue and you're reasonably certain it's not hardware-related.
The process is relatively straightforward. It would be roughly akin to
making a fresh install of the OS, but in nearly every case your existing
programs & user-created data would be retained. But there's always a
possibility of data loss when a Repair install is undertaken.
At this point I would *not* advise undertaking a Repair install particularly
if you're able to resolve the problem through other means such as disabling
or uninstalling your present third-party A-V program.
Just to give you some idea of what a Repair install is all about...
You will need an XP installation CD that, in effect, includes this
function - a retail version or non-branded OEM version will work. If you're
working with an OEM machine and have available only a OEM version of the OS
provided by the OEM, there may not be a Repair function available.
There are a number of websites that contain step-by-step instructions for
undertaking a Repair install. Let me assure you that it's not a difficult
process and not terribly time-consuming. If you do a Google search on "XP
repair install", you'll be pointed to many of these sites. Here are a few...
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm#RI
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=138
Again, for the moment, I would recommend against undertaking a Repair
install. But in the meantime make sure you backup whatever data is important
to you and even more preferably, use a disk imaging or disk cloning program
to make a copy of your current boot disk either to a USB external HDD or
another internal HDD.
Anna
