PC Locks Up

[Lisa]

My PC has been locking up for some time. I have an 80g
hard drive and 512 SDRAM. When it locks up I cannot even
get the the Windows Task Manager up by pressing CTRL+ALT-
DEL. I cannot do a proper shut down and I am forced to
shut it down manually. A few days ago Windows would not
come up at all. The screen that appeared was the one that
allows you to choose starting in Safe Mode, Normally or
from the last known good point but no matter what I chose
it would just go back to that same screen. I could not
even start it in Safe Mode. I have an XP disc so I tried
doing a repair but it didn't work. Finally, as a last
resort, I reinstalled Windows XP. Of course I lost
everything and in addition, I still have the same
problem. The PC freezes, I am forced to manually shut it
down. In addition, it will reboot unless I unplug the PC.
I have AVG installed and no viruses are detected. I know
if I continue to power it down, I will lose everything
again. Does anyone have any suggestions. Thanks in
advance!

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

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.

 

[Hannu h]

Hi,

I also had that kind of a problem on my own computer. It totaly freezed and
only way to reboot was to hold power switch down for a moment. In my case
motherboard caused the problem. It didn't co-operate with my harddisk at all
in UltraDMA mode altough it should have. Changing harddisk IDE channel
tranfermode to "PIO only" helped. Perhaps you could try that or totally a
another mainboard?

Hannu