System Freezing

[Clayton]

Hi, I have this computer with XP Home installed and it keeps freezing up all
the time, so I used my XP recovery CD and reinstalled Windows, but now it's
freezing again, I tried formatting the HDD with a Windows 98 boot disk and
doing a FDISK, when I deleted the NTFS partition and re created it using
FDISK it would take a while, I started formatting and it would do 1% every
minute, so I gave up and put a brand new HDD in it and brand new ram in it
and used the recovery CD and now it's freezing again, any other idea's?

thanks

 

[davetest]

Hi, I have this computer with XP Home installed and it keeps freezing up all
the time, so I used my XP recovery CD and reinstalled Windows, but now it's
freezing again, I tried formatting the HDD with a Windows 98 boot disk and
doing a FDISK, when I deleted the NTFS partition and re created it using
FDISK it would take a while, I started formatting and it would do 1% every
minute, so I gave up and put a brand new HDD in it and brand new ram in it
and used the recovery CD and now it's freezing again, any other idea's?

thanks

The problem is, just because it freezes, doesn't
necessarily denote a hardware problem. Could be software,
probably a driver. See if you can find updated
driver for your video and audio cards.
Look in the event viewer for possible clues.

By the way, there was no need to recreate a partition using fdisk.
The installation of xp itself will do that.

Dave

 

[Clayton]

Why would the HDD take so long to format when other HDD's I have formatted
are done much quicker and is the same size?

I have installed the latest MX400 drivers from Nvidia and Windows updated
the latest sound driver.

 

[RJK]

....just a thought - The "latest" Nvidia drivers are often more trouble than
they're worth. It's worth sticking to a slightly older release, for as long
as possible. i.e. when you've found a set that work properly, stick with
them until you have a specific need to upgrade them. My W98se uses v28.32 -
upgraded a while back from v21.83. My XP Pro hd is using Nvidia / MS
approved driver v5.1.2001.0. that "piled" in from the XP Pro drivers
library. A couple of XP Pro installations ago on a different hd was it
the dual boot on this one..,! a while ago, I installed v44 something or
other and they were fine but, can't be bothered to upgrade'em again.

regards, Richard

 

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

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.

 

[Clayton]

The system came with a recovery CD and the only thing that has been added
since was a Samsung cd writer and have updated the video driver from windows
update.
I might use another xp cd to do a clean install instead of this recovery cd
and see what happens.

 

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

Understand, you cannot borrow a CD for this purpose. The CD is tied to the
system on which it is activated.

 

[Clayton]

This upgrade advisor has said everything is ok

Understand, you cannot borrow a CD for this purpose. The CD is tied to the
system on which it is activated.

--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

freezing

 

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

Try checking event log for any error messages. Open Control Panel, open
Administrative Tools, open Event Viewer and look for any errors that
correspond to when the system freezes, double click the error, the
information contained within may give a clue as to the source of the issue.

Also, don't use drivers from Windows Update, use the drivers from the
manufacturer's web site. In addition, you should not use Windows 9x tools
if you are going to reinstall XP. In other words, don't format from a 9x
boot disk, allow your recovery CD to do all of that.

Not sure why the formatting process took so long but it may be an indication
of a problem with the hard drive. If you don't have the tools disk supplied
with most new hard drives, go to the drive manufacturer's web site, download
their tools, check their instructions for making a tools disk and running
their diagnostic. These tools are far more thorough than anything included
with XP. Even a new hard drive can be bad or go bad quickly and given the
problems you are having, it's worth running the manufacturer's diagnostic
tools to be sure the hard drive isn't the source of the issue.

If you have been restoring your data from a full backup by restoring the
entire full backup, try restoring only your data files as any issues on the
system would be included in a full restore. You might also want to run a
virus scan. I know you've reformatted but formatting doesn't remove all
viruses and if you had been doing full restores a virus might be restored as
well or might have infected some file, something that might have happened to
some of your data files too.