System lockup with Vista Ultimate

[Cecil Britton]

I have (for a good while now) fought with Vista lockup problem on a new
computer that I put together. The computer uses all Vista certified
components including an AMD 64 Dual core processor, Asus Crosshair
motherboard and 4 Gigs of RAM.

There are two general but probably related problems.

The first problem is that while doing several things (threads) or just doing
one the computer will stop functioning when I click on some shortcut from the
desktop. I get the spinning blue circle for a cursor but no program will
run. I can open Task Manager but no applications are running and no
processes are showing unusual behavior. The hard drive LED is blinking at a
low level indicating little disk activity. The only way out of this problem
is to hit the reset button on the computer. The computer will sit forever
and not shutdown via software. A search of Windows' event logs only turns up
a warning about improper shutdown.

The second problem and this one is more recently occurring, is that I click
on an application's icon in the start menu and absolutely nothing happens.
Clicking on other shortcuts gets the same result. It is as if the file
association for execuable files has been lost by the systsem. All symptoms
are the same as I described above and a hardware shutdown is required.

I have tried running Process Explorer in the background to see if I could
trap some evidence of what is going on in the system when these things occur
but so far it has failed to happen while I have PE running.

Any reasonable assistance in locating this problem will be greatly
appreciated.

 

[Gerry]

Cecil

Start, Control Panel, Performance Information and Tools. What scores are you
getting for the five categories?



~~~~


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

 

[CBritton]

Thanks Garry. My scores are all 5.9 except for the Processor and Video. I
score 5.6 on each of those

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Before you hit the reset button again, have you tried hitting Cntl + Alt +
Delete and selecting Log Out? When you log back in the issue should be
cleared. That is not a solution to the root problem of course, but it can
get you out of the aphang a lot more quickly.

Disconnect any usb device (except for mouse and keyboard) once an aphang
starts and see if the issue clears. I have a usb device that causes me the
same thing you describe and it took me a while to accidentally discover that
it was this one usb hard drive enclosure.

Did Vista come preinstalled on your computer and do you have a standard
Vista dvd? Some system repairs require one.

Have you tried running the System File Checker, which finds and replaces
faulty system files? If you want to try it open a command window (type
'cmd' in the Start/Search box and hit Enter) and type "sfc /scannow" (there
is a space after sfc). If SFC reports a file that cannot be repaired then a
In-Place-Upgrade (Vista's rough equivalent to XP Repair Install) may be
needed.

 

[Gerry]

Colin

How does System File Checker cope with the SP1 update where the CD is pre
SP1, as most will be at the present time?

Should you browse to a backup copy on the hard drive rather than to a
potentially out of date version on a CD?


~~~~


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