win xp stops working, all CPU suddenly used

[Steve Brumbaugh]

I have a problem I've never run across before. Suddenly,
no program works (in win XP). You can't open anything,
including ctrl-alt-del (you get an error message). There
does not seem to be any program or process that causes
this in particular. And it doesn't happen all the time,
but eventually it always seems to occur. I opened the
task manager first to try to pin down what happens and I
found that suddenly 100% of the CPU is being used. I
can't always tell what program causes the process that
seems to be using most of the CPU and it's not always the
same. (dumprep seems to come up a lot).

I don't seem to have any identifiable virus and I can't
find an installed program that seems to be causing the
problem. If the computer is restarted, the problem isn't
there until it reoccurs again.

I have no idea what to do with this problem. Never had it
on any earlier version of windows or even earlier on this
installation on win XP.

Does anyone have any clue about what to do with this?

 

[Jim Macklin]

Could be heat. Could be RAM. Could be other hardware.
Wouldn't electrons as big as bowling balls be nice, you
could see what was happening.

Try cleaning the lint out and off the fans and make sure
they are running. Try swapping such hardware as you might
have, such as keyboards to see it the problem moves or
changes.

I'm not sure, but there should be some monitoring programs
that might help you track the problem.


| I have a problem I've never run across before. Suddenly,
| no program works (in win XP). You can't open anything,
| including ctrl-alt-del (you get an error message). There
| does not seem to be any program or process that causes
| this in particular. And it doesn't happen all the time,
| but eventually it always seems to occur. I opened the
| task manager first to try to pin down what happens and I
| found that suddenly 100% of the CPU is being used. I
| can't always tell what program causes the process that
| seems to be using most of the CPU and it's not always the
| same. (dumprep seems to come up a lot).
|
| I don't seem to have any identifiable virus and I can't
| find an installed program that seems to be causing the
| problem. If the computer is restarted, the problem isn't
| there until it reoccurs again.
|
| I have no idea what to do with this problem. Never had it
| on any earlier version of windows or even earlier on this
| installation on win XP.
|
| Does anyone have any clue about what to do with this?