WinXP Hangs / Locks Up

[TJ Weeks]

It seems I'm not the only one out here whose system locks
up for no discernible reason.

Problem Description: Every time I run the computer, it
locks up. Sometimes it occurs shortly after I've started
it, other times it happens after I've been using it for
an hour or more. It's particularly aggravating at this
juncture, since I'm taking on-line college courses, and I
can't seem to get through creating one full document or
doing on-line research without the system locking up.
There are no definite reproducable actions I take that
would seem to generate the problem; it crops up under a
variety of circumstances.

I can be working in a Word document, typing text, and the
systems locks up. I can be moving from web page to web
page, and the system locks up. I can be using
MediaPlayer9, and the system locks up. I can be in the
midst of an AIM chat session, and the system locks up. I
may be working in one or more Office products, and the
system locks up. I've been using Outlook Express to check
my personal e-mail, or responding to my college newsgroup
threads, and the system locks up. I've even just been on
my Desktop, move my mouse, and the SYSTEM LOCKS UP!

I don't want to have to go through the arduous process of
saving all my personal user files (again), format my hard
hard drive (again), reload WinXP (again), put all the
other user applications on my system (again), spend hours
configuring the environment to the way I like it (again),
only to have my system routinely lock up (AGAIN!).

I'd like to do a root-cause analysis, find what's causing
this problem, determine how to prevent it, and get back
to unhampered computing.

Any suggestions?
TJ Weeks

 

[Guess Who]

Some general troubleshooting steps:

Have you updated to all the latest drivers?

Have you looked in the Event Viewer to see if any errors are listed there,
either under System or Application categories?

Do you have any USB or firewire peripherals plugged in? If you don't need
them to operate your computer normally, unplug them all, except for
mouse/keyboard.

Also, what hardware is in your machine? List everything.

Another thing could be overheating of the processor and/or video card. Do
you know what kind of temps your processor is hitting?

Maybe also a bum power supply that's not getting correct voltages to the
motherboard. And one last thing is memory. Some board are very picky about
memory.

Oh, and if you are overclocking anything, DON'T. That may stop the hanging.