Xp crash

[Richard Braun]

My WindowsXp SP2 will freeze while sitting idle, with screen saver and power
saver turned off. The mouse pointer disappears, and ctrl-alt-del does
nothing. After turning off and restarting, everything appears to work
normally, and as long as I'm doing some work at the keyboard or with the
mouse there are no problems. If I let it idle, chances are that a half hour
later it will have frozen up again. I'm on the internet via high speed cable
and use McAfee anti virus. What could cause the freezeup, and how would I go
about troubleshooting to find the culprit?
Richard

 

[Gerry]

Richard

You need to decide whether you have a freeze or a crash? They are
different things.A crash is a system ( or programme ) failure usually
resulting in the computer automatically rebooting or displaying a Stop
Error (AKA blue screen of death) message if the computer has been
configured not to automatically reboot upon a system failure occuring. A
freeze is when the computer becomes unresponsive to keyboard or mouse. A
freeze will often resolve itself if given time to do so. The demand for
memory or CPU processing capacity exceeds what is available at the time.

Do you have a Desktop or Laptop computer? It could be overheating so you
should check that all fans are working and use an Air Duster to remove
any dust inside the casing.
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

How much RAM?

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

You should be able to gather more information from Task Manager. With
the Processes tab open select View, Select, Columns and check the boxes
before Peak Memory Usage and Virtual Memory size. What are the figures
for the 6 processes using the largest amounts?

Some processes will start in the background if the computer is allowed
to idle. You may be able to spot these using Task Manager but Process
Explorer is a better tool. For further information about Process
Explorer see here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/ProcessExplorer.mspx

A new addition to Process Explorer is that you can now right click on a
process and search Online for relevant information.

--



Hope this helps.

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

 

[Richard Braun]

It's a desktop, and it's a freeze, not a crash. Sorry, but I didn't know
there was a difference. Now I know. I'll check into the overheating
possibility by cleaning the case and maybe adding a fan. As to memory and
processor usage, I see all the numbers and colorful graphs in Task Manager
but have difficulty understanding what they all mean. I'll be working on it,
but your advice makes sense and is appreciated.
Richard

 

[Gerry]

Richard

"I see all the numbers" -post the information requested here. We are
here to help,


--



Hope this helps.

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

 

[Richard Braun]

Gerry, here are the numbers you requested:

Task Manager, Performance tab/Commit Charge (K):
Total - 327668
Limit - 2220624
Peak - 412748

Task Manager, Processes tab
Peak Memory Usage -
Mcshield.exe 92,520 K
McProxy.exe 89264 K
svchost.exe 31,980 K
explorer.exe 26,000 K
msimn.exe 29,932 K
mcmscsvc.exe 14,872 K

Virtual memory size:
Mcshield.exe 40,696 K
svchost.exe 16,724 K
explorer.exe 17,068 K
SAService.exe 13,400 K
msimn.exe 15,808 K
mcmscvc.exe 8,872 K

 

[Daave]

My WindowsXp SP2 will freeze while sitting idle, with screen saver and
power saver turned off. The mouse pointer disappears, and ctrl-alt-del
does nothing. After turning off and restarting, everything appears to
work normally, and as long as I'm doing some work at the keyboard or
with the mouse there are no problems. If I let it idle, chances are
that a half hour later it will have frozen up again. I'm on the
internet via high speed cable and use McAfee anti virus. What could
cause the freezeup, and how would I go about troubleshooting to find
the culprit?

The first thing I would consider is some hardware issue. What is the
make and model of your PC? How much memory do you have?

 

[Gerry]

Richard

You have not told me whether it is is a laptop or a desktop. Also the
amount of the installed RAM?

If it is a desktop do you leave the computer on 24/7?

Have you compared the timing of freezes with Scheduled Tasks to see if
they coincide?

There have been problems with Site Advisor and memory usage. You could
disable feature and see if the problems still occur. McAfee may not be
the most suitable package for your computer as it has a large footprint.

--



Hope this helps.

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

 

[Richard Braun]

The computer is a Compaq Presario desktop model SR1550NX. It has a total of
1 GB Ram and 200 GB hard drive used about 20%. The computer is on rarely
more than 6 hours at a time. I have not been able to compare the timing of
freezes with scheduled tasks, mainly because when the computer freezes I
can't bring up the Windows Task Manager, nor anything else for that matter.
Richard

 

[Unknown]

Read his second post (in response to you) where his first words are IT'S A
DESKTOP.

 

[Gerry]

Well spotted go the the top of the class!


~~~~


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

 

[Gerry]

Richard

What happens if you just leave the problem to resolve itself when you
get a freeze? How long have you waited?

Two other possible causes come to mind.

A bad sector on the hard disk. Check the hard drive for bad sectors by
running chkdsk /f /r

Faulty RAM. You might test your RAM memory
http://www.memtest.org/

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

--



Hope this helps.

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

 

[Richard Braun]

Thanks to Gerry's suggestions I ran chkdsk/f/r and MemTest. Little did I
know what I would be in for:
I started Checkdisk (C drive only) (run from Windows with repair sector
option) at 9 am and it finally completed its labors at 11 pm. It reported no
errors, saying only that the scan was completed successfully.
As for MemTest, I had to brush up on my DOS commands to get this utility to
run but finally managed to download the correct exe/zip file, burn a cd of
the unzipped file using Nero (bootable disk option), boot the computer with
the new disk, proceed to the appropriate subdirectory and then run the
program. It also reported no errors.
I learned a lot about self test programs as a consequence of all this, and I
do appreciate the advice. Unfortunately it leaves me no closer to a solution
for the problem of random freeze ups, with which I began this post in the
first place. Sincerely,
Richard

 

[Daave]

My WindowsXp SP2 will freeze while sitting idle, with screen saver
and power saver turned off. The mouse pointer disappears, and
ctrl-alt-del does nothing. After turning off and restarting,
everything appears to work normally, and as long as I'm doing some
work at the keyboard or with the mouse there are no problems. If I
let it idle, chances are that a half hour later it will have frozen
up again. I'm on the internet via high speed cable and use McAfee
anti virus. What could cause the freezeup, and how would I go about
troubleshooting to find the culprit?

It looks like you are in the process of ruling out hardware problems.

Do you get freezes in Safe Mode, too?

 

[Gerry]

Richard

You did not answer this question.

What happens if you just leave the problem to resolve itself when you
get
a freeze? How long have you waited?

When you get a freeze what happens if you use Ctrl+Shift+Esc to bring up
Task Manager. Can you get to see what process is running. Again you may
need to be patient.

Running chkdsk can unfortunately take a time. Sorry I didn't warn if
you. The time taken does vary significantly from one computer to the
next.

--



Hope this helps.

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

 

[Daave]

Running chkdsk can unfortunately take a time. Sorry I didn't warn if
you. The time taken does vary significantly from one computer to the
next.

Still, I think that 14 hours is a bit much...

 

[Gerry]

Daave

There have many reports of it taking much longer.

--
Regards.

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

 

[Daave]

There have many reports of it taking much longer.

Wow!

 

[Gerry]

Daave

The physical size of the disk is a factor. The read / write seed. Also
the condition of the the disk i.e. existence of bad sectors.


--



Hope this helps.

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