A freezng mystery: defies all investigation so far!!!

Crawford

Crawford

Crawford

Associate
Joined
28 May 2003
Posts
302
Hi folks,

I have outlined elsewhere how my rig is freezing suddenly, and on the basis of these replies and searches of the archive i've performed a number of diagnostics. I seem to have tried everything, and nothing has worked.

I intially ran memTest for 6 hours, in different modes, without finding any errors. I appreciate that the longer this is run the better, but this still seems like a pretty long time.

I ran Htune last night on each drive (2 physical, 4 partions total), and did not find any errors here either. However, im not certain i did this right, as my diagnostic file seemed different to those in the archive. Temperatures at this point for the drive with SMART was 42 - This is on a samsung something or other.

I tried to use the manufactors utilities, but these failed to run in dos. I can't report the error message as they were unreadable.

I made a brief examination to check that everything is seated correctly, but all looks ok. I have not tried moving the single stick of 512mb ram.

I have increased the page file size following previous advice, which has sped things up but not stopped the freezing.

Left in Bios for some hours the temperatures were stable, and the PC did not freeze. I have only tested this once.

Using speedfan i recorded the following temperatures and voltages. Although i forgot to note which rail is which, it ought to be fairly apparent:

BIOS WINDOWS (After ~2 hours on time)

1.76 SAME
2.44 SAME
3.23 3.21
4.97 SAME
11.96 12.03
11.86 SAME
3.37 1.88 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4.89 SAME
28c 36c

The only great change is in that of the -5V rail, which was 3.37v in BIOS and 1.88V in Windows. To me this seems the most notable result ive had with all this testing.

I ran chkdsk on each drive, with the /r parameter. This recovered a moderate number of bad clusters.

I've looked in the event log, and the only thing with red crosses is when Macacfee (spelling?!) virus scan attempts to autoupdate. This seems unlikely to crash everything, but i have disabled autoupdate anyway.

I wonder whether the event log gets written, perhaps whatever causes this problem freezzing doesnt leave sufficient time to write it?

I have now left the computer on booted into safe mode whilst i am at work. Am i correct that stability now would indicate a software glitch.

Should i also run HDD regenerator, Disk Checker 3.1 and Spinrite 6.0?

Or, WHAT ELSE DO I TRY!!!!!!?????

HELP VERY WELCOME!
 
Firstly I would create an Ultimate Boot CD from here (apologies to mods for any adverts that might be competitors).
This will have more diagnostics to try. Try the CPU benchmarks to see if they produce any errors (signify CPU or motherboard fault).

When the machine freezes, does pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del do anything? If it does reboot the machine, it would normally signify a software problem, whereas if it doesn't it is normally a hardware fault.

Have you tried doing a clean reinstall of Windows?
 
Are the bad clusters reported in chkdsk new or were they there when the system worked fine? They are bad sign of a drives health if your getting new physical errors.

You can ignore the -5v readings.
 
I'll prep an ultimate bookdisk and try its utilities - it would certainly be nice to challenge the motherboard and CPU a little, and try and reveal some weaknesses!


I'm fairly sure ctrl-alt-del has no effect, as i presume i would have tried that. I haven't checked recently though, so i will try the next time it fails.

The system has not been comprehensivly chkdsk-ed for sometime. The system partition is checked reasonably regularly at the computers own request - i.e it comes up at startup.

Does this indicate a problem with shut-down, perhaps a service preventing normal proceedures which then muddles the pagefile? This suggestion may be way off!

How long would it take to generate further errors if the HDs are failing - test again by the weekend for example?

Interested to know why the -5v reading is not important.........

I have not defragged any of these disks. Should i do that now?

Help most appreciated!
 
If you're getting bad sectors your disk could very probably be on it's last legs. Make sure you have backups for when your drive fails.

Edit/ leggs only has 1 g :P.
 
Hi,

The remarkable thing is that my PC has lasted all day in safe mode, admittedly doing nothing, but lasting this many hours without freezing is quite unusual. Guess this suggests software stuff?

Do i go through disabling services? If so, how?!

No downloading the ultimate CD again, since i left the copy i made at work, at work!
 
Hi,

I ran manufacturers utilities on both my Seagate and Samsung hard-disks last night, without any errors.

I've tested the CPU without errors.

I have left the system running a defragment programmes i downloaded; according to windows three partions don't need defragmenting, one is in serisous need. They should all be done.

Where is the pagefile stored. I have a sneaking suspicion it is on my highly fragmented drive, not the system drive. Is this possible?

I also installed a microsoft fix call hive something or other, which forces services to end on shut down. This has removed the error message i was having in the event log.

I think the PC will crash today, and not be opperational when i get home.

What next? Drivers? How does one go about checking them?

Cheers
 
Uninstall vid drivers through add/remove in control pannel and after a reboot see if things have changed.If not then try others.
 
Not sure, but from memory i don't think video drivers come up in the add/remove dialogue.

Will check drivers in sytem info.

Are graphics one particularly likely culprits?
 
Creative drivers are notoriously buggy !.

Do you have a creative sound card in your system?.

If you do, then remove the drivers and try your machine without them installed.

If that works, try moving the sound card to another slot, re-install the drivers then test again.

I can't emphasise how poor the creative drivers can be!, I have to run my system crippled (HT off) because of creative drivers!.
 
Well, this is embarassing........

I've just remembered that i don't have a soundcard, only onboard sound. On reading the posts i somehow interpretted graphics cards!!

So, looks like i don't have the sound card explanation for problems either!
 
If you could post a spec of your PC it may help.
Tell us:
Model and speed of CPU (and if it is overclocked or still at default speeds)
Make and model of Motherboard
Amount and number of sticks of RAM
Make and model of graphics card
List of any and all PCI cards installed
Makes and sizes of all hard drives
 
Will post this info when i get a chance to check it.

Must confess that i was not mentioning this as it isnt a great spec, and aside from embarassment folks on here tend to immediately say that the best solution is to buy a whole load of expensive new kit!
 
Right, home.

PC is still up, having defragmented whilst i was out without any strange results.

Delighted this is the case, but slightly worried about the absence of a real diagnosis.

Could it be related to the Hive thing?

Cheers
 
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