Intermittent Lock up after boot up

I have a tough one to track down here.

Have a HP Pavillion (estimate about 3 years old) that after boot up it locks up. So I tried the old trick of using msconfig and turned everything off and turn them back on again one at a time. Oddly, it didn't lock up again.

Some interesting points
1. After boot up there is a window that flashes on the screen so fast you can not see it and it is then minimized to the task bar. The label in the taskbar was Virus Warning or Alert. Might have said update. Sorry I am not currently in front of the PC right now other wise I would replicate it.

**Virus scan had been recently ran a few days ago and came back clean but there still could be something with this there**

2. the lock up doesn't happen every time. Apparently if you leave the computer alone it will eventually unfreeze itself if it was locked up. After all the reboots I did I thought I would shut off the system let it sit for a bit (maybe 1 min) and then start it up and see if it did it again. But it didn't.

3. Last program installed before this happened was Eudora's latest version. That I am aware of there has been no new hardware additions from the point of working correctly and these lock ups.

My thinking here now, after some reflection, is that perhaps there is a component going out (ram perhaps) that is only showing its head on a cold boot. A truely cold boot with the components at room temp.

Currently, I am doing a fully system scan and after that a defrag. I have spyware removal programs to put on the machine now too. I am also going to have the pc run for a few days without being turned off and then have the pc turned off overnight and see if this problem comes back.

At this stage, other than possible spyware or a trojan I can't really think of any other causes that aren't hardware or OS related and seaking guidance. Any ideas?

Thank you in advanced for your time and sorry for the length if you got here. heh

Talamaine

 

Hi,
An idea for you to check, that if it was I having this problem is, as soon as the computer does finish loading is press the
Ctrl-Alt-Del buttons and see whats there. I know you mentioned that you did the Msconfig/startup thing but thats usually a place I visit mostly when there is a system resource problem (I'm not saying it's not a good idea what you did so please don't mis-
understand that). Also after you have been on the computer and are ready to shut it down, look there again and see whats there.If you get a chance, write it down before moving on and keep us posted. The two things I am interested in are a program not responding and if one of the programs is not releasing it's system resources better known as a memory leak...

 

Ok, I finally have the machine here. The strange message was "Outbreak Warning" which I am not sure where it is coming from but I am inclined to believe the PC-Cillin AV or his ISP.

Master Green - Very good idea which oddly I just thought of as i started up the computer. I saw that Outbreak warning message and then clicked on it in hopes to find what program it was too. Then I checked the running tasks and sure enough OSD was locked up (not responding) so I ended it. Then checked again an Logitech Desktop messenger agent was Not responding. Then the system locked up totally.

So evently I decided that after 5 mins I had waited long enough and restarted the machine (good ole power button). Did the scan disc on start up and it is back up an running. This isn't good for the OS but ok on me for now until I can resolve it.

I am hearing some "strange" sounds from the drive but then it may be that this machine just sounds like this. I am just about to run the whole memory test thing that Pete C suggested and I will post back with any results. Thankfully it isn't a horrible grinding just a sound from a fan I think. Let me get back on that one after the hardware testing.

Btw, the tests were ran for the worm and also for spyware. Got nothing back on this. So far mystified in this regard. But still other avenues to check. I am running the Memory checker overnight as the instructions state and going to try the old swap thing later on.

Thank you both for your suggestions! Any other ideas or further suggestions... feel free please.

 

Hi,
Okay, now after you saw those two programs listed as not responding, go into msconfig and then start up and un-check both of them. Some times what can happen in a case like this is is there might be a conflict, Which means one or the other needs to be un-installed and re-installed.

I am one who likes to do what they call process of elimination and what I have suggested is one of such. Post back and let us know how that turns out and we will go to the next step if need be...

 

Me again,
After my last post I forgot to mention that after you see those programs listed as "not responding" to make sure you click on them individually to "end task" before going into msconfig. This way we can see if your computer issues have gone bye-bye's ???

I am also contemplating if and when you try the previous suggestion(s), if there's an underlying issue. So in the midst of your other assignments, can you also take a quick peek at this:
(1) If you have Norton Anti-Virus protection
(2) When the computer boots up, press the "Esc" button (top
left corner of keyboard)
(3) By doing this we will be able to see if your virus protection
is also interferring with things as they start up
(4) If your Norton screen is not there, then that eliminates that
concern (pressing that Esc button once is all thats needed).

Keep us posted please...

 

Hi,
Sorry about this, but I did not mention that when you do press the Esc button, to wait till the Windows Logon comes up then do it...Because after that, is when the Norton thing will load up (if that is happening)...

 

Resolved !!!

Well thanks to great advice and dedication the machine is now fixed! Yea!

To be frank I am not truely sure what fixed it but I am inclined to believe that Master Green's advice about the background program was what hit it.

Basically, did a scanreg /restore and that didn't work (wouldn't restore) then did a scanreg /fix and a dos scandisc (full). Later on, I ran spybot and found some more stuff.. got rid of that stuff.

Then found out what that logitech program was for. Guess what that Logitech program is a updater... who needs up to date software to run a mouse? gee-ish! Well anyway I uninstalled that and did some more testing. Basically this took a while because the problem would only rear its head when the machine wasn't warmed up. I did some burn in testing and other tests on the hardware and came up with nothing.

So basically, it was either the scanreg /fix or uninstalling that stupid logitech program that did it. I am leaning on the logitech thing as it was one of those Not Responding ones. I think it doesn't like one of the installed programs but as I said earlier who needs up to date mouse drivers? Don't you just need a mouse to work?

Thank you very very much for the ideas/input and hanging in there with me! Again, sorry for the length but perhaps with it others may benifit.

Master Green and Pete C. Cheers and thank you so much!

Tal

PS. Any ideas why the darn thing would do this only on a Cold boot and not a warm one? This still mystifies me.

 

You're welcome, and always remember not only are people like myself here to help but many others I have found are too. It's almost like family on this post because I think we all know how frustrating these lovely machines can. Take care and good luck.