PC Lock up

Hi again.

I have now got a different problem.
My dell computer every now and then just freezes for no apparent reason. I have no idea what causes it because it freezes in a varitey of programs. Everything just locks up and the only way to correct it is to hold the power button 4 7 secs.

What is more, if i leave the computer for 10secs after restarting due to the crash, one of the cooling fans powers up extremely quickly for a couple of seconds.

Plz can somebody help me work out what is wrong, it annoys me when it freezes in the middle of my wrk!

thanx again

 

Hello Ice,

This could be a hardware problem with the disk drive. To confirm or elminate that, go to the HD Mfg. site and look for diagnostic tools for the HD, run and see what comes up.

IF that's ok, than have to look at the possibility of software conflicts.

Regards - Charles

 

lock up probs

or u could simply try another harddrive in the machine

 

Hello Torpedo,

or u could simply try another harddrive in the machine
A little tough to do with the OS on the original drive

Regards - Charles

 

thanx charlevar for the quick response.

Have just done 2 checks on the HD. 1 with manufacturer's diag tools and other from xp.

both reported no prblems and working fine.

what sort of software conflicts will there be.

Its not a common problem it just appears to do it every now and then.

 

Hello ICE, try this out, I'm not sure if it will help you any though.
Start > Run > chkdsk, let it complete everything and correct any problems it found.

Sorry if this doesn't help you any.

 

This kind of problem can be a bear to diagnose. You're going to have to be aware of what's running when this happens.

Start by going thru the background progams running on startup and disable anything either useless or anything that can be on demand. http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=39425 this post has links to databases that will give you info on common processes and startups.

Excellent advice. Run chkdsk from a command prompt - start > run - with this syntax chkdsk /r

For an explanation of chkdisk syntax and what each does: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/chkdsk.mspx

Regards - Charles

 

Don't know if this helps, but I recently had a similar problem which I eventually solved by shutting down Microsoft AntiSpyware's active agents (haven't had time to determine which one, so I shut them all down - the freezing problem's now gone).