Re: Computer Freezing

"with the WD diagnostic utility, yes?" - Yes and with HD Tune

3. I use the boot disk to check through fdisk to make sure everything looks
ok. After doing this once you put in an OS CD the blue setup screen
automatically appears. I use the OS CD to delete the partitions not fdisk.

4. It is also unclear to me as well. I have an ATI Radeon 9600. I went to
their site and downloaded the lately drivers from them with Catalyst Control
Center so I can optimize the GPU for whatever rendering I'm using or working
with at the time. When I attempted to install this after I did a reformat
without SP2 an error box came up saying I needed .NET 2.0. I believe it just
needed it to use the install software it has not because of the drivers
themselves.

I do not have an OS CD with SP2. I bought my copy of XP home long before SP2
came out. If I were to attempt a repair on the OS it would be unable to find
files and probably crash my system to the extent of not being about to boot
it even in safe mode. I would rather attempt a fresh reformat than a repair
at this point. I do not believe it is a problem with the OS. I haven't
recieve any errors from the OS during boot or when using the OS that say
anything about corrupt system files or etc. I know XP will try to fix any OS
issues on boot or won't boot when their is critical problems with it. I
haven't seen any of this.

"Anna" wrote:


"Anaka" <Anaka@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:BA3B7AD3-302D-4464-A80F-6C62E019633B@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I recently (last night) reformatted my computer and reinstalled
Windows XP
Home Edition. I installed my drivers directly from the manufactor's
websites.
When my computer freezes the mouse stops responding and you can't get
any
response from the computer from Alt-tabbing, windows key, or
Ctrl+alt+deling
but the computer continues to run. It does not shut down or crash.
(No
errors
appear, No BSOD) I believe it must be a hardware problem. I've done a
CHKDSK
on my harddrive and will do a memory test on my RAM as soon as I find
a
floppy disk. Before I reformatted I have never had or seen this
problem
before on my computer. I have fully updated windows with Windows
Update. I
am
also currently running a scan of my computer with OneCare. I am also
monitoring the temperature of my computer with a motherboard monitor
and
it
isn't overheating. I don't really know where to go from here and I
can't
really afford to take it to a computer shop that will just convince
me to
buy
new unneeded parts for my desktop. :( Can anyone suggest any help?


"Anna" wrote:"
Anaka:
1. You say this "freezing" problem arose after you "reformatted my
computer"
and apparently fresh-installed the XP OS. Did you do this fresh install
of
XP because of some problem(s) you were previously having with your
system?
Could this have any bearing on your present problem?

2. Do you think there could be some problem with your HDD
(notwithstanding
the chkdsk routine)? Think it might be wise to check out the disk with
the
diagnostic utility that should be available for download from the
manufacturer of the HDD?

3. When you say you "reformatted my computer" - did you do this through
the
XP installation process, i.e., through the XP installation CD? If not,
how
did you "reformat" the HDD? Are you working with multiple HDDs?

4. When you fresh installed the OS were there any problems of any kind
during the installation process? No error messages of any kind? It went
smoothly and without incident? And you were able to boot to a Desktop
immediately following the XP install? And you were able to install the
motherboard drivers without any problems immediately after the XP
install,
right? So when did this "freezing" problem occur?

5. Do you think something possibly went awry with the OS installation
process and it may simply be worthwhile to undertake another fresh
install?
Is this practical in your situation? Have you given that any thought?

6. As to your present problem - are you *always* able to boot to a
Desktop
without incident? No problems at all re booting up?

7. When does this "freezing" occur? Right after bootup? At random
times?
When you perform a specific act?

8. I take it from your description that when this "freezing" occurs, it
affects the mouse & keyboard but the screen display is unaffected - no
black
screen or screen distortion, etc.

9. So what do you do when this happens? Reboot? Power down and start up
again? And the same "freezing" situation re:occurs?

10. You obviously was able to post your message re this problem? You
did so
on the "problem" machine? Or are you using another PC?

11. And finally, just to repeat - you say (or at least inferred) that
you
had no problems with your PC prior to undertaking a fresh install of
the XP
OS, although it's unclear why you found it necessary to fresh install
the
OS. That this problem arose *only* after you installed the OS, right?
Anna


"Anaka" wrote:
Wow that's a lot of questions. I just did a memory test with Windows
Memory
Diagonistics and it passed all the tests. I think this may be helpful, my
computer will also freeze in safe mode.

And to answer:
1. There were no problems prior to reformating my computer. The reason I
reformated was because I wanted a to optimize my system. I do this once
or
twice a year when needed. Your harddrive becomes fragmented due to moving
files, downloading files, uninstalling and installing, and etc. I wanted
to
clean my harddrive so I could have less cache misses. I was planning to
install all my programming applications (VS, DirectX SDK, V Tune, MSDN,
etc.)
which eats up a lot of space and I need it to be as neatly placed as
possible. I hope that answers that question.

2. When I did a CHKDSK the last 2 steps (4 and 5) took a long time to
complete. Seeing as I have tested a lot of other things I believe it may
be
the harddrive. I am having trouble finding the diagnostic utility for my
harddrive. The model is WDC WD800JB-00ETA0 if anyone can help me with
that.

3. To reformat my computer I made a floopy bootdisk. Inserted it and let
it
run. Restarted my computer with OS CD and went to the blue setup screen.
I
deleted my old partition and then created a new one afterwards. It went
through the setup process and restarted. Then the OS setup started.
Everything went smoothly. I did not have any freezing problems at this
point.

4. No error messages. Yes, I could boot up fine with the fresh install. I
immediately went to the motherboard's website let it scan and pick up my
motherboard which it did correctly. I downloaded all the drivers it
listed.
No freezing occured after this point. I did windows updates. (SP1, SP2)
It
had to of done about 200 updates throughout all of that. I updated my
graphics card drivers at this point. It wouldn't allow me to without .NET
2.0. After this point I started having freezing problems.

5. No I do not believe so.

6. The freezing is random. It may not even get to the logon screen. Most
of
the time it does. Sometimes it freezes when you are logging on after you
clicked on your name. Sometimes it freezes when starting up programs. I
have
no starting programs other than drivers. Sometimes it doesn't freeze for
a
couple minutes to a couple hours. I haven't seen it go for longer than 2
hours without freezing.

7. See 6.

8. No the screen up stops updating. I do not get the white screen meaning
my
graphics card ran out of memory or a black screen (no idea what that
means).
No distortion as well.

9. I restart the computer with the restart key until it will allow me
back on.

10. On the problem PC. Lol.

11. See 1.

"Anaka" <Anaka@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:23349657-6C88-4A8F-8093-A87A15822EA9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I did a harddrive diagnostic test quick and extended and found no errors.


Anaka:
As to your latest post, I take it you performed the "harddrive diagnostic
test" with the WD diagnostic utility, yes?

3. It's puzzling to me how or why you used a DOS boot floppy disk in this
process. I really don't understand your comment that you "inserted it and
let it run." Are you saying, in effect, that you used the boot floppy disk
to delete the partition(s) on your HDD? There was really no need to do this
since the process (partitioning & formatting the HDD) can (and should) be
undertaken using your XP installation CD during the installation of the OS.
But no matter - I wouldn't think that would have any bearing on your
problem.

4. It's unclear to me why you needed .NET 2.0 re the installation of your
video/graphic card drivers. I wonder if that has any bearing on your
problem. Might be a good idea to reinstall the drivers. What's the graphics
card you're using? Presumably an ATI or NVIDIA-based card, yes? And you
downloaded/installed the driver from either the ATI or NVIDIA site, right?

Based on all the information you provided, especially that this problem
never existed prior to the time you fresh installed the OS and installed the
drivers & updates, it would seem reasonable to conclude that the problem is
not hardware-based. Assuming that is so, I realize there's little motivation
for you to undertake another fresh install of the OS since it would involve
another round of driver installs and OS updates, etc. But it remains an
option.

The other option it would seem to me would be for you to undertake a Repair
install of the OS using your XP installation CD. That process wouldn't be
too terribly time-consuming since it would pick up your installed drivers
and existing programs & data. But you would have to re:install all the
Critical Updates again and that's a tedious process of course. (I'm assuming
that if you did undertake a Repair install you would be doing so with an XP
installation CD that contained SP2 - you should have a "slipstreamed"
installation CD that contains SP2.)
Anna



.

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