Re: Computer Freezing

Graphics Card: I have a ATI Radeon 9600 series. I downloaded the latest
drivers from here. http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/radeonx-xp.html I
searched on google and found that people with Catalyst 7.7 have been
recieving this atimtag error in their event viewer. I guess I'll try
uninstalling the driver and reinstalling just the display driver. It does
seem like everytime my computer freezes I get this atimtag CRT error saying
"CRT invalid display type".

Clean Up: I'll do a Disk CleanUp and Disk Defrag. I've cleaned up temps.

Printer: I haven't used a printer at all on this computer. I did have one
connected via USB but I never installed the drivers or used it. It currently
is not connected as well.

Overheating: The last few times my computer has froze the temperature has
only been 35C which isn't very hot. I don't think the 2 make a connection.

Yesterday, was a bit strange. I had one freeze in the morning about 30
minutes after starting it up. After running all the tests it didn't freeze at
all for hours. I thought the probably mysteriously disappeared. I was able to
install Visual Studio (which is a good 2 hours) without any problems at all.
Later that night I decided to transfer some files over from my laptop through
the network on share documents. After a few minutes of copying my desktop
froze.

This morning I tried powering on my desktop and it wouldn't turn on. I
started to think my power supply went out. I shut it down fine last night. I
decided to check the coord and I exchanged the power coord and it was able to
power up just fine. I read somewhere when your computer freezes it could be a
problem with your power supply. Maybe it fried my power coord? I have no
idea. It's just really strange.

"Gerry" wrote:

Anaka

The error is linked to your graphics card. What is the make and model of
your graphics card? Don't forget you can roll back as well as update
drivers.

When you provide Event Viewer Reports it helps to provide a complete
report using the copy and paste tip I provided in my last post.

Cleaning up = Try running Disk CleanUp in all user profiles.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp to
Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.

The list of unsigned drivers all seem to be linked to an XPS
Printer.Problems seem to arise with in Vista but there are no clear
reports of problems when using Windows XP. Do you use your printer to
print documents in Asian languages?

Overheating would cause freezing. Are all your fans working? Dust
bunnies an also cause over heating.
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

--



Hope this helps.

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


Anaka wrote:
Event Viewer: I checked the application logs and there were a few
errors and more warnings. In the system logs their were a number of
errors only on ati3mtag. Seeing the ati does that mean ATI (my
graphics card?) or is that something different? I'm not familiar with
these logs.

Windows Update History: It's fine.

Drivers: No yellow question marks. I've run a program called Driver
Detective to find any updated drivers for my computer as well and it
conflicts with the drivers my motherboard gives me. I don't know if I
trust the program.

Cleaned up after all the changes?: I don't understand this question.

sigverif.exe: The following came up not signed:
mxdwdrv.dll
mxdwdui.dll
mxdwdui.gpd
mxdwdui.ini
stddtype.gdl
stdschem.gdl
stdschmx.gdl
unidrv.dll
unidrvui.dll
unires.dll

HD Tune:
HD Tune: WDC WD800JB-00ETA0 Information

Firmware version : 77.07W77
Serial number : WD-WMAHL1248571
Capacity : 74.5 GB (~80.0 GB)
Buffer size : 8192 KB
Standard : ATA/ATAPI-6
Supported mode : UDMA Mode 5 (Ultra ATA/100)
Current mode : UDMA Mode 5 (Ultra ATA/100)

S.M.A.R.T : yes
48-bit Address : yes
Read Look-Ahead : yes
Write Cache : yes
Host Protected Area : yes
Device Configuration Overlay : yes
Automatic Acoustic Management: yes
Power Management : yes
Advanced Power Management : no
Power-up in Standby : no
Security Mode : yes
Firmware Upgradable : yes

Partition : 1
Drive letter : C:\
Label :
Capacity : 76308 MB
Usage : 26.00%
Type : NTFS
Bootable : Yes

HD Tune: WDC WD800JB-00ETA0 Health

ID Current Worst ThresholdData
Status (01) Raw Read Error Rate 200 197 51 0
Ok (03) Spin Up Time 90 87 21 2008
Ok (04) Start/Stop Count 100 100 40 710
Ok (05) Reallocated Sector Count 200 200 140 0
Ok (07) Seek Error Rate 200 200 51 0
Ok (09) Power On Hours Count 58 58 0 31142
Ok (0A) Spin Retry Count 100 99 51 0
Ok (0B) Calibration Retry Count 100 100 51 2
Ok (0C) Power Cycle Count 100 100 0 680
Ok (C2) Temperature 110 253 0 33
Ok (C4) Reallocated Event Count 200 200 0 0
Ok (C5) Current Pending Sector 200 200 0 0
Ok (C6) Offline Uncorrectable 200 200 0 0
Ok (C7) Ultra DMA CRC Error Count 200 253 0 0
Ok (C8) Write Error Rate 200 85 51 0
Ok

Power On Time : 31142
Health Status : Ok

HD Tune: WDC WD800JB-00ETA0 Error Scan

Scanned data : 76288 MB
Damaged Blocks : 0.0 %
Elapsed Time : 31:03

High Heat: In the process of doing the error scan the temperature on
HD Tune started at 29C and went up to 51C/123F. I believe anything
over 120F is hot? However, if the computer was overheating why would
it be overheating now that I did a reformat and not before hand when
the computer had more programs and worse cache? Plus, why, if it was
overheating, would it be freezing instead of shutting down? Normally,
when a computer overheats it shuts down for safety not freeze and
continue to run. (These are just a few thoughts.)


"Gerry" wrote:

Anaka

No error messages? Does that include a complete review of all
reports in the System and Application logs in Event Viewer?

Have you checked Windows Update History to check that installed
correctly? Problems recently for some users involving Net Framework
updates.

Have you cleaned up after all the changes?

Drivers? Are there any yellow question marks in Device Manager? Right
click on the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties,
Hardware,Device Manager. If yes what is the Device Error code?

Try Start, Run, type "sigverif.exe" without quotes and hit OK. What
drivers are listed as unsigned? Disregard those which are not
checked.

I would try HD Tune (freeware).
Download and run it and see what it turns up.
http://www.hdtune.com/

Select the Info tabs and place the cursor on the drive under Drive
letter and then double click the two page icon ( copy to Clipboard )
and copy into a further message.

Select the Health tab and then double click the two page icon ( copy
to Clipboard ) and copy into a further message. Also do a full
surface scan with HD Tune.



--

Hope this helps.

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





Anaka wrote:
I did a harddrive diagnostic test quick and extended and found no
errors.

"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.

"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?


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?
.

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