Re: Computer Freezing

Anaka

The problem you have with the graphics card is not unique to you. I saw
another thread a couple of days ago throwing up a similar error report.

What exactly do you mean by a forced reboot?

What do you mean by Disk CleanUp freezing. The assessing by DiskCleanUp
of how much space it can gain does take quite a while. It the saving
from compressing old files that does this. You just have to be patient
with it. If freezing is happening later then there is a different
problem.

You can use cCleaner (freeware) which does a more thorough job.
http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp
http://www.ccleaner.com/

With any cleaner you need to proceed with caution. To be safe you
should create a restore point before using cCleaner. cCleaner also
offers backup before removal.

When using cCleaner think twice before checking Autocomplete Form
History under Internet Explorer. You do get a warning but this one has
irritating consequences. You may need to restore your system's
recollection of passwords after use so keep a record off computer so
that they can easily be re-entered.

Leave the Scan for Issues option alone.

When you removed RAM memory did you do this stick by stick so that you
could identify which stick, if any might be faulty?

--



Hope this helps.

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


Anaka wrote:
I installed the 7.6 display drivers and no longer get this atimtag
error when my computer freezes. I also noticed that this error is
being sent upon force reboot not when the freeze initially occurs. I
think the error is because my computer is force rebooted not because
of the freeze itself. It's probably upset about something in the
driver not being shut down properly.

I attempted a Disk Clean and it froze on me.

Thank you for all your help thus far.

"Anaka" wrote:

I don't see anything relating to a Raedon 9600 with Catalyst 7.7 or
anything about computer freezes. I've uninstalled these drivers and
reinstalled just the display driver and there is still a problem
with freezes.

I have already cleaned out dust when I went to exchange out memory
and check if that was the problem. I've checked that all fans are
properlly working at that time too.

"Gerry" wrote:

Anaka

There are some known unresolved issues with Catalyst 7.7 with
Windows XP.
http://www2.ati.com/relnotes/catalyst_77_release_notes.html#197309

Have you tried removing the computer case side panel and removing
the dust? Ideally you need an Air Duster which contains compressed
to remove the dust. You might be surprised at the amount of dust
inside. Also make sure you can hear / see that the fans are
working. Working fans are very important for the well being of your
computer. If one fails it can result in a fried motherboard, which
is infinitely more expensive to replace than a fan. An Air Duster
is also useful for cleaning out food crumbs trapped in keyboards.

--



Hope this helps.

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

Anaka wrote:
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.


.

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