Re: WinXP freezing, hanging up.........



"Paul" wrote:

Steve wrote:

"Paul" wrote:

Steve wrote:
"Paul" wrote:

Steve wrote:
on startup. my sister sent me her Gateway computer, it worked find for a
couple of days then earlier this week while I was on the net it just froze up
on me, I couldn't use the mouse or anything else. so I rebooted and it froze
and continues to freeze up after. every now and then I can get as far as the
user account icon.

I'm running WinXP as it says in the Topic title. I have tried to boot from
the WinXP installation cd and that hangs up too and it gets to the Windows
Setup screen when it is loading files. I have also tried another hard drive
with the same results. it also will not boot in the safe mode either.

does anyone have any ideas. if you need more info please let me know
There are programs you can get, to test stuff. For example, memtest86+
from memtest.org , is available in a floppy or a CD version. When you
run the program, no errors are acceptable (as an error could be what
is upsetting the machine). Even the ability to boot and run this, is
a positive sign. Memtest86+ doesn't find all possible RAM problems
(as some only become apparent under 100% CPU loading).

http://www.memtest.org/pics/i875-big.gif

For hard drive testing, the hard drive manufacturers have diagnostic
programs for download on their web site. This can determine whether
there is a serious problem with the disk for example. You'd need
to eyeball the label on the drive, if you cannot run the computer
and collect inventory information while in Windows.

http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/SeaToolsDOSguide.pdf

Another place to look, is in the BIOS screens. On my machine, when
it starts, I press <delete> to get into the BIOS setup screen.
There is a hardware monitor page, where fan speeds and power
supply voltages are measured. Maybe the Gateway has something
like that. The 3.3V, 5V, and 12V voltages should be within
+/- 5% of those values.

Perhaps when you've collected a few more symptoms, the cause
will be more apparent. Freezing, as such, may have more than
one root cause. (For example, there was a certain network driver
a while back, offered through Windows Update, that caused a
freezing problem. Yours sounds more like a hardware problem
of some sort.)

Paul
thank Paul, if I want to create a CD to run Memtest68 what do I need
to download? sorry I'm not sure what to do after reading it

http://www.memtest.org/

thank you

The CD option takes the form of an ISO9660 file. I take that into
Nero and burn a CD with the ISO9660. The ISO9660 is a container,
that allows bootable media. What you don't want to do, is just
transfer "blah.iso" to the CD, such that if you look at the
CD in Explorer, it shows one file blah.iso. That won't work.
The CD burning program treats the ISO9660 as an image, to be
transferred to the CD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iso9660
http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm

If you don't have any burning software, then I've heard of this
package. Never used it myself. (When I bought a burner, I made
sure at the time, that some version of Nero was bundled with it.
The latest versions of Nero, are getting rather bloated with
unrelated crap.)

"DeepBurner-Free"
http://www.download.com/DeepBurner-Free/3000-2646_4-10250994.html

Paul

thanks Paul, I used Nero, ran and it, but it only ran for about 18 seconds.
thinking to myself that is not a good sign.

plus after reading this, not sure what my next step should be.........

If your computer freezes even when in BIOS.......
Well, that sounds BAD.
Something very basic and important must be broke.

Your problem doesn't seem to have anything to do with your OS, so no
repairdisk will help. Bios is low-level.

You CAN try to replace some components with others if that is an option.
Memory would be a good start.

If you want to spend some money on it, you can bring it to your local PC
repairman.
In my experience, all the money you spend on it is money gone. You could
spend that too on a new machine, and with repaircost easily $50 an hour
without garantueed result...

Sorry. I would give up on a machine freezing in BIOS.
(Or at most try replacing memorymodules only from another PC with
comparable memory)

Regards,
Erwin Moller

do you have any ideas?

I'd start with a visual inspection of the inside of the machine.
Is the heatsink still attached to the socket properly ? Are the
tops of the capacitors bulged ? Did the power supply make a
burnt smell lately ?

, Paul, for some reason I can't reply using IE7, no idea what I did
so I'm using Firefox. when inspecting the inside I noticed that
the heatsink is not attached properly.

http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/INTEL/2513603/251360305.shtml

when you look at the photo above, you will see what looks like 2
clamps one on the upper left side and one on the lower right side
this computer only has one of them and is lose on the other side.

this is as far as I have went with my inspection, I guess I will take
it to a shop to see if can it fixed. not sure how to take it off but I'm
reading/searching to find out before I make a trip to a shop. do you
think this might be the problem with this machine?

thanks again Paul, sorry for the delay, we had a family emergency.

(Picture of bulged caps. This can cause instability of the CPU,
if the caps are part of the Vcore regulator.)

http://www.badcaps.net/images/caps/kt7/image004.png

Two approaches are -

1) Simplify the hardware setup. For example, disconnect the hard
drive and the CDROM drive from the motherboard. Now, go into the
BIOS. Does it run longer than 18 seconds without freezing ?

The problem with simplifying, is that there probably isn't too
much you can strip out of that machine. It might have integrated
graphics, instead of a video card, so that can't be removed.
If it had both integrated graphics, and a video card, then the
video card could be removed (and the monitor cable moved over
to the integrated graphics connector).

When you remove a component, it does two things. It reduces the
power consumption a tiny bit. And in the event that the component
you removed is the culprit, you might see a change in the behavior
of the system. Some computers have several add-in cards installed,
so there is more stuff to remove.

2) Swapping components for known good ones, is another technique.
But that is for someone who is well equipped with parts. Processors
are usually pretty reliable, so RAM would be a better candidate for
a swap. Also, the power supply would be something to try (if you
don't have a multimeter, and don't want to bother checking the
current supply).

There is another poster here, who might suggest measuring the power
supply voltages, but not every user is happy with the thought of
doing that. You do need to know a little bit about electronics,
to do it. (Which is why I was hoping the BIOS might have a
hardware monitor page showing voltages.) The output voltages should
be within 5% of the true value (3.3V, 5V, 12V, -12V, +5VSB).

When it freezes, does the computer respond to the reset button ?
Does the computer have a reset button, separate from the power
button ? After it is reset, does the next freeze happen sooner ?
If so, that would suggest there is a thermal component to the problem.
(I'm just looking for as many symptoms as can be gathered here.)

Does the BIOS have a RAM test ? Does it always make it all the
way through the RAM test, with no strange pauses as the RAM test
counts up ?

Do the visual inspection first, and see if there is anything
obviously out of order in there. Looking at stuff, is a pretty
cheap test :-)

Paul

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