Re: Random lockups

Graham Daniels wrote:
Our son's PC got a virus which we managed to get rid of. I have
reinstalled XP home twice, reformatted the hard drive but tstill we
get random and also non random lockups.

Athlon 3200+ processor ATI Radeon 95500 graphics card. I have
swapped the card with an identical machine purchased at the same
time but that didn't change anything. Have been to Windows update
and also updated to latest ATI radeon drivers but can't seem to get
to the bottom of this.
Any suggestions gratefully received.

Shenan Stanley wrote:
First - when you say "reformatted" - do you mean you performed a
clean installation of Windows XP or some sort of destructive
restore as provided by the original equipment manufacturer? (Did
you use a real Windows XP installation CD or some sort of recovery
method?)
To me - that could be anything - and if you formatted as well - it
sounds more like a hardware issue than software. Bad memory, dirty
power, bad video, defective motherboard, bad sectors on the hard
disk drive, etc.

Graham Daniels wrote:
One prorgam that will reliably cause this problem is a game
called Heroes of the Pacific - plays for about 4 minutes before
dead screen and no response.

To reformat I booted off the recovery CD provided by the
manufacturer, deleted then created and reformatted the disc
partition containing windows. Then reinstalled windows on to
fresh partition.

philo wrote:
Might as well run a RAM test
and also run the mfg's harddrive diagnostic
for starters

Graham Daniels wrote:
How do I do a RAM test? Also how to run mfg's HD diagnostic?

You *may* be better off taking it to a professional. As I stated before -
it could be a variety of things... Bad memory, dirty power, bad video,
defective motherboard, bad sectors on the hard disk drive, etc.

- Check your event log for errors, search the web (with Google) for
solutions to these errors. (Start -> Run -> eventvwr)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427

- Test your system memory for problems:
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp
(*makes diskette to boot from)
and/or
http://www.hcidesign.com/memtest/

- Figure out the manufacturer of your hard disk drive (visual inspection in
open case, Computer Management console/Device Manager, Belarc Advisor, etc.)
and then visit that manufacturers web page.. Look in their support section
and get their diagnostics and run that.

For Example:
Western Digital Corp.
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp

Maxtor
http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.8db0c3d6932ced37294198b091346068/?channelpath=/en_us/Support/Software%20Downloads/View%20By%20Category/Desktop%20Storage/Maxtor%20Other

Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools

Hitachi
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Report back with anything you find!

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: How do you transfer an application...
    ... Windows XP, as I told Snit. ... so you stole your Mac. ... After a reformat and reinstall. ... I was transferring all the settings and data files of one app from ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)
  • Re: How do you transfer an application...
    ... You upgraded Windows? ... This would, of course, be trivial on a Mac. ... single post other than just application management. ... After a reformat and reinstall. ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)
  • Re: What would i need
    ... If you are going to reformat and reinstall Windows, yes, you will lose ... Other alternatives include removable hard drives, ... You either use Windows built-in CD burning program, ... movies tend to be much bigger, and if a movie is bigger than a CD, you need ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Shat has hit the fan...
    ... > windows program, it often takes ten minutes to load. ... > - Most of the problems are probably because it has Spyware coming out ... > "viapdsk.sys") So it won't even let me reformat. ... Why you should use a computer firewall.. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain)
Loading