Re: Constant Freezing - Please help

Gerry, you've been very kind and I wanted to let you know what else I have
done.

I did download the RAM test but have not yet run it. I'm a bit reluctant to
change the BIOS at startup because it seems like something I could get into
trouble with. But I will try to run the test later today and see if it will
go without that. I did run a preliminary test (I know not as rigorous by far)
that comes with the ThinkPad and it tested memory as OK, so at least (I'd
think) there's no huge memory defect.

I checked on my Dad's system and he did not have the Propel Accelerator and
I have gotten that out of the background tasks. I think at this point I need
to shut off some of McAfee. I did call their support line and had a dreadful
experience. Even though it was a fee line the fellow kept arguing with me
about what I was telling him. So annoying! I shall not renew with them for
sure.

If these things don't work I probably will give up. The local guy my Dad
uses said he could take the machine Wednesday. I'd rather do that than
attempt the cleaner myself, although I think I could do it and although my
machine does offer the ability to take a snapshot before any change. I don't
want to be stressed about making the wrong decision, especially while
everything is quiet at Christmas. But maybe I'll get bored and brave....

I do have all my data backed up (thank heavens!) and I will write back and
let you know how I do. I've learned a great deal from your generous sharing
of your knowledge of tools and techniques, Gerry. I deeply appreciate your
help and wish you a most wondeful holiday!
Deb


"Gerry" wrote:

Deb

You are going to have to test the RAM -please see the link for
instructions
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

I am not a fan of Wireless. I would change to an ethernet connection if
it is practical. Does your Dad have Propel Accelerator software
installed? If not it is a pointer that it is not needed. Could it have
been installed when you connected up elsewhere?

Download and install cCleaner
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.

Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in
the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for the last boot. No
Information Reports or Duplicates please. Indicate which also appear in
a previous boot.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer.

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.


--



Hope this helps.

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


DEBTHINKPAD wrote:
I have the entire McAfee suite and I think it's got about 6 months
left. I can't check right now because for some reason my Dad's got
internet and I don't. I could disable the McAfee site advisor (which
I do have as part of the suite) if you think that might help.

My Dad has a DSL line with AT&T and we have a Belkin router. I run
wireless off that router with a Belkin card in my laptop. I did not
install the Propel SW (unless it was hidden in something else) and
cannot tell you if it makes any difference.

I have erased the temp files the chkdsk erases, but I found that the
specific file you mention is still there. "Properties" says it is an
unknown file and the type is archive. I have no idea exactly what it
is.

Here are the two reports from the HD SW:
HD Tune: IC25N020ATDA04-0 Information

Firmware version : DA3OA76A
Serial number : 63A63HE8265
Capacity : 18.6 GB (~20.0 GB)
Buffer size : 1806 KB
Standard : ATA/ATAPI-0
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 : no
Read Look-Ahead : yes
Write Cache : yes
Host Protected Area : yes
Device Configuration Overlay : yes
Automatic Acoustic Management: no
Power Management : yes
Advanced Power Management : yes
Power-up in Standby : yes
Security Mode : yes
Firmware Upgradable : no

Partition : 1
Drive letter : C:\
Label : IBM_PRELOAD
Capacity : 18139 MB
Usage : 40.72%
Type : FAT32
Bootable : Yes

Partition : 2
Drive letter :
Label :
Capacity : 937 MB
Usage : 0.00%
Type : FAT32 Hidden
Bootable : No

HD Tune: IC25N020ATDA04-0 Health

ID Current Worst ThresholdData
Status (01) Raw Read Error Rate 100 100 62 0
Ok (02) Throughput Performance 100 100 40 0
Ok (03) Spin Up Time 131 131 33 1
Ok (04) Start/Stop Count 97 97 0 4847
Ok (05) Reallocated Sector Count 100 100 5 0
Ok (07) Seek Error Rate 100 100 67 0
Ok (08) Seek Time Performance 100 100 40 0
Ok (09) Power On Hours Count 76 76 0 10738
Ok (0A) Spin Retry Count 100 100 60 0
Ok (0C) Power Cycle Count 98 98 0 3654
Ok (BF) G-sense Error Rate 100 100 0 0
Ok (C0) Power Off Retract Count 100 100 0 10
Ok (C1) Load Cycle Count 48 48 0 527722
Ok (C2) Temperature 152 152 0 393252
Ok (C4) Reallocated Event Count 100 100 0 0
Ok (C5) Current Pending Sector 100 100 0 0
Ok (C6) Offline Uncorrectable 100 100 0 0
Ok (C7) Ultra DMA CRC Error Count 200 200 0 0
Ok

Power On Time : 10738
Health Status : Ok

I also ran the physical check and there were no problems.

I do not create Adobe documents, only read them. I also do very
little photo work, just dump digital photos to the PC and use the
SONY SW to edit a little bit (cropping, red eye reduction and such)
but I do it every 2 or 3 weeks with, say, 10 or 20 photos, not a lot
of them and not daily.

I agree the problem seems to be RAM and I do think McAfee may have
kicked things off somehow (a prompt request to update their SW was on
my screen when it froze the first time) but their (for fee!) help
person was not helpful AT ALL and I gave up on that route.

I will need to get back to you after running the defrag. I also can't
do much with the mal-ware until I get the internet connection on my
laptop back, but will let you know once I do. (Since I've only
deleted what the clean up SW said to, I hope that it will fix itself
when I restart.)

Again, I am very grateful for your help, especially as things seem
quite sticky with my system.
Deb

"Gerry" wrote:

Deb

Mcshield, Mcmscsvc and MPFSrv all relate to McAfee. McAfee has too
big a footprint for your computer. When does your subscription
expire? I can suggest better freeware alternatives.

Does your McAfee include an anti-spyware alternative? I suggest you
need to run another anti-spyware programme as malware could be
another part of your problem.
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

What is your actual version of McAfee as some the latest versions
include Site Advisor , which is currently causing the type of
problems you are experiencing.

Propelac.exe is the main executable for Propel Accelerator software,
which is used to speed up your Internet connection.

What type of internet connection do you have? Does Propel Accelerator
make a difference?

What are the temporary files of which DF8873.TMP is an example?

What happens to the Most fragmented file list if you run Disk
Defragmenter 2 or 3 times?

My feeling is you do not have enough RAM but getting more could be
difficult. You should probably increase the pagefile size, unless we
can reduce demands for memory. Do you do any photo editing or
otherwise run graphics programmes. Do you have any Adobe programmes
installed?

--



Hope this helps.

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



DEBTHINKPAD wrote:
Here's the defrag report:
Volume IBM_PRELOAD (C:):
Volume size = 18,130 MB
Cluster size = 16 KB
Used space = 7,411 MB
Free space = 10,719 MB
Percent free space = 59 %

Volume fragmentation
Total fragmentation = 2 %
File fragmentation = 4 %
Free space fragmentation = 0 %

File fragmentation
Total files = 42,467
Average file size = 150 KB
Total fragmented files = 451
Total excess fragments = 2,924
Average fragments per file = 1.06

Pagefile fragmentation
Pagefile size = 384 MB
Total fragments = 3

Directory fragmentation
Total directories = 4,766
Fragmented directories = 33
Excess directory fragments = 75

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fragments File Size Most fragmented files
63 1,040 KB \WINNT\SECURITY\LOGS\WINLOGON.OLD
22 416 KB \WINNT\SECURITY\LOGS\WINLOGON.LOG
36 6,352 KB \WINNT\Installer\AD6C82.MSP
67 1,280 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DFFE04.TMP
42 752 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DF8873.TMP
46 736 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DF4314.TMP
68 1,552 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DF55DB.TMP
140 3,344 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DF8F09.TMP
91 1,824 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DF41FB.TMP
44 832 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DF941D.TMP
91 1,664 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DFEC97.TMP
77 1,792 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DF1ED3.TMP
18 320 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DF8284.TMP
124 2,832 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DF38F.TMP
167 3,728 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DFCE04.TMP
60 1,136 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DF7E44.TMP
58 1,184 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DF591.TMP
165 3,472 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DFD53E.TMP
81 2,064 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DFECB1.TMP
22 544 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DFD28A.TMP
161 3,488 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DF7C5D.TMP
78 1,888 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DF5395.TMP
47 976 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DF95FD.TMP
42 1,136 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DF7368.TMP
24 432 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DF3139.TMP
47 880 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\Local
Settings\Temp\~DFB000.TMP
29 1,680 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\My
Documents\My Pictures\Grandma's birthday\VMI Portrait 79.JPG
24 1,936 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\My
Documents\My Pictures\Cocos y Locos\It's a double.JPG
88 1,920 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\My
Documents\My Pictures\Cocos y Locos\Backyard rainbow.JPG
54 2,400 KB \Documents and Settings\DEB\My
Documents\My Pictures\Dad's 80th\DSC00226.JPG
.