Re: System Completely Freezes or Spontaneously Reboots

Aloha Gerry,

The responses to your questions have been inserted directly into the quoted
message, below.

--
C. Mitchell


"Gerry" <gerry@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23XDAKHrtIHA.5268@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
CM

I have studied the information you provided earlier.

I was not aware that Avast could require so much memory. Which version
do you have? Do freezes coincide with Avast carrying out a full scan?

It is unusual for Avast to take that much memory. It usually takes a lot
less.. At the time I did the report, though, I had been doing some other
work, including working with some large (>1GB) archives. I also usually turn
it off entirely when playing games.


In your original post you said your pagefile was 2 gb but the Disk
Defragmenter report shows it as 1.5 gb.

Your pagefile is multi-fragmented. This probably because you Let
Windows Manage the Pagefile. Is my guess correct?


It was 2GB at the time. A tech on web-board suggested I try letting Windows
manage my pagefile, and 1.5GB was the size it picked. I've tried to reduce
the pagefile fragmentation even more, but none of the tools I've tried seem
very effective in that regard (I do not think they are very effective in any
regard.. Most seem little more than pretty interfaces on top the same
Windows defrag API that Windows' own defrag uses.) I did try using a fresh
pagefile on a blank drive, testing if it might be the fragmented pagefile.
The blank drive also has faster access times, etc. As near as I could tell,
it made no difference, other than Windows' complaint that not having the
pagefile on my primary drive would interfere with debug and error reporting
stuff. I even experimented with multiple pagefiles on multiple drives.


You did not include the Most fragmented List, which can yield further
clues.

Sorry, I did not think that would be useful, as most are insignificant, like
the restore snapshots, and not likely to even be accessed normally. (I do
not know why the WCI stuff is there, I do not use it and have the service
turned off.. Same for the Google Desktop junk.) I have not done a new defrag
or anything since I posted, and I did not save a new VolumeC.txt file after
the defrag (but I did defrag), so here's the rest of the file.. (Note that I
edited some of the file/path names to remove any numbers, hashes,
descriptors, etc. I doubt they're a security risk, but.. If they are
important, let me know and I can send via private email.)

Fragments File Size Most fragmented files
18,949 1.33 GB \System Volume
Information\catalog.wci\00010004.ci
598 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP138\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
587 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP145\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
551 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP135\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
547 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP151\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
542 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP141\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
524 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP147\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
522 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP139\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
514 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP149\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
514 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP144\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
509 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP148\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
504 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP143\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
504 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP157\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
503 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP142\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
494 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP146\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
488 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP140\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
484 43 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP136\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
218 40 MB \Documents and Settings\ladmin\Local
Settings\Application Data\Identities\{?GUID?}\Microsoft\Outlook
Express\microsoft.public.windowsxp.general.dbx
192 114 MB \WINDOWS\Installer\c6422a.msp
141 41 MB \Program Files\FireFly
Studios\Stronghold\binks\intro.bik
123 1 KB \WINDOWS\system32\config\system.LOG
101 19 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{?GUID?}\RP157\snapshot\_REGISTRY_USER_NTUSER_?SUID?
70 12 MB \Program Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE
56 200 MB \Documents and Settings\ladmin\Local
Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Desktop\?HASH?\rpm1m.cf1
53 63 MB
\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\?HASH?
50 200 MB \Documents and Settings\ladmin\Local
Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Desktop\?HASH?\rpm.cf1


What graphics programmes are you using? These often incorporate undo
features, which can generate significant demands for memory. If they
happen to have memory leaks leaving them on 24/7 could create the type of
problem you are seeing.

I do not usually leave them on, because as you noted, graphics programs tend
to be resource/memory hogs ;-).. I use Paint Shop Pro X, and occasionally
Windows Paint (My editing needs are pretty modest on this machine.. I do
most of my gfx editing on a Linux machine on my LAN :-P). I use IrfanView as
my main image viewer/manager, along with some Perl scripts that I wrote
myself to help. Again, I usually shut most things down when not in use, not
needed, or if I'm going to do anything I know will stress the machine. Like
game playing.

As far as what I usually have running.. I keep Apache 2 and MySQL 5 running
on my LAN, with redundant backups on this machine. Both also occasionally
access the file shares on this computer. I also keep a syslog daemon running
on this machine as a backup. (Most things I keep on here are backups, which
is why I can shut them down for short periods when I play games.)


Another suggestion. You might find HD Tune gives you a clearer picture of
what is going on.
HD Tune only gives information and does not fix any problems.

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. Make sure you do a full
surface scan with HD Tune.

I have downloaded HD Tune, but I won't have time to run it tonight.. I'm in
the process of copying any important files/info and services to a new
machine, since I no longer consider this one reliable enough. I will
follow-up with the results when I can.

In the meantime, any ideas on my display properties problem? I've been
peeking around the registry and my system files, but in this case, I really
have no idea where to look. I have noted that when I try to bring up display
properties, that rundll32 quickly appears then disappears from the task
list. I do not know if this is normal or something that nVidia did with
their customizations.. My suspicion is that their modified property pages
are exiting if they cannot communicate with the gfx card, but instead of
simply not showing their custom pages, they're preventing anything at all
from showing. (I am also filing a support request with them regarding the
issue.)

Mahalo!
Cas



--



Hope this helps.

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

C. M. wrote:
Well, it finally rebooted with me sitting at the keys. I was in the
middle of composing an email when the screen just went blank and
rebooted. Nothing in the logs, either.. The last entry was 4 minutes
before it rebooted and pretty much a routine entry. No freeze, no
blue screen.. The only thing I noticed that was odd was that I heard
the DVDRW start to spin up, but it was so close, I couldn't tell if
it started before or after the system reset. (Normally, it takes a
copuple of seconds after rest/power-on before it spins up.)

As far as the freezing goes.. I switched back to the on-board
display, installed the drivers (ATI Radeon Xpress 200) and
reinstalled Direct-X, and now it does not freeze up. However, I can
no longer access the display properties.. I'm stuck in 640x480x8
mode, unable to set wallpaper, screensaver, or other desktop/display
settings in the video property sheets. (At least not using the
control panel and/or display properties.) That continues to be the
case even after switching back to the nVidia card.. But on the bright
side, the games no longer freeze up (they do switch to the higher
resolution I've set them at without problems.)

I'll be getting a new video card this weekend, on the off-chance
_both_ nVidia cards have failed or maybe there's a bug in the nVidia
drivers. In the meantime, anyone have any ideas on fixing and
accessing the display properties? I do suspect that part _is_ the
nVidia drivers, since they do a lot of customizations with the
display property sheets.

Any ideas would be appreciated. (Sorry if I sound terse or disjoint..
was up all night messing with this and am very tired..)

Regards,
C. M.


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