PC freezes for a few seconds!

charlespt · 10-31-2008, 08:09 PM

Hello,
I have a problem with my desktop that sudently decided to piss me off

I don't know why but my comp. started freezing ramdomely since wednesday.
It freezes only for a few seconds (2 or 3) and then keeps going but it's getting annoying.

I've already made 3 scans with anti malware software and no virus was found. The pc is clean.
I've also deleted temp files.

Already used Chckdsk. Harddrive without any problems.
Ram is also ok.

I have no idea what may be causing this.

I'm only using Norton Antivirus 2008. Nothing else.

Any ideas?
Thanks in advance

charlespt · 11-01-2008, 08:31 PM

Some details:

I have XP Pro SP3, today made a scan with Spyware Doctor and found a trojan Keylogger.
Removed it but still the same

Already booted in safe mode. It also freezes

I'm getting desperate.

Any ideas anyone?

FireBird · 11-02-2008, 03:31 AM

A) Have you recently downloaded and installed a programme?

B) How old is your PC? How old is your hard drive?

C) If this is frequent, open the Windows Task Manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del) and monitor the CPU usage graph to see if you hit any spikes (Performance Tab). Then go to the Processes Tab and just above the list, click on the CPU column so it will list the programme that uses your CPU the most at the top. Let us know what's using the most resources when the freeze happens.

D) Did you desecrate any Indian burial ground, like park on it?

charlespt · 11-02-2008, 11:22 AM

Thanks for the reply.

A) Yes only a game but already uninstalled it.

B) 3 years. Hard drive is the same.

C) That's the main problem. When I open Task Manager right after the freeze it shows the CPU at 50% and sometimes at 100% but I don't see any process using it. They're all 0%. WTF???

D) LOL

charlespt · 11-03-2008, 12:07 PM

Update:

I've thought of updating the motherboard drivers but I'm not sure which ones should I download.

Here is the download page of the motherboard:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/download.as...l-880Pro&s=775

Could someone take a look and tell me which one(s) should I download?
Thanks.

FireBird · 11-05-2008, 06:23 AM

On the drivers category, I'd say use the updates you need. If you've never updated anything for the motherboard, perhaps all of them are needed if you have those components on your system.

For the BIOS category, I would do all of them but start from the earliest and work my way up to the latest. But I must make it very clear to you that I'm not 100% sure if that's a wise move. That's what I've done for my PC and I've only done a BIOS update once with the method I described. I've had no real problems that I can see, no crashes or no fried BIOS chips, but hopefully mced can pop in some time soon and give his two cents.

Are you still having the freezing issue?

mced: Donde estas, tio?

**mced** · 11-05-2008, 11:00 AM

Travelling.

My bet is for a) Temperature issue b) Norton.

I would not update the BIOS. It's a dangerous job and I don't think our problem is related to that.

charlespt · 11-05-2008, 03:22 PM

Thanks again for the replys.

Another update:

I've already removed Norton. It keeps freezing

Installed latest nvidia drivers. No luck.

I don't know what else can I do.
I'll try to uninstall every program and see if it keeps freezing.

My last try will be a format

**mced** · 11-07-2008, 05:08 AM

Better than unistalling, try disabling all programs that start at boot time. You know, Start > Run... > msconfig (last tab).

charlespt · 11-11-2008, 06:30 PM

Ok, I've done that mced. Didn't work

Already uninstalled every program. No luck

I have no choice. A format will happen and this time I'll be smart

I'll make a partition on the hard drive so if anything happens with the OS I'll only need to format the OS partition and do not worry with the files.

Once again, thanks for all your help

Cat · 11-11-2008, 06:45 PM

Do you use iTunes? Cause my computer decides to freeze up every time iTunes does something.

charlespt · 11-13-2008, 03:02 PM

^No. I hate iTunes

charlespt · 12-28-2008, 09:36 PM

Hey guys, I'm really getting desperate now.

My pc keeps up freezing randomly even after formatting

Now I get the feeling that the problem is hardware related, but what can it be?

Ram??? Hard drive??? Motherboard??? Who knows

Last night I tried reinstalling Windows and got a bsod during installation. The one called DRIVER_IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Please help!!!

FireBird · 12-29-2008, 05:08 PM

What's the name of the driver that's causing the problem? The type of error usually gives you a name of the file.

This could be a number of things: temperature (like mced mentioned), RAM issues (dual channel gone wrong), pagefile, bad drivers, etc.

You can always build a new one. PC parts are relatively cheap these days.

charlespt · 12-29-2008, 08:11 PM

There's no file name because the bsod happens when I'm installing Windows.

After searching on other forums and reading about it, my guess is the RAM that is failing so tomorrow I'll test it using Memtest86+

If any errors are found I have no choice other than buying new ram. That's annoying because I was getting ready to sell the PC to a friend

FireBird · 12-29-2008, 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charlespt

If any errors are found I have no choice other than buying new ram. That's annoying because I was getting ready to sell the PC to a friend

Sometimes it's not the ram sticks, but the ram slots that it goes in, which would mean 'new motherboard' if that were the case.

It sucks, I kind of know the frustration. Currently, my desktop PC takes about 5 minutes for the taskbar to unfreeze and 20 seconds to open Firefox and it's got 3GB of ram, no excuse for it to be that slow. Partly my fault for installing tons of software I don't use anymore, but I'm ready to format that sucker and install only the necessary programmes. I'll give XP sp3 a try.

good luck!

**mced** · 01-01-2009, 02:44 AM

Probably RAM or motherboard.

RAM is very cheap these days. I was heading to a good hardware store (Alternate, so popular in Europe) to buy an 1 GB - DDR 266 module to my old desktop. When this salesman told me its price, I was surprised: just 11 euros! (an average Kingston one).

But he didn't understand me, that was DDR-II 667. DDR 266 was 31 euros :(

lovelyindia · 01-01-2009, 04:59 AM

Hello charlespt !!!!

i Think I Can Help You Regarding to your problems..
First of All Reply With Your System Configuration and Tell about your Installed Software In Your System.
Then i Will able to resolve Your Problem

charlespt · 01-21-2009, 07:21 PM

Well guys I think we can FINNALY get this thread closed because the problem is sloved

The problem was the motherboard's battery. It was dying. Poor thing

I just bought a new one and replaced it and everything is running great again.

Thanks again for all the help and clues and everything that you guys gave me during the problem

FireBird · 01-22-2009, 12:16 AM

LOL! It's always the little things, innit?

Good to see you're good, now.

10-31-2008, 08:09 PM	#1 (permalink)
charlespt Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Portugal Posts: 5,381 My Profile	PC freezes for a few seconds! Hello, I have a problem with my desktop that sudently decided to piss me off I don't know why but my comp. started freezing ramdomely since wednesday. It freezes only for a few seconds (2 or 3) and then keeps going but it's getting annoying. I've already made 3 scans with anti malware software and no virus was found. The pc is clean. I've also deleted temp files. Already used Chckdsk. Harddrive without any problems. Ram is also ok. I have no idea what may be causing this. I'm only using Norton Antivirus 2008. Nothing else. Any ideas? Thanks in advance

11-05-2008, 06:23 AM	#6 (permalink)
FireBird Get some! Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 456 My Profile	On the drivers category, I'd say use the updates you need. If you've never updated anything for the motherboard, perhaps all of them are needed if you have those components on your system. For the BIOS category, I would do all of them but start from the earliest and work my way up to the latest. But I must make it very clear to you that I'm not 100% sure if that's a wise move. That's what I've done for my PC and I've only done a BIOS update once with the method I described. I've had no real problems that I can see, no crashes or no fried BIOS chips, but hopefully mced can pop in some time soon and give his two cents. Are you still having the freezing issue? mced: Donde estas, tio? Last edited by FireBird; 11-05-2008 at 06:27 AM..

12-29-2008, 05:08 PM	#14 (permalink)
FireBird Get some! Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 456 My Profile	What's the name of the driver that's causing the problem? The type of error usually gives you a name of the file. This could be a number of things: temperature (like mced mentioned), RAM issues (dual channel gone wrong), pagefile, bad drivers, etc. You can always build a new one. PC parts are relatively cheap these days. Last edited by FireBird; 12-29-2008 at 05:09 PM..

12-29-2008, 08:11 PM	#15 (permalink)
charlespt Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Portugal Posts: 5,381 My Profile	There's no file name because the bsod happens when I'm installing Windows. After searching on other forums and reading about it, my guess is the RAM that is failing so tomorrow I'll test it using Memtest86+ If any errors are found I have no choice other than buying new ram. That's annoying because I was getting ready to sell the PC to a friend Last edited by charlespt; 12-29-2008 at 08:12 PM..

11-01-2008, 08:31 PM	#2 (permalink)
charlespt Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Portugal Posts: 5,381 My Profile	Some details: I have XP Pro SP3, today made a scan with Spyware Doctor and found a trojan Keylogger. Removed it but still the same Already booted in safe mode. It also freezes I'm getting desperate. Any ideas anyone?

11-02-2008, 03:31 AM	#3 (permalink)
FireBird Get some! Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 456 My Profile	A) Have you recently downloaded and installed a programme? B) How old is your PC? How old is your hard drive? C) If this is frequent, open the Windows Task Manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del) and monitor the CPU usage graph to see if you hit any spikes (Performance Tab). Then go to the Processes Tab and just above the list, click on the CPU column so it will list the programme that uses your CPU the most at the top. Let us know what's using the most resources when the freeze happens. D) Did you desecrate any Indian burial ground, like park on it?

11-02-2008, 11:22 AM	#4 (permalink)
charlespt Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Portugal Posts: 5,381 My Profile	Thanks for the reply. A) Yes only a game but already uninstalled it. B) 3 years. Hard drive is the same. C) That's the main problem. When I open Task Manager right after the freeze it shows the CPU at 50% and sometimes at 100% but I don't see any process using it. They're all 0%. WTF??? D) LOL

11-03-2008, 12:07 PM	#5 (permalink)
charlespt Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Portugal Posts: 5,381 My Profile	Update: I've thought of updating the motherboard drivers but I'm not sure which ones should I download. Here is the download page of the motherboard: http://www.asrock.com/mb/download.as...l-880Pro&s=775 Could someone take a look and tell me which one(s) should I download? Thanks.

11-05-2008, 11:00 AM	#7 (permalink)
mced Cannot live without Love Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Spain Posts: 2,136 My Profile	Travelling. My bet is for a) Temperature issue b) Norton. I would not update the BIOS. It's a dangerous job and I don't think our problem is related to that.

11-05-2008, 03:22 PM	#8 (permalink)
charlespt Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Portugal Posts: 5,381 My Profile	Thanks again for the replys. Another update: I've already removed Norton. It keeps freezing Installed latest nvidia drivers. No luck. I don't know what else can I do. I'll try to uninstall every program and see if it keeps freezing. My last try will be a format

11-07-2008, 05:08 AM	#9 (permalink)
mced Cannot live without Love Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Spain Posts: 2,136 My Profile	Better than unistalling, try disabling all programs that start at boot time. You know, Start > Run... > msconfig (last tab).

11-11-2008, 06:30 PM	#10 (permalink)
charlespt Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Portugal Posts: 5,381 My Profile	Ok, I've done that mced. Didn't work Already uninstalled every program. No luck I have no choice. A format will happen and this time I'll be smart I'll make a partition on the hard drive so if anything happens with the OS I'll only need to format the OS partition and do not worry with the files. Once again, thanks for all your help

11-11-2008, 06:45 PM	#11 (permalink)
Cat Bloomin' crazy Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Norway Posts: 2,007 My Profile	Do you use iTunes? Cause my computer decides to freeze up every time iTunes does something.

11-13-2008, 03:02 PM	#12 (permalink)
charlespt Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Portugal Posts: 5,381 My Profile	^No. I hate iTunes

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)

12-28-2008, 09:36 PM	#13 (permalink)
charlespt Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Portugal Posts: 5,381 My Profile	Hey guys, I'm really getting desperate now. My pc keeps up freezing randomly even after formatting Now I get the feeling that the problem is hardware related, but what can it be? Ram??? Hard drive??? Motherboard??? Who knows Last night I tried reinstalling Windows and got a bsod during installation. The one called DRIVER_IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Please help!!!

01-01-2009, 02:44 AM	#17 (permalink)
mced Cannot live without Love Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Spain Posts: 2,136 My Profile	Probably RAM or motherboard. RAM is very cheap these days. I was heading to a good hardware store (Alternate, so popular in Europe) to buy an 1 GB - DDR 266 module to my old desktop. When this salesman told me its price, I was surprised: just 11 euros! (an average Kingston one). But he didn't understand me, that was DDR-II 667. DDR 266 was 31 euros :(

01-01-2009, 04:59 AM	#18 (permalink)
lovelyindia Newbie Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 6 My Profile	Hello charlespt !!!! i Think I Can Help You Regarding to your problems.. First of All Reply With Your System Configuration and Tell about your Installed Software In Your System. Then i Will able to resolve Your Problem

01-21-2009, 07:21 PM	#19 (permalink)
charlespt Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Portugal Posts: 5,381 My Profile	Well guys I think we can FINNALY get this thread closed because the problem is sloved The problem was the motherboard's battery. It was dying. Poor thing I just bought a new one and replaced it and everything is running great again. Thanks again for all the help and clues and everything that you guys gave me during the problem

01-22-2009, 12:16 AM	#20 (permalink)
FireBird Get some! Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 456 My Profile	LOL! It's always the little things, innit? Good to see you're good, now.