Frequent PC Crashes
This is a problem I've been having on my new machine for some time now.
The Problem:
Often my computer just freezes up for no apparent reason. I'm usually in the middle of browsing stuff (online or off), and the screen locks up. All windows/menus/bars get unusable, but the cursor is movable. If any audio is playing, it normally just carries on.
Machine Specs:
P4 1.8GHz,
256MB DDR, usually about 40% to 60% free,
several gigs of free hdd space,
nVidia GeForce 2 400MX w/ 64MB, <-- primary suspect
54X cdrom. <-- secondary suspect
OS: Win XP Pro
Some History:
When I bought this, I found a lot of errors happening with the video card and cdrom.
The cdrom came down to simple wiring problems, but when it was acting up, crashes happened very similar to how they happen now.
The video card was a little buggy in its display of Win XP objects (scrollbars, menus) so I updated the drivers to the latest and that solved that problem. But then I saw new things happening like funky colors while rendering pages and images, "black holes" appearing on screen etc. Then the crashes started.
Any ideas? Need more info?
Thanks.
zollet posted this at 21:04 — 17th September 2002.
He has: 1,016 posts
Joined: May 2002
From my experience it could be any piece of hardware, but mainly your graphic card or memory. I suggest you again update all your drivers (graphic, network, sound, etc) and also update WindowsXP. If it still doesn't help, you could do a search for error. For example, disconnect the CD-ROM and use the computer for a while without it, if that didn't help, try another graphic card (if you have another one available) and so on.
Abhishek Reddy posted this at 21:26 — 17th September 2002.
He has: 3,348 posts
Joined: Jul 2001
I'm pretty sure it ain't the cdrom so I guess I'll try another graphics card... should be able to borrow one from someone for a day.
Thanks for the reply.
zollet posted this at 21:38 — 17th September 2002.
He has: 1,016 posts
Joined: May 2002
If you can, borrow a memory block as well so that you can try it with a working block.
Abhishek Reddy posted this at 21:46 — 17th September 2002.
He has: 3,348 posts
Joined: Jul 2001
Yeah... I'll try that and the network card as well. Now that I think of it, I was having some driver problems with that at the start too, but I updated and those stopped.
PS, zollet: I tried sending you a PM, but I get a "user's inbox is full" message.
mjames posted this at 22:20 — 20th September 2002.
They have: 2,064 posts
Joined: Dec 1999
Do you run ZoneAlarm 3.1, possibly? I had some problems on 2K with it and upgraded and those problems have been reduced. What about updates, have you gotten all patches that might increase stabability? Particularly XP SP1.
Abhishek Reddy posted this at 05:01 — 21st September 2002.
He has: 3,348 posts
Joined: Jul 2001
The problem appears to be with the graphics card - I've tried a swap. I guess I'll have it exchanged.
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