My system keeps locking up

[wwaag]

My computer system has become a real POS. It locks up at least a couple times a day, requiring a re-boot. There seems to be no pattern as to when these lock-ups occur--sometimes during a render, sometimes web-browsing. Sometimes when rebooting, the Chkdsk routine runs--sometimes not. I just did the nuclear option a few weeks ago with a clean install of XP-PRO. In fact, I have 2 primary OS's--one for routine office stuff and another for video editing only. I get these random crashes on both OS's, so I suspect that it's hardware related. I've got a relatively new 580watt PS, a pretty good cooler on the CPU (P4-3.06). I've run Memtest for a few hours and it shows no errors. Any suggestions on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

wwaag

[ROF]

Dumb question but I must ask after seeing a computer with the same symptoms yesterday in my shop. Is your hard drive cable fully seated?

[wwaag]

Powered down and checked. No, they are all well-seated. All hard drives are relatively new. I might also add that I'm using 3 of the 6 PCI slots, a Promise add-on ide-controller card, a Santa Cruz sound card, and a Matrox RT-10 video editing card. In my non-editing OS, the video-editing card is disabled.

wwaag

[SCDVD]

I smell a rat with your Promise IDE controller. You may have a conflict with the mother board IDE controller. Can you try it without the Promise controller?

[wwaag]

I'll give it a try--certainly won't hurt. I have the Promise card hooked up to a couple of mobile HDD racks. Attached drives are used for back-up only, so there's no problem taking it out for a test.

[ROF]

If that doesn't solve it try pulling each of the other cards one at a time and see if either of those are causing the problem. You may also have bad or dying memory. If you have more than one stick try swapping them out one at a time.

[JerryB]

My computer system has become a real POS. It locks up at least a couple times a day, requiring a re-boot. There seems to be no pattern as to when these lock-ups occur--sometimes during a render, sometimes web-browsing. Sometimes when rebooting, the Chkdsk routine runs--sometimes not. I just did the nuclear option a few weeks ago with a clean install of XP-PRO. In fact, I have 2 primary OS's--one for routine office stuff and another for video editing only. I get these random crashes on both OS's, so I suspect that it's hardware related. I've got a relatively new 580watt PS, a pretty good cooler on the CPU (P4-3.06). I've run Memtest for a few hours and it shows no errors. Any suggestions on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

wwaag

hi ,
Now there could be many reasons... but one of the first things i look at is software....
I generally will first disable all needless programs that startup at windows boot
(msconfig.exe>startup) and (services.msc) ... startup programs can cause all sort of problems

if problem is still present then I will disable the virus scanners and firewalls also and see if that helps.... on some system those programs no matter how good just don't work well with certain systems....

another thing to do..... when you have a freeze take a look at control panel>administrator>event viewer .... many times if a program crashes..... if a program fails it will be listed. and that can give a clue sometimes what causing...!!

Now another possiblity is maybe your bios needs to be upgraded...?

[Dv8ted2]

It could be a bad power supply or the system is overheating. Have you blown the dust out of the case?

[SCDVD]

A lot of good suggestions - but try each one one at a time. If you don't, you won't know what actually fixed it.

[Dv8ted2]

You could also apply some thermal paste to the processor, and see if that helps.

[wwaag]

Thanks for all of the good suggestions. I'm taking SCDVD's advice and only doing one thing at a time. I removed the IDE controller card and will wait and see. Since it usually locks up only once or twice a day, it may take a while to determine the culprit.

I really don't think it's software since I initially did all of the stuff suggested by Jerry B before doing the clean install. I just checked the Viewer log and it doesn't reveal anything.

I also doubt that it's a power supply or CPU overheating problem since the PS is a new Thermaltake and I've also installed a large CPU cooler with good thermal paste. I've run Speedfan and it shows no excessive heat, even during rendering. Moreoever, since it often locks up when there is little CPU usage, I don't think its heat.

In any case, I'll continue with the controller card removed. If no lock ups for the next few days, I'll conclude it was the problem. If they reappear, I'll begin removing and/or swapping around the other cards. Again, thanks for the replies.

wwaag

[wwaag]

I guess it's not the controller card. Another lock up--occurred when trying to access data on my video drive which is a Raid 0 array. Now that I think about it, most lock-ups have occurred when accessing data on that array drive--e.g. all my video renders are from data on that drive. Don't know if that has anything to do with it, but I think that transfer all the data on that drive array to a regular drive, disable the raid controller, and see if that makes a difference. I recently replaced both hard drives, but perhaps it's the controller which is on the motherboard. Anyone had problems similar problems with raid? Seems like I'm grasping at straws, but at least it's something else to try.

wwaag

[bevills1]

Has disk cleanup and defrag been run recently? I find runnings those periodically resolve some problems on my system. To determine if there's a software problem you could try running msconfig to disable all startup programs except those required for Windows to run, and then enable one at a time until problem recurs which should then tell you what the culprit is. This can be time consuming if you have many programs running on startup but could diagnos the problem if all else fails and if the problem is software related.

[wwaag]

Don't know if that has anything to do with it, but I think that transfer all the data on that drive array to a regular drive, disable the raid controller, and see if that makes a difference....
wwaag

Well, I did this and for a few days--no lockups. Was able to do simultaneous renders using Vegas without a problem. I actually thought my problem was solved. In fact, I found that my rendering times had been somewhat quicker. Was then combining some MPEG files using TMPGENC's MPEG Editor when another "lockup" occurred. Rebooted and everything worked OK. Bottom line is that my system seems to be performing better with the on-board raid controller disconnected, but not "fixed". Again, thanks for everyone's suggestions.

wwaag

[Heff]

I would say do a clean install on a simple non-aray drive, use only one OS (don't know why you need two) and only have the video card in and start from there. You might check the bios and see if it needs an update and go to a forum for your mobo and also report your problems there. Also try reinstalling your video driver first. Good luck.

[wwaag]

I would say do a clean install on a simple non-aray drive, use only one OS (don't know why you need two) and only have the video card in and start from there. You might check the bios and see if it needs an update and go to a forum for your mobo and also report your problems there. Also try reinstalling your video driver first. Good luck.

I've pretty much done this. Just finished a clean install on a non-array drive (at the time of the install, I had disabled the array drive from the bios). Bios is up to date. At present, I have 4 XP installations on my system. My approach has been to do a clean install of the OS, install the video and sound drivers and nothing else. At that point, I've copied the OS into another partition, and then add applications. Hence I have an OS for everyday stuff, one for video editing, and one for media serving. At any point, I can "start over" with my "cleanly installed version". My system is now approaching 4 years old, and I suspect that it's probably time for a new build. In all honesty, I had problems initially with lock-ups on my Video OS and had attributed it to the lack of stability of Adobe Premiere. It may be that the problem has been there all along. Thanks for your help.

wwaag

[Teaser]

I had the same problem. After downloading a patch for a program it turns out to be spyware, trojan horses and other shit. After trying to solve the problem the only thing that left was a complete new installation of XP. Now everything is oke.

[bevills1]

Has bios been updated? You might try that to see if it helps if you've not tried it already.

[wwaag]

Anyone ever experienced a bad PS2 mouse port?? I began experiencing lock-ups just web-browsing. Mouse click--lockup! After a few such lock-ups--out of desperation--I changed my mouse from PS2 to USB input. I'd been using the PS2 port since I was running it through a KVM switch. It's been 3 days now and no lock-ups. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I inadvertently stumbled upon the solution.

wwaag

[lordsmurf]

How hot is the ambient temperature in the case? Is the airflow good? Is there space in the case, or is everything so close together it all gets a tad warmer than is suggested?

[wwaag]

How hot is the ambient temperature in the case? Is the airflow good? Is there space in the case, or is everything so close together it all gets a tad warmer than is suggested?

Don't know exactly, but I'd judge it to be OK. It's a full tower with 4 cooling fans. According to Speedfan, the HD's that report temperature are all at the bottom of the range of acceptable temps. CPU at idle, 35C, full render 50C. Plus, ambient temp usually mid 60s--I live in the Pacific Northwest--office in the basement. Don't think temp is the problem.

wwaag