Help My Computer Keeps Freezing

[BIG SPUDS]

Does anyone have any ideas why my computer keeps freezing /locking up?

I have to keep rebooting it evry 5 minutes

[Farma]

Is it your computer or the display?

I had a similar problem a month or so back with my screen locking up. It turned out to be my VGA card. I replaced it and alls well again.

[Casanundra]

I'm going to have to say it before someone else does...

"Take it out of the fridge laddie and it'll stop freezing"

Brrrrum Ding!

[mackayae]

Have you added any hardware lately. I had a similar problem. It turned out that my power supply was not large enough to handle all the hardware.

[cdnvic]

You need to tell us what changes you made if any before this happened, and what kind of computer/OS it is. It could be anything from disk problems to overheating but without more info we can only give random guesses.

Computer type/Operating system

Recent hardware changes, driver updates, or software updates.

What kind of security precautions you take.

[rio666uk]

hey spuds... it could be a number of things to be honest

i would say its most likely to be a system process starting and maxing out the cpu usage to 100%

next time it happens press CTRL, ALT + DEL to bring up task manager

click the processes tab and sort by cpu - a healthy system when idling should have a system idle process of aroud 98%... sorting this list by cpu will show you what process is hogging all that cpu use

when youve found it report back here - otherwise google the process name and find out what it is

[Mid]

take a look in the start folder ,

how many unnecessary app's are running ??

have a look here

[penguin]

Take off the side panel, blow out all the dust, start it up again and make sure all the fans are running.

[BIG SPUDS]

Fans are running, VGA board is newish, cannot press ctrl alt and del when it happens it wont let you do nothing. Nothing has been added nothing is running on start up????????

[BIG SPUDS]

seems to lock up 80% of the time when you click on or move over the red X top right to close something down

[kayo]

Possibly lacking in virtual memory?

Have you cleandisk-ed and defragged lately?

[BIG SPUDS]

yep all done!!

[rio666uk]

its unlikely this is a disk IO problem nor virtual mem / paging file problem

if you are unable to ctrl alt del - i would suggest booting up in safe mode and seeing what happens - and again, report back here

[ltdknowledge]

its unlikely this is a disk IO problem nor virtual mem / paging file problem

if you are unable to ctrl alt del - i would suggest booting up in safe mode and seeing what happens - and again, report back here

I had a very similar problem which turned out to be norton 2006 with go back.

Changed and all works well

[BIG SPUDS]

when looking at the task manager at the CPU usage when doing nothing it is on 99 %

Not using any virus checker at the moment while trying to eliminate this . Checked for virus - none found

Edited December 8, 2006 by BIG SPUDS

[rio666uk]

when looking at the task manager at the CPU usage when doing nothing it is on 99 %

Not using any virus checker at the moment while trying to eliminate this . Checked for virus - none found

and the cpu is doing nothin when it freezes ?

even when the machine freezes you can still tab through and use the task manager or does that lock up too ?

[penguin]

Booting into safe mode is always worth a try.

Otherwise take out your video card, on reboot set your BIOS to use the onboard video and see if you manage to keep going for longer than 5 ninutes. If you do then look for updated drivers for your video card.

[Farma]

High CPU usage, screen locking up, no response from control-alt -del are the same symptoms I had when my VGA card failed.

[BIG SPUDS]

when it freezes everything locks up cant check nothing.

How do i boot up in safe made i dont know much about computers

[Tywais]

when it freezes everything locks up cant check nothing.

How do i boot up in safe made i dont know much about computers

Hit the reset button or power the computer up. Just after you see the bios screen hit the F8 key, keep hitting it and another screen will show up with several options including boot in safe mode.

[cdnvic]

On reboot, try hitting the F5 or F8 key when the memory check is finished. First though:

It's definitely sounding like a video card or driver issue. I'd try updating your video driver first before removing cards. Go to Control Panel / System / Hardware / Device manager / now under "display adaptors" should be listed your graphics controler. Right-click 'properties', choose the 'driver' tab and click the update driver button.

Most freezes like this are due to faulty drivers and they are the easiest thing to fix so try it first.

Edited December 8, 2006 by cdnvic

[BIG SPUDS]

tried that it says it cannot find a better driver

[cdnvic]

tried that it says it cannot find a better driver

Newer driver it means. Any older compatible driver is fine as the latest update may be what caused this.

[penguin]

Try removing the video card then. If your machine runs okay using the onboard video then at least you've isolated the problem. Could be a faulty video card or one that's overheating but you can then Google the model # and see if other people are having similar problems. If you know someone else with another video card you could also test your computer with that.

Tell us what card it is, how much RAM you have, the CPU and your operating system. That might help someone diagnose the problem better.

[BIG SPUDS]

ok have to go back to work now but will keep u informed thanks for the help

[pete_r]

Have you tried to reduce the RAM speed from 133MHz (or whatever the current speed is) to 100MHz? You can do that in the bios. To get in the bios, on startup press repeatedly DEL or F1 or F2, depending on your computer.

It did the trick for me a few weeks ago, but I suspect it's a sign of a faulty RAM, meaning I will need to replace the memory bar sometime soon.

[Sotiris]

ok have to go back to work now but will keep u informed thanks for the help

Hi,

I have some tips for you.

1)First check your memory with memtest tool. You can find it at http://www.memtest.org/

2)After a reset,you should check for CPU and M/B tempratures in BIOS screen.

If they are high, say cpu>65 and M/B>50 then you probably have problem from heat.

----

3)Another suspect is the PSU(Power supply). Maybe it is small and can't offer all the necessary power for your system. Change a PSU as last solution

You can calculate the power consumption using http://www.journeysystems.com/power_supply...lator_popup.php