Windows XP: Windows XP system just randomly freezes, what’s causing this?
- 12/5/08 3:48 PM
Xp freezes up on you
by doncrater - 11/22/08 1:00 AM In reply to: Windows XP system just randomly freezes, what’s causing this? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
It could be freezing up because your hard drive is too full. Most experts say to never use over 20% of your disk space on your main drive. I get uneasy when mine gets below 90% free space.
You didn't say what type of hard drive you have, but if you have an IDE drive, adding a slave drive would help. I have a 160 GB main drive, and 250 GB slave drive and it works great.
Hard drives have never been cheaper, so now would be a great time to get another drive.
using 20% of hard drive
by jsr1937also - 12/8/08 4:35 PM In reply to: Xp freezes up on you by doncraterI would like to know who the "EXPERTS" are that have spread that type info around. You do need some empty space, but you are effectively saying that if a 250GB drive is installed I can only use 50GB. I DON"T THINK SO. When I see "the experts" I think of someone who hides behind a fake name so people don't think it is them that made the statement
IMHO
by paultaut - 11/22/08 1:03 AM In reply to: Windows XP system just randomly freezes, what’s causing this? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
First I would check the resolution settings on your graphics. Are they set to automatically change without restarting? Right click on any free space on your screen, go to properties, settings and select the auto change mode if it isn't already set that way.
If that doesn't the problem, Uninstall and reinstall Internet Explorer, some patch somewhere along the line of patches may have overwritten something unintentionally. This is Especially true if you do not track hotfixes for updates from Microsoft.
Lastly, if all else fails, run the Registry program from PC Tools or run it first. I personally do not like to fool around with the Registry regardless of how good the program is supposed to be.
Good luck.
nomen est omen
by sauna6 - 11/22/08 1:20 AM In reply to: Windows XP system just randomly freezes, what’s causing this? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
it's the MS OS. Happens to all of us. Every OS contains thousands of errors even 10 years after its release - one of them eventually will stop your PC every now and then.
When computers develop, they become ever more human...
i have no pb
by dugrober - 11/22/08 1:24 AM In reply to: Windows XP system just randomly freezes, what’s causing this? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
hello jose, i have 3 similar systems and no pb whatsoever, perhaps you have a driver that's messing up something? have u installed a game or an application recently? did it occue from the beginning or after having done "something" one day? this might explain the problem. regards from germany, robert
Windows XP freezing
by darrenforster99 - 11/22/08 1:48 AM In reply to: Windows XP system just randomly freezes, what’s causing this? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi Jose,
Firstly your hard disk is certainly not too small to run Windows XP. I have a computer at the moment with a 10Gb hard drive and 320mb of RAM running Windows XP (I refurbish computers in my spare time and this is one I've refurbished). As you have an 80Gb hard drive and 2Gb of memory this sounds more than adequate for running Windows XP even with 60% of your HDD full.
So lets look at why your computer could be freezing...
Computers can lock up like this due to a number of reasons
1. DOS attack
2. Bad drivers
3. Adware
4. Faulty software
5. Cooling issues
6. Corrupt Windows installation.
7. Hardware damage
Firstly we'll look at the DOS attack as this is the easiest to find...
A DOS attack is a Denial Of Service attack. These are people with nothing better to do with there time who send malicious data to one of your ports on your computer, this can cause the system to freeze, crash, blue screen or anything. It can also be used to retrieve information from the computer. The majority of virus checkers wont pick up on it either as it isn't a virus.
The only way to protect yourself from a DOS attack is to get a firewall. I notice on your list this is one thing you've not mentioned you have on your system - note a virus killer and a firewall are two totally different things, a virus killer stops malicious programs and firewall prevents people from hacking into your port.
Now how you connect to the internet will also determine whether or not you have a firewall. If you connect to the internet via a router of any kind (not a cable modem box, but an actual router usually they have 4 ethernet ports on them, and some have wi-fi) then you most probably have a firewall already built into the router.
If however you are not using a router, so you are either using an ADSL modem or a cable modem box then you probably aren't protected, unless you have a firewall on your PC (and even these aren't 100% failsafe, by far the best way is through a routers firewall, the majority of routers run on Linux and will bounce the DOS attack back or block it). The only bad thing with a router is that if you want to use any other programs such as P2P, online games, etc you need to tell it to let these through - this is made simpler if the router you have has uPnP as the router will also deny these programs access to the internet unless you set it up to allow them.
Anyway to test whether or not it is a DOS attack disconnect your PC from the internet fully. Even if you are using a router it's always best to check this method anyway just incase something is wrong with the firewall on the router.
To disconnect your PC from the internet, either unplug the cable modem from the ethernet port, or the ADSL modem from either the phone line or computer. Or if you connect through Wi-fi turn off your wi-fi (usually on laptops there is a switch or button somewhere, I think the Dell's have switches on the front), if you can't find the switch just right click on the "computer beacon" icon in the task bar and click disable (it will turn into a computer with a red X next to it and you can enable it later, or go into Control panel and network connections and re-enable it from there).
Now your computer is offline leave it running for maybe a day or two just to ensure that it doesn't start happening. If it doesn't freeze after a day or two you know you have found the problem. Now you need to get a decent firewall, I highly recommend ESET Internet Security as this is a really small virus killer and firewall package all in one and it doesn't hog system resources like other anti-virus/firewall packages do. It also doesn't keep coming up with nag screens every five seconds like other ones do, it just sits there quietly in the corner protecting your system and updating automatically.
Now lets look at the next three...
Bad drivers, Adware or Faulty Software
When this started can you think if you have plugged in anything new to this computer. This includes anything like USB devices, such as a new mobile phone, or USB card reader. Or any new software either downloaded or installed from a disk. If you can think about anything new you might have put on or plugged into your computer then this device or software could very well be the culprit.
The amount of people I've been to, to repair PC's that are freezing randomly and I ask them this, then after a few seconds they say well I did install such a software but I don't think that is the problem especially some dodgy adware removal software, some of these actually put adware onto your system - like the ones that pop-up in a new window on IE and say "1000 errors detected click here to fix..." or something along those lines. They look like they are fixing your computer but the majority of them actually stop most major virus killers from working and then wreak havoc with your system!
So the first step is to remove any software that you may have put onto your system at the time it started happening. Even if you don't think it could harm your system remove it anyway just as a precaution, you can always re-install it later.
If you have System restore working you could always try using this to restore the computer to a date prior to when this started happening and seeing if that makes any difference, the only problem with system restore is that it isn't that clever, and sometimes can do more harm than good. To use system restore hold down F8 just after the BIOS screen when you start the computer (you have to restart your computer properly for this, not just put it in hibernate mode) and choose safe mode. Windows will then ask if you want to use System restore, find a date before this started happening. Note Windows will attempt to remove all programs that were installed after this date, so there is a possibility of losing data, ensure you backup anything you want to save.
5. Cooling Issues
Ok now to look at cooling issues. This could be a problem, especially as it's a laptop. My friend recently had this as the fan and heatsink went wrong on his HP laptop and it was hitting 96 degrees before shutting down. The problems you are facing don't really sound like overheating issues, as most PC's especially laptops come with temperature sensors built in. Once the PC hits critical temperature (on my friends it was 96 deg C) it shuts the PC down, although I actually think 96 was quite a high temperature for HP to allow a laptop to get to, I have my desktop set to 60 to ensure I do as little damage as possible to the system.
To check this out you can install a small program called SiW - http://www.gtopala.com/
In this software you can scroll down in the left box to just below hardware and click on sensors. This will tell you the temperature that your CPU is operating at. My laptop operates at about 40-45 degrees C. Ignore any at 0 deg C, this is because there isn't a sensor to monitor this section. When you first start your PC up you should notice this is very low, start doing something with your PC like running MS Word or something, you will notice the more you do the more this temperature goes up slightly. If you notice though that your temperature is going to silly temperature, i.e. over 80 degrees then you have a serious cooling issue.
If it does turn out to be a cooling issue your best bet is to contact Dell if your computer is still under warranty. You could also try a laptop cooling pad, but this is highly unlikely to make that much of a difference. If the computer has overheated significantly, they will probably need to replace the CPU as the CPU will be seriously damaged and will constantly cause problems.
6. Corrupt Windows Installation
Ok this is one of the final few options left. You might have a corrupt Windows installation. If this is the case an easy way of checking this is to download a live linux CD, such as PuppyLinux http://www.puppylinux.org/ (PuppyLinux is great for testing these problems, as it's so small and runs straight from the CD).
Download Puppy and burn it to a CD. Reboot your computer and see if it boots of the CD drive, you might need to go into the BIOS and change the boot order to start with CD drive, instead of HDD, most laptops though are preset to attempt to boot of the CD first.
Once Puppy has loaded leave it running for a few hours, try using some stuff on it like playing the games or something. If all is running fine after a few hours then it is most probably that Windows has become corrupt in some way. It is highly unlikely to be overheating, or hardware damage or else Puppy would have done exactly the same.
If this is the case then the easiest way to fix this is to backup all your important data that you want to keep and use your Windows XP install discs to re-install Windows. I do hope you created the "emergency rescue disks" that Dell advised you to create when you got the laptop 
. If not, don't panic. If you can you could try and create them now, if not you can use any Windows XP disc as long as it is the same version as the one on the computer, e.g. Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional and it is the right bits e.g. 32-bit or 64-bit. If you don't know look for the sticker under the laptop it will tell you which version of Windows you are using, if it doesn't mention the bits then it's most probably 32-bit. Also on this sticker is the code you need when re-installing Windows. If you don't have any Windows XP disc at all, you could always try and lend one off a friend (it is the code on the bottom of machine that gives you the licence to use it, not the disc), or you could try and get one off the internet (although be careful with this as quite a lot on the internet have been modified so they wont work properly.).
7. Hardware damage
This is possibly the most trickiest problem to diagnose, especially with a laptop. First thing to do is unplug any extra bits you have plugged in to your laptop. This includes things like USB, PCMCIA, even CDs/DVDs in the DVD drive (problematic DVD drives have been known to bring systems to a halt, whilst Windows tries to decode the disc, and laptop drives are only known to last about a year maximum).
Now try using your PC, if the crashes stop, try adding the hardware back, one at a time, until you find the culprit. You then know exactly which item is crashing the PC.
If this still doesn't work the problem could be internal hardware, which if this is the case with it being a laptop your best bet is to take it to a professional laptop repair company, or if it's still under warranty return it to Dell. Note if it is still under warranty do not attempt to take it to pieces or let any other laptop repair company repair it, doing so will invalidate your warranty, and then if there is any parts that need replacing you will need to fork out for them yourself!
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
by Marie Glynn - 12/7/08 7:19 AM In reply to: Windows XP freezing by darrenforster99I didn't know about Puppy Linux. Thank you so much for your detailed reply.
Need more space on your drive
by GENE8 - 11/22/08 1:52 AM In reply to: Windows XP system just randomly freezes, what’s causing this? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
You need to add more free space to your hard drive. You say that you have about 40 percent free space left. What's happening is that you're running out of sufficient space in your hard drive for you OS to run properly. That's why your system freezes up when you start running programs. Windows XP requires at least 40 GB to run properly. Your hard drive has 80 GB and you have already used up 60 percent of space. What you should do is get rid of any unnecessary programs that might be taking up needed space, and then do a complete cleanup of your system until you can increase the percentage of your free space. If that doesn't solve the problem, then what you can do is install another hard drive that's larger than the one you have now and move most of your programs and files to that drive from the other one. Your 80 GB drive can then be used only for your OS. You should also try adding another gig of RAM to your system.
Windows Xp requires more than 40 GB for working...
by dsenic464 - 12/5/08 11:17 PM In reply to: Need more space on your drive by GENE8Hi!
I think that it is not true that WinXP requires more than 40 GB to run; Namely, I installed it even at 10 GB disk, and it worked quite OK, although from time to time a bit slow, namely, I had only 256MB of RAM memory.
Best regards,
dsenic2000@yahoo.com
XP only requires about 16 to 14% FREE space...
by JCitizen - 12/7/08 11:57 AM In reply to: Need more space on your drive by GENE8on a drive of ANY size. The 40Gbs comment is utter rubbish/nonsense!
This small percentage of free space is required to adjust the data for the random access tech that Windows uses to write to the hard drive, and also for needed swap space during defragmentation.
Of course if you never defragment, you won't need it much; but don't expect performance.
Windows XP system just randomly freezes, what’s causing this
by jon.hedge - 11/22/08 1:54 AM In reply to: Windows XP system just randomly freezes, what’s causing this? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Try Ctrl+Alt+Del together to bring up Windows Task Manager & click on End Task Now It might take a few minutes but it should freeit up
Script errors
by paultaut - 11/22/08 2:06 AM In reply to: Windows XP system just randomly freezes, what’s causing this by jon.hedgeThanks, I've been getting script errors, a sensible solution may be to see If its a conflict of some sort. Did not think of using the Task Manager.
PS. I do not use a firewall, any adware or virus programs. I surf in a Virtual Shell. Spam is almost nonexistent, maybe 3 items a month, computer is always on.
Don't Know What Causes it, Found a Way to Fix it...
by jpap93 - 11/22/08 2:11 AM In reply to: Windows XP system just randomly freezes, what’s causing this? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi there
I run Windows Vista on a 2,5 month system, and I have exactly the same problem. I couldn't tell you the cause, but I have found that, if you manually (using task manager) shut explorer.exe, and then reopen it, it will restore itself. If you can't even open task manager, its probably a motheboard error...
Hope this helps
Papastergiou Jim
Re: freezing up
by carldz - 11/22/08 2:19 AM In reply to: Windows XP system just randomly freezes, what’s causing this? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I also have the Dell Inspiron with XP that was doing the same thing. If you are running IE7, as I was, go to the Control Panel, click on Internet Options. Click on the Advanced Tab. Find "Enable third-party extensions" and disable it. Reboot. I think IE7 is unstable. I still had some problems but I eventually downloaded "IE8 Beta 2" and haven't had any problems since. IE8 works great, and it's much faster. Hope this helps.
I'll start things off I guess.
by CBCyber - 11/22/08 2:29 AM In reply to: Windows XP system just randomly freezes, what’s causing this? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I will try to prepare you for some of the answers you may get over this post, or the picking on some may give.
From the little bit of info you provide your problem could be ANYTHING, for real.You will need to answer questions about your computer habits, do you clean and maintian it or does it do it by "itself". It could be 10 GB of logs ,internet tracks and cookies, history and on and on. System tools are nice but we must manually grab the bull sometimes.
Not sure your tech level, sound about average with you tools and description. But I don't think your problem is major. You should get on there and go through some of your tools, Windows and the other ones you mentioned and do some house cleaning. Most tools are easy to use and prevention goes along way. Or you could take it in somewhere and these are the first things they are going to do, and probably charge you over $100! Start cheap and work up.
Again about the HD size, that really depends on what you do with the computer and the types of programs and software you run. That is another blind spot that hinders diagnois. With 2 GB of RAM you should be fine aslong as you are not tapping the HD out.
Look here and look online for questions, just as you are now. There are answers to all questions somewhere. It could be you Browser, or an old or lost driver...or..or.
Stay strong, good luck
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