Author Topic: PC keeps freezing (Read 8640 times)

Sandra · « **Reply #30 on:** August 09, 2005, 16:37 »

So you could run your pc with the LAN disabled if you have a Wi Fi router, or is it a Wi Fi access point from your pc to the others :?

If youre using a Wi Fi router then try your pc off the network and see if it still freezes.

SarahR · « **Reply #31 on:** August 09, 2005, 16:51 »

Yeah, it's definitely a router. If i disabled it would that mean i would be disconnected from the internet?
And to disable it do i just need to click disable in the network connections window?

Sandra · « **Reply #32 on:** August 09, 2005, 18:31 »

As long as its a Wi Fi router the other pcs are independant of yours.
You can just open the network connections folder and right click on your LAN icon and select Disable.
That will leave your other pcs on the network able to connect to the net via the Wi Fi router but will isolate you from both them and the net.

Its unlikely that its a newtork or internet connection problem but the more we can eliminate the easier it may become.

If it doesnt freeze when its offline and not networked then we can rule out hardware problems and concentrate on software or corrupted OS.

If it still freezes then we are back to square one again

SarahR · « **Reply #33 on:** August 09, 2005, 18:36 »

Ok well i'll try that one now then, my pc froze again so i tried removing my graphics card and it froze not long after so i will give the internet a try!
Will leave my PC on and see if it freezes and get back to you if it freezes!

Sandra · « **Reply #34 on:** August 09, 2005, 18:52 »

Make it work if you can do Sarah by playing a DVD film or something involving a lot of graphics editing or music editing/converting etc.
It may stay up if its not got any real work to do, (I have known guys like that :roll: ), so try and make it work as hard as you can

SarahR · « **Reply #35 on:** August 10, 2005, 13:55 »

Well i left my pc on overnight and even played lots of videos. I even left it playing videos all night and still nothing! It was still running perfectly this morning!
So i'm guessing that means its not hardware related at all....

Sandra · « **Reply #36 on:** August 10, 2005, 14:47 »

Well it still may be hardware but its looking like its the network side of things.

Is your ethernet LAN onboard or a seperate card ?

It may be worth trying another card if its a seperate one, theyre under a tenner from most places and it may be that its developed a fault or the drivers not installed properly.

Is this the longest you think its worked since you started having the problems or do you think it may happen again a little later ?

I know that you have done your av and adware scans but it could stil be something that tries connecting to teh net when you are online.

When you said you reinstalled your OS was that a clean install or did you just run it over the top of the old one ?

Sorry for all the questions but we seem like we may be getting somewhere at last and I dont want you to have to buy a new pc or any other parts unnecessarily

SarahR · « **Reply #37 on:** August 10, 2005, 16:29 »

Its an onboard LAN and as for replacing it, the only computer shop i can see close by is very useless, a friend of mine had a problem with them when he bought a LAN card ther so don't want to risk going there again!
Also, i was on another network before i moved house and there were no problems then. Although it was a uni network so i wasn't an administrator or anything.
That was the longest it has been running in a while as far as i can remember.
And when i installed the operating system, i think it was installed over the top, although i'm pretty sure it formatted the hard drive. When it boots up now there are 2 options, i can go onto the one where its how it was when i formatted and then theres the new one. If that makes any sense...

Sandra · « **Reply #38 on:** August 10, 2005, 17:51 »

Ok so it looks like we have deifnately isolated the fault and its either something connecting to the net or a problem with your LAN.

Can you find the latest motherboard drivers for your motherboard from the manufacturers site ?

There may be an update that could improve its behavour, if not uninstall and reinstall the drivers for the onboard LAN in case they have been corrupted.

Sometimes if you select the wrong option when reinstalling XP it puts another version alongside the old one and in effect turns it into a dual boot system.
It shouldnt matter too much apart from the option to select which OS can slow the boot process a little.
If it is something thats running in the background and trying to connect to the net thats causing the problem then if you dont mind doing a full reinstall again that may be a thing to try.

Whenever I do a fresh install of XP I select the delete the partition option and delete the partition which has the original installation of XP on it, usually C: , then create the partition again and install XP to that one, that means that anything that was left over from the previous installation cant interfere with the new clean install.

SarahR · « **Reply #39 on:** August 12, 2005, 02:07 »

I have installed the drivers from my motherboard website.
I will try again with the XP installation but am a little scared that it will delete my other drive as well. I have an F drive as well as my C drive.
Is it worth taking the F drive out for a bit to see if that does anything?

Sandra · « **Reply #40 on:** August 12, 2005, 02:17 »

Yes always best to do that to be on the safe side.
I once had my boot drive split into two partitions and a seperate single partition slave drive
I carefully copied everything to my E drive and then formatted the whole boot drive and repartitioned it and installed XP again.
To my horror I found that the second partition of my boot drive was E and the slave was D so I wiped everything off my pc completely :shock:

All you need to do is to remove the 4 pin connector for the power to your slave drive, you can leave the IDE cable in and it wont know its there if it doesnt power up

Did the new drivers make any difference or did it start freezing up again after updating them ?

SarahR · « **Reply #41 on:** August 12, 2005, 02:20 »

Well i have only just re-installed the drivers, have been busy working the past few days so have only just had the chance!
Will see what it's like this evening, perhaps leave it running overnight, then i will remove my F drive and see what that does!
Will get back to you in due course

Sandra · « **Reply #42 on:** August 12, 2005, 02:21 »

Good luck, maybe the new drivers have fixed something

SarahR · « **Reply #43 on:** August 12, 2005, 04:37 »

The PC froze again so i took the power cable from out the back of my slave drive and booted it up again but my pc said something about a hardware configuration and wouldn't let me load my PC.
Before formatting again, i just want to be assured that my F drive won't be touched because i have lots of stuff on there i don't want to lose!

Sandra · « **Reply #44 on:** August 12, 2005, 11:15 »

Are you sure it was the slave drive and not the master that you removed the power cable from ?
Depending on the make and model of hard drive the jumpers may need changing on the master drive, sometimes theyre placed differently for a single master to when its a master with slave.
Theres usually a diagram on the drive itself showing where they should be.

It depends how careful you are if you leave the slave connected when formatting that you select the correct drive. Its much safer to disable the drive with your data on that you need, then you cant possibly make a mistake.