WinXP freezing, hanging up.........

on startup. my sister sent me her Gateway computer, it worked find for a
couple of days then earlier this week while I was on the net it just froze up
on me, I couldn't use the mouse or anything else. so I rebooted and it froze
and continues to freeze up after. every now and then I can get as far as the
user account icon.

I'm running WinXP as it says in the Topic title. I have tried to boot from
the WinXP installation cd and that hangs up too and it gets to the Windows
Setup screen when it is loading files. I have also tried another hard drive
with the same results. it also will not boot in the safe mode either.

does anyone have any ideas. if you need more info please let me know

Steve

How much RAM? What CPU speed?

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

You should be able to gather more information from Task Manager. With
the Processes tab open select View, Select, Columns and check the boxes
before Peak Memory Usage and Virtual Memory size. What are the figures
for the 6 processes using the largest amounts?

Do you leave the computer on 24/7?

I would be interested in seeing a Disk Defragmenter report. Open Disk
Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report and
click on Save As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents
Folder and post a copy. Do this before running Disk Defragmenter as it
is more informative.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steve wrote:
> on startup. my sister sent me her Gateway computer, it worked find
> for a couple of days then earlier this week while I was on the net it
> just froze up on me, I couldn't use the mouse or anything else. so I
> rebooted and it froze and continues to freeze up after. every now
> and then I can get as far as the user account icon.
>
> I'm running WinXP as it says in the Topic title. I have tried to boot
> from the WinXP installation cd and that hangs up too and it gets to
> the Windows Setup screen when it is loading files. I have also tried
> another hard drive with the same results. it also will not boot in
> the safe mode either.
>
> does anyone have any ideas. if you need more info please let me know

Steve schreef:
> on startup. my sister sent me her Gateway computer, it worked find for a
> couple of days then earlier this week while I was on the net it just froze up
> on me, I couldn't use the mouse or anything else. so I rebooted and it froze
> and continues to freeze up after. every now and then I can get as far as the
> user account icon.
>
> I'm running WinXP as it says in the Topic title. I have tried to boot from
> the WinXP installation cd and that hangs up too and it gets to the Windows
> Setup screen when it is loading files. I have also tried another hard drive
> with the same results. it also will not boot in the safe mode either.
>
> does anyone have any ideas. if you need more info please let me know

Hi,

Sounds like hardwaretrouble to me.
You might have bad memory or an erratic motherboard or something like that.

To eliminate this possibility I think I would try to boot into another
OS, just to check if that runs stable.
eg:
- DOS (if you have diskettes for it)

But first check your BIOS (hit DEL or F2 or whatever), and make sure the
BIOS displays all POST messages, so no splash screens.
Make sure BIOS performs a memorytest.


Regards,
Erwin Moller

Gerry schreef:
> Steve
>
> How much RAM? What CPU speed?
>
> Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
> Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?
>
> You should be able to gather more information from Task Manager. With
> the Processes tab open select View, Select, Columns and check the boxes
> before Peak Memory Usage and Virtual Memory size. What are the figures
> for the 6 processes using the largest amounts?
>
> Do you leave the computer on 24/7?
>
> I would be interested in seeing a Disk Defragmenter report. Open Disk
> Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report and
> click on Save As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents
> Folder and post a copy. Do this before running Disk Defragmenter as it
> is more informative.
>
>

Steve, the OP wrote:
"every now and then I can get as far as the
user account icon."
That is the maximum for the OP appearantly.

I doubt he makes it to Task Manager, let alone a Scandisk or
defragmenter. ;-)

Regards,
Erwin Moller

Erwin

Point taken.


--
~~~~


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Erwin Moller wrote:
> Gerry schreef:
>> Steve
>>
>> How much RAM? What CPU speed?
>>
>> Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
>> Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?
>>
>> You should be able to gather more information from Task Manager. With
>> the Processes tab open select View, Select, Columns and check the
>> boxes before Peak Memory Usage and Virtual Memory size. What are the
>> figures for the 6 processes using the largest amounts?
>>
>> Do you leave the computer on 24/7?
>>
>> I would be interested in seeing a Disk Defragmenter report. Open
>> Disk Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report and
>> click on Save As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents
>> Folder and post a copy. Do this before running Disk Defragmenter as
>> it is more informative.
>>
>>
>
> Steve, the OP wrote:
> "every now and then I can get as far as the
> user account icon."
> That is the maximum for the OP appearantly.
>
> I doubt he makes it to Task Manager, let alone a Scandisk or
> defragmenter. ;-)
>
> Regards,
> Erwin Moller

Steve

Disconnect all peripherals except keyboard, mouse and monitor. Try Last
Known Good Configuration.

A description of the Safe Mode Boot options in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315222/en-us

Did your sister provide you with a Windows XP CD? What model Gateway?


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Steve wrote:
> on startup. my sister sent me her Gateway computer, it worked find
> for a couple of days then earlier this week while I was on the net it
> just froze up on me, I couldn't use the mouse or anything else. so I
> rebooted and it froze and continues to freeze up after. every now
> and then I can get as far as the user account icon.
>
> I'm running WinXP as it says in the Topic title. I have tried to boot
> from the WinXP installation cd and that hangs up too and it gets to
> the Windows Setup screen when it is loading files. I have also tried
> another hard drive with the same results. it also will not boot in
> the safe mode either.
>
> does anyone have any ideas. if you need more info please let me know

Steve wrote:
> on startup. my sister sent me her Gateway computer, it worked find for a
> couple of days then earlier this week while I was on the net it just froze up
> on me, I couldn't use the mouse or anything else. so I rebooted and it froze
> and continues to freeze up after. every now and then I can get as far as the
> user account icon.
>
> I'm running WinXP as it says in the Topic title. I have tried to boot from
> the WinXP installation cd and that hangs up too and it gets to the Windows
> Setup screen when it is loading files. I have also tried another hard drive
> with the same results. it also will not boot in the safe mode either.
>
> does anyone have any ideas. if you need more info please let me know

There are programs you can get, to test stuff. For example, memtest86+
from memtest.org , is available in a floppy or a CD version. When you
run the program, no errors are acceptable (as an error could be what
is upsetting the machine). Even the ability to boot and run this, is
a positive sign. Memtest86+ doesn't find all possible RAM problems
(as some only become apparent under 100% CPU loading).

http://www.memtest.org/pics/i875-big.gif

For hard drive testing, the hard drive manufacturers have diagnostic
programs for download on their web site. This can determine whether
there is a serious problem with the disk for example. You'd need
to eyeball the label on the drive, if you cannot run the computer
and collect inventory information while in Windows.

http://www.seagate.com/support/seato...lsDOSguide.pdf

Another place to look, is in the BIOS screens. On my machine, when
it starts, I press <delete> to get into the BIOS setup screen.
There is a hardware monitor page, where fan speeds and power
supply voltages are measured. Maybe the Gateway has something
like that. The 3.3V, 5V, and 12V voltages should be within
+/- 5% of those values.

Perhaps when you've collected a few more symptoms, the cause
will be more apparent. Freezing, as such, may have more than
one root cause. (For example, there was a certain network driver
a while back, offered through Windows Update, that caused a
freezing problem. Yours sounds more like a hardware problem
of some sort.)

Paul

"Erwin Moller" wrote:

> Steve schreef:
> > on startup. my sister sent me her Gateway computer, it worked find for a
> > couple of days then earlier this week while I was on the net it just froze up
> > on me, I couldn't use the mouse or anything else. so I rebooted and it froze
> > and continues to freeze up after. every now and then I can get as far as the
> > user account icon.
> >
> > I'm running WinXP as it says in the Topic title. I have tried to boot from
> > the WinXP installation cd and that hangs up too and it gets to the Windows
> > Setup screen when it is loading files. I have also tried another hard drive
> > with the same results. it also will not boot in the safe mode either.
> >
> > does anyone have any ideas. if you need more info please let me know
>
> Hi,
>
> Sounds like hardwaretrouble to me.
> You might have bad memory or an erratic motherboard or something like that.
>
> To eliminate this possibility I think I would try to boot into another
> OS, just to check if that runs stable.
> eg:
> - DOS (if you have diskettes for it)
>
> But first check your BIOS (hit DEL or F2 or whatever), and make sure the
> BIOS displays all POST messages, so no splash screens.
> Make sure BIOS performs a memorytest.
>
>
> Regards,
> Erwin Moller

Erwin, when I boot and hit the del key, I enter the Bios Setup Utitily screen
but that too freezes up.........here is the info under Main if that helps

BIOS Version - GB85010A.15A.0014.P04
Processor Type - Intel Pentium 4
Processor Speed - 130GHz
System Bus Frequency - 100MHz
Cache RAM - 256KB
Total Memory - 512KB
Memory Configuration [Non_ECC]

I don't have another OS but I do have the Performance 1300 System Recovery
Disc that came with it. should I try to book with this floppy?

thanks

"Gerry" wrote:

> Steve
>
> Disconnect all peripherals except keyboard, mouse and monitor. Try Last
> Known Good Configuration.
>
> A description of the Safe Mode Boot options in Windows XP
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315222/en-us
>
> Did your sister provide you with a Windows XP CD? What model Gateway?

it freezes up when I select Last Know Configuration also

it's a Gateway Performance 1300 and I do have Windows XP CD, but it also
freezes up when I try to boot from it Gerry.

thanks

> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Steve wrote:
> > on startup. my sister sent me her Gateway computer, it worked find
> > for a couple of days then earlier this week while I was on the net it
> > just froze up on me, I couldn't use the mouse or anything else. so I
> > rebooted and it froze and continues to freeze up after. every now
> > and then I can get as far as the user account icon.
> >
> > I'm running WinXP as it says in the Topic title. I have tried to boot
> > from the WinXP installation cd and that hangs up too and it gets to
> > the Windows Setup screen when it is loading files. I have also tried
> > another hard drive with the same results. it also will not boot in
> > the safe mode either.
> >
> > does anyone have any ideas. if you need more info please let me know
>
>
>

"Paul" wrote:

> Steve wrote:
> > on startup. my sister sent me her Gateway computer, it worked find for a
> > couple of days then earlier this week while I was on the net it just froze up
> > on me, I couldn't use the mouse or anything else. so I rebooted and it froze
> > and continues to freeze up after. every now and then I can get as far as the
> > user account icon.
> >
> > I'm running WinXP as it says in the Topic title. I have tried to boot from
> > the WinXP installation cd and that hangs up too and it gets to the Windows
> > Setup screen when it is loading files. I have also tried another hard drive
> > with the same results. it also will not boot in the safe mode either.
> >
> > does anyone have any ideas. if you need more info please let me know
>
> There are programs you can get, to test stuff. For example, memtest86+
> from memtest.org , is available in a floppy or a CD version. When you
> run the program, no errors are acceptable (as an error could be what
> is upsetting the machine). Even the ability to boot and run this, is
> a positive sign. Memtest86+ doesn't find all possible RAM problems
> (as some only become apparent under 100% CPU loading).
>
> http://www.memtest.org/pics/i875-big.gif
>
> For hard drive testing, the hard drive manufacturers have diagnostic
> programs for download on their web site. This can determine whether
> there is a serious problem with the disk for example. You'd need
> to eyeball the label on the drive, if you cannot run the computer
> and collect inventory information while in Windows.
>
> http://www.seagate.com/support/seato...lsDOSguide.pdf
>
> Another place to look, is in the BIOS screens. On my machine, when
> it starts, I press <delete> to get into the BIOS setup screen.
> There is a hardware monitor page, where fan speeds and power
> supply voltages are measured. Maybe the Gateway has something
> like that. The 3.3V, 5V, and 12V voltages should be within
> +/- 5% of those values.
>
> Perhaps when you've collected a few more symptoms, the cause
> will be more apparent. Freezing, as such, may have more than
> one root cause. (For example, there was a certain network driver
> a while back, offered through Windows Update, that caused a
> freezing problem. Yours sounds more like a hardware problem
> of some sort.)
>
> Paul

thank Paul, if I want to create a CD to run Memtest68 what do I need
to download? sorry I'm not sure what to do after reading it

http://www.memtest.org/

thank you