Problem with Computer Freezing....

Kelloggs

Hey,

I bought my Computer from Tiny (yep, in know what your thinking) about a year ago, just before they went bust! When i first got it, it was fine but after a couple of months i had a problem with the system freezing for no good reason while in the middle of me doing something eg online gaming, writing up letters etc...

After a friend told me to try taking the side off and hoovering inside it seemed to work fine after that, i took the side off regularly to hoover it out and cool the system down. But recently it has started happening more often. It freezes at least 2-3 times a day! I have had the side off the tower for the last 2 weeks to make sure it has enough air to breath and what not but still it freezes. I have Virus checks, Spyware checks and all but when scanned its all clean...

So basically does any body have any ideas of whats going on or what can be done? Cheers

Kelly

mentat_2

It could be a number of things...

Sounds like it's overheating, which could be most components, can you post the specs of your machine and if you've overclocked it or modified it since purchase.

You could also try 'soak testing' it - put it in safe mode, leave it powered on overnight if possible, not running any apps and see if it crashes. Then try the same with your standard drivers, but no apps and see if it crashes. If there are no crashes, it's something occurring with the an app/game you are using, rather than a driver or the operating system. You mention online gaming, so maybe your CPU can't take the load that's being placed on it, expecially if this if for a few hours each session.

So, tests and spec and let us know what happens.

mistry_2

Another thing worth considering is, do you have many things connected via usb? This can drain a lot of power and cause freezing/restarting.

If you do, using a powered USB hub seems to fix this.

HTH

Kazonline

Hope you don't mind but my pc also has freezing problems too and I was interested in what you said about online gaming. Two of my children love to play games online - could this be overloading my pc?
Intel pentium 4
CPU 2.66GHZ
256 RAM
I thought it might just be that we have too many files on the pc using up the memory etc. I do defragment etc quite often, but doesn't help much.

sillybean

It is unlikly that your system is overheating, especially in a tower. Unless of course the fan outlet is blocked because you have it butted up against a flat surface the wrong way up.

MOre probable is that either your windows installation has become currupted because you installed some dodgy software that messed about with your registry. Alternativly it could be:

1. Your hard drive is very badly fragmented and nearly full
2. you have spy ware on your PC taking up resources esp if you are having trouble when you are online during gaming.
3. Your installations are currupted either widows or applications.

I would recommend:
1. backing up your work files
2. Wiping the drive with a full format
3. Re-install OS and only the applications you need.

In anycase if your are having problems back up your work because it could go any day or second.

Of course by wiping your hard drive you do need all the original install software, eg. windows cd, office, etc what ever you had on it. If you feel you cant do this yourself or are not confident with computers then dont attempt it as ive seen many people come undone.

Of course doing the back up will mean you dont lose anything really valuable. I think PC world have a service where they do that for you. Althought i wouldnt recommend PC world as i used to work for them and dont think they are up to the job. A small firm you can find in the yellow pages will probably do a better job.

byb3

Random and unpredicatble freezing is usually a tell-tale sign of overheating, however there are a few other things that could be at fault.

The posts above seem to cover most the points, but a big one that is overlooked is your power supply. Computers are getting way more powerful but are still on meagre 350w power supplies which just can't supply the juice! However I tend to doubt this would be the problem on a pre-built tiny machine, but you never know.

If you can, enter your system BIOS. Usually when you first turn on your computer a message will come up with 'Press F2 to enter setup' or 'Press Del to enter setup'.

When in this setup, there tends to be a PC Health or status page which would tell you the temperature of your PC. Leave this page on for about 20 minutes to let the temperature settle, and report back here on what temperatures you are getting. (PS Some motherboards are very unreliable at giving temperatures, mine said it was 104C which was enough to melt the case!)

T4i

Download speedfan, its free and clean software.

http://www.almico.com

This will tell you your temps and voltages of your system. Give us a clearer indication about hardware at fault.

Like others have said, intermittent freezing/rebooting can be a selection of things.....can be very frustrating trying to solve it too as you have to be patient for the problem to happen.

Bad software, specailly bad anti-virus as it runs 'silently' in the backgound same goes with firewalls. Other things it could be are buggy drivers (make sure you have latest to rule out any problems there)

Make sure your HDD's have enough free space to work properly. Make sure you dont have any software starting up on boot that you dont need starting up on boot.

Check the HDD's for errors, use something like ccleaner to clean temp folders etc. Defrag...

Use the online scanners for checking virus/spyware/greyware/bloatware/horridware.

Make sure all critical updates for your operating system are installed.

If all this is ok then its pointing more towards hardware fault.

Skyhigh

"After a friend told me to try taking the side off and hoovering inside it seemed to work fine after that, i took the side off regularly to hoover it out and cool the system down."

This is a joke right? Please tell me it is....
You'll do ALOT more damage putting a hoover anywhere near a PC base unit than any good you may do (as in none).


Overheating can cause random freezing BUT there are also many other possibilities.

Have you recently installed hardware or software?
The software or hardware may be conflicting with your setup, therefore causing it to crash.

Have you updated any software or even hardware drivers? If you have a driver issue, mismatch, corrupted .dll or similar, then this could be causing the issue.

Have you performed a Windows Update recently?
If so, this could be the source of the problem, unfortunately some updates can have bad effects on computers - as ALL computer setups are unique, due to your usage pattern, installation pattern and such. This means some updates will improve someones PC but break yours.

If not, try doing Windows Update.


I really doubt its overheating, unless you've moved your PC's position, theres no reason that it should suddenly start overheating, as it takes a good 6 months for enough dust to start affecting temp to build up.
- Unless you have a high end system with alot of fans...like me, so it dusts up badly every other month.


IF you want to clean your PC FOR THE LOVE OF everything DO NOT use a hoover.
DO NOT use a can of air, yes they are handy, but they also have a habit of 'spitting' fluid, which will break your PC and cause severe problems if it gets on your.
The reason for this is that if you don't hold the cans vertical, then the fluid can build and be ejected - due to the nature of PC's its nearly impossible to clean a PC correctly without moving the cans position from a vertical position.


The problem could also be due to failing hardware, it happens. Hardware tends to either fail within the first few weeks or even months and then towards the end of its lifespan (say, 3-5 years), dependant on what hardware it is.


Games should not cause your PC to crash, unless its a driver issue with the graphics card or similar.

Really it depends on how your PC freezes or crashes.
Does it do it when idle? when there are no programs running?
Does it only do it under loan, when you've got alot of application open or you're playing a game?
Does it only crash when you're online? Or when you use a specific suite of software?

How does it crash, freeze completely with the image still shown, freeze and black out (monitor), crash? crash and restart?


Dependant on your PC knowledge, you want to AVOID going into the BIOS or choosing to do a complete format and re-install.
Although if you do decide to re-install, I'd recommend a Linux distro, such as Ubuntu or Suse.


The best thing to do really, is to find a friend, or a family member of a friend who *knows* what they are doing to have a look at it (on the cheap or free).
Large stores like PC World will charge you a fortune just to even look at it.

And please please please do NOT take advice from non-professionals with little hardware/software experience.
....such as hoovering your PC....

I mean, if someone told you that cleaning your *car* with paint stripper would get all the dirt off, you wouldn't do it.

:!:

T4i

Skyhigh wrote:

"After a friend told me to try taking the side off and hoovering inside it seemed to work fine after that, i took the side off regularly to hoover it out and cool the system down."

This is a joke right? Please tell me it is....
You'll do ALOT more damage putting a hoover anywhere near a PC base unit than any good you may do (as in none).

Been using this method for 10 years, never damaged any components doing it, I tend to do mine every 6 months. Did it couple weeks back and my system temps dropped by 10degs.

CPU fan bearings dont last forever, once it starts to go the cooling performance will suffer.

flutter_by_2

Kazonline wrote:

Hope you don't mind but my pc also has freezing problems too and I was interested in what you said about online gaming. Two of my children love to play games online - could this be overloading my pc?
Intel pentium 4
CPU 2.66GHZ
256 RAM
I thought it might just be that we have too many files on the pc using up the memory etc. I do defragment etc quite often, but doesn't help much.

As mentioned before by other users this can be caused by game programs.. I am no computer expert and know only what I did.. my old computer kept crashing left right and center when i was working with big applications.. I was advised to upgrade my RAM from 256 to 512.. I did that and I never ever had another computer freeze again. When I purchased a new computer last winter i upgraded to 1024 RAM and I can safely say that I now can run serveral large applications such as, Frontpage, Jasc PSP and Animation shop, my ftp program, msn messenger, yahoo, skype and usually several webpages and my email program and never once have I froze... But on saying that I did download the lastest version of MSN messenger which totally slowed down my application running and causing the programs themselves to freeze.. Once I did a system restore the problem was solved and I can safely say that I am problem free again..

Sometimes fixing the little things can solve the bigger problems..

Kellogs ...

I would not recommend going into the BIOS or doing a full system format unless you know what you are doing with that, simply because u can really do more damage than good unless you are a computer buff and know exactly what you are doing... I agree totally with skyhigh there.... I learn by other peoples mistakes who have been advised to do this and become really unstuck to the point they have lost their whole tower....

Windows has a program called PC Doctor you might be able to run this to check out the applications another way would be to goto:

START > MY COMPUTER > RIGHT CLICK ON YOUR HARD DRIVE > SCROLL TO PROPERTIES > CLICK ON TOOLS TAB > CLICK ERROR CHECKING ..

Try a system restore, defrag, disc clean up, virus scan, spyware scan before the disc error check.. If all that fails and your comp is still freezing then investigate the overheating of the system and other major problems such as the mother board coruption or disk coruption..

You may well have caused dust too corupt your motherboard when you vacumed it...

There are many avenues you can explore before stripping down your tower.. (which you should never ever do unless ur up on that stuff)

I hope you can get your computer sorted soon, I know how blooming frustrating it can be... Good Luck

Browntoa

Tinys PC's used onboard (that is built into the motherboard) graphics which use the systems ram, I have seen this problem with games on several PC's form them, but most have an AGP slot where you can put a REAL graphics card

Belarc Advisor - Free Personal PC Audit (Version 7.1h)

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.

which will tell you the motherboard you have