How to track down XP lockup?
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My friend has an old machine with XP which locks up (machine completely frozen) anywhere from a few seconds after logging in up to five to ten minutes after. It seems to survive fine in safe mode and if I use a CD Linux it works fine without any lockups. Does anyone know of steps to track down the offending process that it locking up the machine? There is nothing in the event log and it does not matter what you are doing at the time of lockup so it is not tied to an individual program. I would say to just do a reinstall but in this case, the friend is not close by and there are settings for their ISP that I cannot test from here so they still might get hosed if I reinstall. They have not recently installed anything, but I am wondering about a virus. Does anyone know of an antivirus that is free and can be used from CD or USB thumb drive? Any ideas?
Rocky <>< Recent Blog Post: Playing with Kubuntu Linux.. Thinking about Silverlight? www.SilverlightCity.com
According with the symptoms that you stated, I think that the problem is in superheated processor. Get SpeedFan[^] and check some oddy temperature or voltages.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.(John 3:16) :badger:
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According with the symptoms that you stated, I think that the problem is in superheated processor. Get SpeedFan[^] and check some oddy temperature or voltages.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.(John 3:16) :badger:
Well, as I mentioned, it works in safe mode and in CD Linux, I doubt it is hardware related.
Rocky <>< Recent Blog Post: Playing with Kubuntu Linux.. Thinking about Silverlight? www.SilverlightCity.com
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My friend has an old machine with XP which locks up (machine completely frozen) anywhere from a few seconds after logging in up to five to ten minutes after. It seems to survive fine in safe mode and if I use a CD Linux it works fine without any lockups. Does anyone know of steps to track down the offending process that it locking up the machine? There is nothing in the event log and it does not matter what you are doing at the time of lockup so it is not tied to an individual program. I would say to just do a reinstall but in this case, the friend is not close by and there are settings for their ISP that I cannot test from here so they still might get hosed if I reinstall. They have not recently installed anything, but I am wondering about a virus. Does anyone know of an antivirus that is free and can be used from CD or USB thumb drive? Any ideas?
Rocky <>< Recent Blog Post: Playing with Kubuntu Linux.. Thinking about Silverlight? www.SilverlightCity.com
I had the exact same symptoms earlier this week. It started with occasional hangs but within a day the entire system would lock up and a power reset was the only way I could reboot. I figured it was hardware, either the video card or RAM. My first test was to disconnect my second monitor, in preparation to swapping out the video card, and miraculously the problem went away. When I reconnected the second monitor again (NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT dual-monitor card) the problem was still gone. I don't know if that was really the root of the problem, but everything seems ok after several days. Yeah, this may not be helpful in your case, but you might start jiggling boards and connectors as a first step.
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Well, as I mentioned, it works in safe mode and in CD Linux, I doubt it is hardware related.
Rocky <>< Recent Blog Post: Playing with Kubuntu Linux.. Thinking about Silverlight? www.SilverlightCity.com
Sorry, I read fast and didn't see Safe Mode but I wouldn't jump over the fan entirely. That was a pretty good call I have seen heat issues where the machine would run fine until you fired up a game or something else that taxed the processor. A flat Linux install or running in Safe Mode might not create enough load to generate the required heat to force a system shutdown.
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My friend has an old machine with XP which locks up (machine completely frozen) anywhere from a few seconds after logging in up to five to ten minutes after. It seems to survive fine in safe mode and if I use a CD Linux it works fine without any lockups. Does anyone know of steps to track down the offending process that it locking up the machine? There is nothing in the event log and it does not matter what you are doing at the time of lockup so it is not tied to an individual program. I would say to just do a reinstall but in this case, the friend is not close by and there are settings for their ISP that I cannot test from here so they still might get hosed if I reinstall. They have not recently installed anything, but I am wondering about a virus. Does anyone know of an antivirus that is free and can be used from CD or USB thumb drive? Any ideas?
Rocky <>< Recent Blog Post: Playing with Kubuntu Linux.. Thinking about Silverlight? www.SilverlightCity.com
I had this exact same problem some time ago. The problem ended up being the motherboard software that was controlling the 'overclock' and 'fans' and such. After a certain amount of time it would try and switch down into a lower mode which caused my machine to freeze.
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My friend has an old machine with XP which locks up (machine completely frozen) anywhere from a few seconds after logging in up to five to ten minutes after. It seems to survive fine in safe mode and if I use a CD Linux it works fine without any lockups. Does anyone know of steps to track down the offending process that it locking up the machine? There is nothing in the event log and it does not matter what you are doing at the time of lockup so it is not tied to an individual program. I would say to just do a reinstall but in this case, the friend is not close by and there are settings for their ISP that I cannot test from here so they still might get hosed if I reinstall. They have not recently installed anything, but I am wondering about a virus. Does anyone know of an antivirus that is free and can be used from CD or USB thumb drive? Any ideas?
Rocky <>< Recent Blog Post: Playing with Kubuntu Linux.. Thinking about Silverlight? www.SilverlightCity.com
My initial thought was hardware related, but you said it run fine from CD Linux. - It may be driver issue, but not sure if this would apply - As some one mentioned it run msconfig disable everything and give it a spin. At least that will help eliminate many things. - As for virus, run ComboFix or SDFix. Then when the system is stable get a decent AV (AVG,Avant...) do complete check.
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Well, as I mentioned, it works in safe mode and in CD Linux, I doubt it is hardware related.
Rocky <>< Recent Blog Post: Playing with Kubuntu Linux.. Thinking about Silverlight? www.SilverlightCity.com
Rocky Moore wrote:
it works in safe mode and in CD Linux
sure, there isn't much to do in safe or *nix mode is there? :laugh: try a virus scan first, fix all the warnings, then test again. :)
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Well, as I mentioned, it works in safe mode and in CD Linux, I doubt it is hardware related.
Rocky <>< Recent Blog Post: Playing with Kubuntu Linux.. Thinking about Silverlight? www.SilverlightCity.com
Different software stresses hardware in different ways. Safe mode uses the VGA driver - so less stress on the video hardware. Loads fewer drivers - so less stress on peripherals, memory. Check the temperature first, since that's pretty easy to rule out. Then run a memory diagnostics program, since you can sit and drink while that runs. If both of those look fine, then start removing drivers and startup programs 'till it works...
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Sorry, I read fast and didn't see Safe Mode but I wouldn't jump over the fan entirely. That was a pretty good call I have seen heat issues where the machine would run fine until you fired up a game or something else that taxed the processor. A flat Linux install or running in Safe Mode might not create enough load to generate the required heat to force a system shutdown.
Guess I should have included that I was running two of the arcade games that came with Linux at the same time for a few hours and then sat there for almost an hour playing one of the simple ones ;)
Rocky <>< Recent Blog Post: Playing with Kubuntu Linux.. Thinking about Silverlight? www.SilverlightCity.com
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My friend has an old machine with XP which locks up (machine completely frozen) anywhere from a few seconds after logging in up to five to ten minutes after. It seems to survive fine in safe mode and if I use a CD Linux it works fine without any lockups. Does anyone know of steps to track down the offending process that it locking up the machine? There is nothing in the event log and it does not matter what you are doing at the time of lockup so it is not tied to an individual program. I would say to just do a reinstall but in this case, the friend is not close by and there are settings for their ISP that I cannot test from here so they still might get hosed if I reinstall. They have not recently installed anything, but I am wondering about a virus. Does anyone know of an antivirus that is free and can be used from CD or USB thumb drive? Any ideas?
Rocky <>< Recent Blog Post: Playing with Kubuntu Linux.. Thinking about Silverlight? www.SilverlightCity.com
Try using driver verifier on all unsigned drivers. Should give you a BSOD if there is a dodgy driver.
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