a different computer question...maybe someone knows

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green67cuda

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I started having problems all of a sudden last fall, and still haven't found the problem....
my computer all of a sudden started locking up while web pages are loading...always at random, and with random pages....usually not twice on the same page in the same timeframe....the computer itself locks up, not IE....have to manually cycle power
ran spybot....nothing....ran Norton....nothing....repeat, nothing, repeat, nothing......
then i uninstalled SP2, and i thought it went away...didn't do it for over a week...then it started again, except MORE randomly....got to thinking maybe it was my ethernet card that the cable modem is connected to....updated the driver....no help......

i just can't seem to figure out what's causing it....

then YESTERDAY........i edited a picture with Paint...got done...clicked Save....locked up.....
 
How much Ram memory do you have. It sounds like not enough. With the Windows systems now I don't do anything without at least 256 megs. The only other thing I can think of is the cpu is getting to hot. That one is doubtful.

Jack
 
Could be lots of things, but most likely it's a software bug in a device driver or one of the applications that is running. You were probably on the right track making sure all the drivers are the latest available. What graphics card do you have? That is the next thing I would check since the lockup occurs when it's updating the screen.

When you reboot after a lockup, do you get a Microsoft Serious Error alert? If so, save the memory dump and send the report to Microsoft.
 
memory is 512 MB...so i don't think that's an issue...

HOWEVER....i never thought about the video card...it's a PCI-bus nvidia geforce4 mx440.....AND i had been having lots of trouble with shutting down before all this web thing started happening.....i click on shut down, then click turn off, and it sits there for a few minutes then the dialog box comes up and says it's trying to shut down Nvidia....i have left before after shutting it down, and when i came back 12 hours later, it was still there and still trying to shut it down....so i just click End Now, and it shuts down.....or if i caught it trying to do it before i turned the monitor off, i'd end task then....

interestingly, that problem seems to have subsided since I started having this problem


hmmmmmmmm :scratch:
 
Yep, I am very familiar with nVidia drivers. :roll: I used to program manage the graphics card qualifications where I work. Try one of the newer Release 60 drivers, it just might fix your hangs.
 
well....i've switched back to onboard video, didn't work.....reformatted and reinstalled XP only...didn't work....tried using the modem on the usb port instead of ethernet to rule out ethernet....disabled the ethernet card, and puter locked up or reset every time i tried running the install for the usb setup......so i'm down to bare-bones and still have trouble....
but this time i really think i know what it is....the fact that my puter is 5 years old......granted, i've got 512MB ram, video card, XP, and other stuff, but the motherboard and processor are still 5 years old......guess dude's gettin a dell

oh well....she served her time well......this is the only trouble i've ever had out of it.....time to move on
 
before you go to dell try a couple things first. You may have a memory leak(not to be mistaken for a rear main leak)..lol Or possibly a bad stick of memory. the memory leak is a little harder to determine so we will go with the RAM . try removing all but 1 stick of memory (dont know how yours is set up) then go play cards or try surfing...nothing too memory intensive-if it runs ok then add another until you hang up again. as you add sticks get more demanding on your comp ...run grafic appz and surf or render a movie (if your into that) and surf . When it hangs undo the last thing you did .and you have forund your bad memory.

Now a memory leak is where a program doesnt release the ram to be reused again. poor programmers are the cause there. use task manager and keep an eye on cpu useage as you play with computer and sometimes you can see a minor app using major resorces

hope this helps
 
ok....in Task Manager, when i open up an application the "CPU Usage History" spikes and spikes a bunch and/or stays right around 100%

"physical memory" (available) drops down some, and continues to as i open more applications, but it goes back up when i close them all

that tells me the processor is straining too hard and locking it up????
 
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