An issue with my PC...

[Strike]

I have an HP Pavilion that keeps freezing up when I leave it unattended. Whether or not I have any programs running (defrag, winamp, etc.), it continues to happen. As long as I'm tooling around on the interwebs, playing a game, etc, it runs fine. But even if I'm watching a video, if I just leave the computer alone while I"m watching, it freezes up. I thought it might be an issue with winamp so I uninstalled and reinstalled. To no avail. I set up the pc to defrag last night and went to bed. When I awoke this morning, frozen.

I've done virus scans (avast) and spyware scans (spybot) and they find nothing.

I reformatted the HD about 1 month ago. Since then, I would get an AMD RAIDXpert timeout alert. I've since gone in to msconfig and disabled it on startup. Not sure if that contributes to the problem or even how to fix the timeout issue. The computer still freezes the same way since the reformat. I'm thinking it could be a memory issue, but I don't know enough to properly diagnose the issue.

My system specs:

AMD 9850 Quad-Core 2.5 GHz
8 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GS 768MB Video card.
Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1.


Any help/advice (besides the obvious "get rid of Vista") would be appreciated.

[koriwhat]

i'm gonna get shit for my "no help" replies, but... your number one problem was going with an HP. i've seen nothing but trouble with those machines. you could build a PC that is exactly the same as your system but you slap on an HP sticker and that sucka is gonna crash.

i'd check the memory if it's just freezing periodically or when you're away. sounds like an issue with your standby, sleep, ect. settings.

[Strike]

I've had HP's for years and this is the first real problem I've ever had with one of them other than windows being a piece of shit. Lucky, maybe. Who knows?

I always keep my systems set to not go to sleep or standby so I don't think that's the issue.

[koriwhat]

have you tried any sort of memory diagnostic programs yet? memcheck+ is all that comes to mind right now. check it out, download the iso, burn it, and restart your computer and boot that disc.

[Cry Havoc]

Strike, what are your power management settings? Your mobo just might hate sleeping, as Vista isn't very good where that is concerned. How long do you wait for your computer to unfreeze?

Control panel > Hardware And Sound > Power options

Turn off any kind of sleep functions. It might even be your hard drive not being given the command to spin up.

[Strike]

have you tried any sort of memory diagnostic programs yet? memcheck+ is all that comes to mind right now. check it out, download the iso, burn it, and restart your computer and boot that disc.

I'll try that.


Strike, what are your power management settings? Your mobo just might hate sleeping, as Vista isn't very good where that is concerned. How long do you wait for your computer to unfreeze?

Control panel > Hardware And Sound > Power options

Turn off any kind of sleep functions. It might even be your hard drive not being given the command to spin up.


I always keep my systems set to not go to sleep or standby so I don't think that's the issue.

I've waited a half hour or more. I started a defrag last night and went to bed. 10 hours later, I got up and checked the computer, the defrag looked like it was still running, but nothing (start menu, icons) would respond when I clicked on them. I waited for about a half hour and still nothing. This is all less than 24 hours after reformatting.

[leemajors]

see if there are any firmware/bios updates for it, and then run cc cleaner for starters.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Sounds like a bug got in.

[Cry Havoc]

:lol Sorry, I usually ignore what KW says, as he even admits that he never helps. :lol

[TDMVPDPOY]

it could be ur hdd acting up

[phyzik]

check your event logs in computer management.

right click "my computer" and select manage
expand event viewer
I think in vista, expand the "windows Logs"


I'd check under the "system" logs to see if there is anything showing up.

Maybe even the "application" logs.

[Wild Cobra]

Do you have something that runs during "idle time?"

The best HP computer I ever saw was after mine corrupted it's own harddrive, and the HP recovery disk didn't work. I couldn't get HP to geve me a recovery disk. I reloaded everything myself, with no additional BS software, reinstalled my MS office, games, Netscape, Photoshope, Adobe reader, etc. etc. etc...

Never had an issue with it since. Sitting in the closet for some time now, but after a clean install with no BS programs...

It was a champ!

[Cry Havoc]

Do you have something that runs during "idle time?"

The best HP computer I ever saw was after mine corrupted it's own harddrive, and the HP recovery disk didn't work. I couldn't get HP to geve me a recovery disk. I reloaded everything myself, with no additional BS software, reinstalled my MS office, games, Netscape, Photoshope, Adobe reader, etc. etc. etc...

Never had an issue with it since. Sitting in the closet for some time now, but after a clean install with no BS programs...

It was a champ!

If you buy a PC from a vendor and have any problems, it never hurts to back up your data and format.

[ElNono]

Do you have any screen savers configured?

[Strike]

I don't use screen savers. I just turn the monitor off if I'm gonna be away for more than a few minutes.

[TDMVPDPOY]

u tried deleting ur gay pornos?

[Strike]

Yup. Didn't help.

I reformatted two days ago. Things seem to be working all right, though startup is a bit slow. I'm gonna have the tower looked at by a pro.

[Strike]

Do you have something that runs during "idle time?"

The best HP computer I ever saw was after mine corrupted it's own harddrive, and the HP recovery disk didn't work. I couldn't get HP to geve me a recovery disk. I reloaded everything myself, with no additional BS software, reinstalled my MS office, games, Netscape, Photoshope, Adobe reader, etc. etc. etc...

Never had an issue with it since. Sitting in the closet for some time now, but after a clean install with no BS programs...

It was a champ!

Great idea. Soon as I find out if there are any hardware problems and address them accordingly, I'm doing the same thing.

[phyzik]

Great idea. Soon as I find out if there are any hardware problems and address them accordingly, I'm doing the same thing.

Another thing you can try besides reloading, do the following....

Click start
Run
type "msconfig" without the quotes.
Go to the startup tab
select disable all

Then go to the Services tab, check the box to hide microsoft services then disable all that remain.

Then reboot.

let it sit and see if it happens again, if it does, its most likely hardware related.

If it doesnt, you know its something thats loading into memory. You can then try checking a few at a time to enable them and reboot each time to test... narrow it down.

Or just reload at that point.