Hey my pc keeps freezing up and I don't know why, there doesn't seem to be any pattern either, weather under load or sitting idol... after manually rebooting I don't get any error messages. CPU Core 2 duo E7500 Motherboard Not sure about my mobo its a dell studio 540 RAM 3gb 800mhz Graphics card 5670 1gb Power supply 350w Operating system XP SP3 At first I thought it was utorrent doing it running in the back ground but today I was only running chrome on youtube then it froze again.
I would say a problem with the operating system, probably showing its age seeing as we're talking Windows XP here. Be tempted to go the route of a fresh install if the system is so unresponsive that you can't do anything meaningful within windows. Have you installed any specific programs recently? Perhaps a virus scanner or other security software?
I'v only had the pc a few weeks, put a fresh install of XP on it (originally came with vista) when I got it and threw AGV free edition on it.
how does it do in safe mode? i went to a machine yesterday, that if you went straight to normal (unsafe) mode, it wouldn't do anything, and took an age to load . went into safe mode, and machine loaded and ran with networking, perfectly, did a scan with malwarebytes, and removed over 200 threats in safe mode, but still wouldnt load properly in normal mode. machine was 7 years old so customer has decided that instead of spending to much on a repair, he was going to buy some new pc's - business customer
Haven't run it in safe mode tbh, however there's nothing wrong with load times etc, runs games fine ARMA, crysis no problems, scanned it the other day only tracking cookies were found.
Check system temperature to make sure that all temperatures. Do you still have that Vista disk? If so, can you put it back (and upgrade it to the latest Service Pack)? I would like to eliminate the legacy OS problem. That is of course, if it's not a temperature problem. If it is, then new thermal paste is needed, and you should be good to go. Also, in the BIOS, make sure your SATA controller is set to IDE mode (also may be called: Legacy/Compatibility). Use AHCI on modern OS, such as Vista or Windows 7. XP doesn't like new stuff. This will create a performance degrease, and no support for SSD's, but if means a working system, then so be it.. until you decide to upgrade later on (if drivers exists). I would keep an eye at Windows 8 Public Beta, sometime next year. Not worth buying WIn7 now.. as Win8 is coming out end of next year (apparently, if no delays). If you are a student, your university or College might be registered to MSDNAA, which allows you to have all Microsoft software for free, except for Microsoft Office (OnNote and Project 2010 is there, though). All you need is your log-in info, which you can get from your school.
I'v checked the cpu and graphics card temperatures they are very low even under load. Yeah I still have the Vista disk, I put XP on because vista uses abit more ram and I'v never really gotten used to the OS.
The reason why XP uses less RAM, is because it puts everything on your HDD instead. No mater how much RAM you have.. 128MB or 4GB, XP acts like you are low in memory (as it was deigned for system with under 512MB of RAM, which is what everyone had when XP was released... 1GB of RAM was unheard off, and is like saying I have 192GB of RAM, today) You should get used to Vista... well the newer Windows the better. Already the learning curve from XP to Win7 is high (trust me, at work we are migrating from XP to Win7.. and there are some regrets of skipping on Vista... due to it's rough start (no or badly done drivers by manufacture, and a push in customer to buy their newer product instead)). The jump to Win8 from XP will be even greater, and then you'll be left behind.
Think you're right, if it freezes again I'll reinstall vista. Should it keep freezing after that I'll start a new thread, thanks for the advice guys!
If you're still having issues after a clean Vista install it'll definitely look hardware related, but you can keep going in the same thread. As mentionned it's a good idea for you to get used to Vista anyways.
