[cgjenkins]

About once a day my computer locks up and I have to reboot it to get it working again. When I look in the events log, the only error I can find is this:

The parallel port driver service failed to start due to the following error: ther service cannot be started, either it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.

When I go to services there is no service install by that name. I have done some research on the web but have gotten no answers. can you help?

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This error usually occurs when there has been a parallel port present when Windows was originally installed (that is, it was on in the BIOS at the time) but has subsequently been switched off in the BIOS.

[Neil Jones]

This error usually occurs when there has been a parallel port present when Windows was originally installed (that is, it was on in the BIOS at the time) but has subsequently been switched off in the BIOS.

[cgjenkins]

This error usually occurs when there has been a parallel port present when Windows was originally installed (that is, it was on in the BIOS at the time) but has subsequently been switched off in the BIOS.

Does this mean I need to go into bios and disable the parallel port?

[cgjenkins]

I checked BIOS and the parallel portr was disabled. I enabled it, and rebooted. I still don't see it in services.

[cgjenkins]

It seems to happen when I am trying to download updates or run defrag. It just hangs. I has also happend serveral time this evening for no apparent reason.

[Ztruker]

Unlikely that the parallel port service is your problem. Something else is going on.

When you say hang, do you mean the computer is completely locked up, Mouse and keyboard do not work? If so this is most likely a hardware problem.

What shape is the inside of your computer? Have you cleaned it of dust and such (canned air is great for this)?

Check all cables and components, make sure they are firmly seated.
Make sure all fans are turning and not clogged with dirt.

[cgjenkins]

The insid of the case is clean as a whistle, and all connections are good.

[cgjenkins]

It seems that I can move the mouse and highlight applications that are running, nothing works. I did have a copy of virtual server running on the system but un-installed it recently. I think that I was having problems before that though.

[cgjenkins]

Ist there some kind of free or cheap software that can be run that will help diagnose a computers problems, and find any errors on the system?

[Ztruker]

No. OEM manufacturers like Dell have some diagnostics that you can run from a CD or hidden partition on the hard drive, but in
general there is no such animal.

If you can move the mouse then the system is not frozen, so something is using all the CPU resources so there is none left for anything else. Using Task Manager as I described would be an excellent way to see what is doing this.

How long has this been happening? What did you do around that time? Did you add or remove any hardware or software? Did you run a registry cleaner?

[cgjenkins]

When it "freezes" I can move the mouse but I can not get to task manager, so it is hard to tell if a process is using all my resources. I have not added anything opr made any changes since this started about a week ago. I would like to get it figured out so I don't have to reload the OS.

[cgjenkins]

Just for a test I opened task manager, and started a defrag (one of the things that causes the computer to stop running). As before the computer stops and would not do anythingm with the exception of the mouse. Performance was running at zero, so I don't tink that anything is using my resources.

[cgjenkins]

I shut the computer down last night. This morning It would not start saying that it was missing file windows\sys32\1_intl.nls. I decided to just go ahead and reload the OS (windows XP sp2), but when it gets to the point when it says that it is examining disk 0 it just stops. I have a terabyte of hard drie space. 4 250 gb sata drives with raid configured configured for striping. I also have 3 gb of ram. I took all but 1 gig of ram and am moving it to different slots. I also tried to get into the recovery console but the installation freezes. Any ideas? Desperate.

[Ztruker]

I'm out of my depth when it gets to installing to a RAID 0 setup. I've asked for help from some of our techs who have experience in this area.

[cgjenkins]

It got to the point that the computer would not boot at all, It just spiraled downhill. I ended up just having to rebuild the whole thing. Thanks for your help. Now if I can get the other one working I'll be in good shape.