[Ruitos]

Reinstalled the gpu driver (uninstalled it completely and ran drivesweeper before reinstalling the latest driver)

Updated to SP3, still updating windows atm, but still getting occasional freezes.

Evil computer :_(

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OK well the only options at this point is either a Repair Installation or a Parallel Installation
I think first we should try a Repair.
What I would suggest you do is to Backup your Data Files.
For this I would suggest using a External Hard Drive Enclosure. This will allow you to keep your Important Data safe and Separated from the main system in case of problems. The cost for this kind of Backup System has come down a lot. I would suggest a 500 Gig capacity for your needs. Since you will only be Backing Up Data Files Only this should be sufficient to do that for you. Follow the next two links to see examples of the price you will be looking at.
• HERE
• HERE

I suggest going to Microsofts Backup Tutorial and follow the steps to do a Backup to a External Drive and also it will guide you on how to do a Scheduled Backup even at night.

Another way you can do a Backup is by using DVD’s. This method is just as effective and can be done using the same steps as above.


After the above is done then go on to the next step.



Repair Installation Instructions

· Insert your Windows XP CD in your CD-ROM and then Restart your computer.
· At the first post screen start tapping the Del key to enter System Bios
· Find the Advance Options or Boot Sequence screen.
· You will need to change the boot sequence so that the CDrom is first and the HD is second.
· Press F10 to Save and Exit and then press Enter to accept.
· The system will now reboot
· When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message is displayed on your screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD.
· When you see the following message displayed on the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER
· To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.
· At this point an option to press R to enter the Recovery Console is displayed. DO NOT SELECT THIS OPTION.

· On the Windows XP Licensing Agreement screen, press F8 to agree to the license agreement.
· Make sure that your current installation of Windows XP is selected and highlighted in the box, and then press the R key to repair Windows XP.
· Follow the instructions on the screen to complete Setup.

You can also go HERE
to read a step by step tutorial with screenshots.

[rshaffer61]

OK well the only options at this point is either a Repair Installation or a Parallel Installation
I think first we should try a Repair.
What I would suggest you do is to Backup your Data Files.
For this I would suggest using a External Hard Drive Enclosure. This will allow you to keep your Important Data safe and Separated from the main system in case of problems. The cost for this kind of Backup System has come down a lot. I would suggest a 500 Gig capacity for your needs. Since you will only be Backing Up Data Files Only this should be sufficient to do that for you. Follow the next two links to see examples of the price you will be looking at.
• HERE
• HERE

I suggest going to Microsofts Backup Tutorial and follow the steps to do a Backup to a External Drive and also it will guide you on how to do a Scheduled Backup even at night.

Another way you can do a Backup is by using DVD’s. This method is just as effective and can be done using the same steps as above.


After the above is done then go on to the next step.



Repair Installation Instructions

· Insert your Windows XP CD in your CD-ROM and then Restart your computer.
· At the first post screen start tapping the Del key to enter System Bios
· Find the Advance Options or Boot Sequence screen.
· You will need to change the boot sequence so that the CDrom is first and the HD is second.
· Press F10 to Save and Exit and then press Enter to accept.
· The system will now reboot
· When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message is displayed on your screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD.
· When you see the following message displayed on the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER
· To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.
· At this point an option to press R to enter the Recovery Console is displayed. DO NOT SELECT THIS OPTION.

· On the Windows XP Licensing Agreement screen, press F8 to agree to the license agreement.
· Make sure that your current installation of Windows XP is selected and highlighted in the box, and then press the R key to repair Windows XP.
· Follow the instructions on the screen to complete Setup.

You can also go HERE
to read a step by step tutorial with screenshots.

[Ruitos]

I just did the repair installation, do you mean I should do another one?

Edited by Ruitos, 25 May 2010 - 01:11 PM.

[rshaffer61]

Nope if it is still doing after a repair installation then we need to look at a Parallel then and see if having a new installation will have the same issue.
This will keep your data safe but put a second windows on your system. We can move data over after we find out if it works or not.

Parallel Installation of Windows XP

Boot to the Windows XP installation cd by pressing a key when the "Press any key to boot from cd" prompt appears at the top of the screen.

• At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press Enter to set up Windows XP.
• Accept the License Agreement by pressing F8
• With your current installation selected in the box, press Esc
• Select C: Partition1 [NTFS] in the box and press Enter
• To continue setup using this partition, press C
• Now you should see formatting options...choose the last one, Leave the current file system intact (no changes), and press Enter
• To use a different folder, press Esc
• Name the folder WINDOWS0 (just type a 0 (zero)) and press Enter

The Windows installation should begin. This will install Windows to a new folder, leaving your data intact. Any programs installed on the old directory will have to be reinstalled to the new one. Device drivers will also have to be installed for all the hardware to work as it should.

The data will be located in the Documents and Settings folder (C:\Documents and Settings) under your old user account name...so when you set up the new installation, give yourself a slightly different user account name.

[Ruitos]

Ok, I'm preparing for the parallel install, wanted to see if somehow the freezes got fixed after the updates...

It went several hours of use without crashes (4-5h) then crash, another crash on iddle after restart, then again fine (for 2hours now)... Is there anything you can think of that could cause such random crashes?
If it's worth anything, it seems to crash a lot more often simply while browsing than anything else (photoshop, gaming, iddle..)

At this point I'm wiling to change the PSU if you even suspect it could be the cause... If it's the motherboard or cpu I think it's RIP for this system.. any way to check those?

Edited by Ruitos, 26 May 2010 - 04:18 AM.

[rshaffer61]

At this point if it is not the OS alone then I would have say a faulty cpu or motherboard.

[Ruitos]

Sooo the parallel install didn't fix the freezes...

Almost desperate I just started tweaking what little I could understand in the bios.

- PCI/AGP to AGP/PCI
- AGP bus size from 64mb to 128mb (not sure it this is related to directly to gpu ram, I know my 7600GS has 256)
- RAM memory set to Compatibility mode (not sure what the default setting was)
- RAM memory set from Auto to 166 (or 300? I really should write this down...)

Don't remember changing anything else... so far the system has been running for quite a long time without any crashes, I'll post back tomorrow if it still hasn't crashed (it usually freezes 5-6 times a day)

[rshaffer61]

AGP bus size would be related to the onboard video that I figure you have.
Compatability mode I would think means to accept the motherboard settings
The last one I'm thinking is the speed of the memory.
Please let me know how it works as this is a strange issue for sure.

[Ruitos]

I will, and if by some kind of miracle the freezes have stopped, I will go back into the bios to check exactly what I changed in there and report it...

[rshaffer61]

[Ruitos]

-Init. Graphic Adapter Priority AGP/PCI
-OnBoard MC'97 Modem Disabled
-Flexibility Option Enabled (when it's enabled, it allows better tolerance for memory compatibility)
-DRAM Frequency 166mhz (DDR333)

That was it (undid the memory from 64 to 128, as you said it was related to onboard gpu). So far no reboots but I think it's soon to tell, will give it the rest of the day before getting to happy about it.

[Ruitos]

Arrrrghhh... after running great for over 20 hours, it just froze browsing with firefox (I was looking for Prime92). Photoshop CS4 and WoW ran fine for hours I was told.

I am thinking about updating BIOS and MO chipset drivers... (never done it before though)

[Ruitos]

I started double checking all my drivers with Driver Detective and Driver Agent (I'm paranoid at this point), and found something interesting while checking the drivers. It's related to the USB and HDD managing drivers (it's hard for me to translate sorry).

I leave a link and quote from another forum I found around related to the problem:

"Thanks for the info. Seems like something as common as SP3, Anti-Virus software running during the upgrade, and USB disks existing on the same computer and causing a very unstable machine would get more press and attanetion." -> I got all of those, and the usb hdd often gives me problems during reboots

http://social.techne...06-21513e4386b2


I will now try uninstalling all usb related drivers hoping to get the right version this time.

[Ruitos]

It worked, all USB related drivers are up to date.

I believe the Storage Controller Ultra ATA Intel® 82801EB - 24D1 is still out of date though (it's 5.1.2600.2180, I think it should be 5.1.2600.5512)

[rshaffer61]

All the programs you mentioned you are trying to download?
Where are you downloading them from?