Thread: Xp Locks Up after about 2 hours :(

Hey,

I have had problems with my XP machine for sometime now, after about 2 hours of being logged on, the machine just complely locks up the mouse just locks up and i just have to reboot. I have tried formatting now serveral times infact. That didnt stop it. I am now classing it as some kind of hardwere incompatiblty or cofliction. I have tried unplugging all of my zip drives scanners and printers e.t.c every item plugged in the back of the PC.

So now i am taking the problem as a PCI card. I have a sound card, Extra USB ports (coming off motherboard), graphics card, modem, and a tv-card(this is not the problem, i tried removing it for a week and it still crashed), also a network card, also not the problem as i only fitted this a few days ago.

Is this just a trial and error process of removing the cards and seing if its ok without them, or is there an easier solution.

I should point out that everything worked fine on my old OS.

Has anyone else had this problem or know what could be casuing it, it gets really annoying after a while...

Any help on fixing this will be much appreciated,

Thanks alot,
TNT

Hey,

Thanks, but ive tried reformatting lots of times, ive tried my dogi version of XP, and my leagal version . And both crash so it is deffinatly some hardware problem of some wierd windows sort.

Do you have anything scsi installed? That would be my first
suspicion. If not, maybe it's a driver conflict. Your network card
should be as high up on the bus as you can get it, and definitely not installed in a shared slot. Nt can be pretty *****y. I have
2000 Advanced Server running and it gives me a hdd controller
error where I get nothing on Millenium. I log about a dozen
errors everytime I boot up the server. It's a pain in the butt,
doesn't fix anything, and still boots anyway. It just takes longer.

Could possibly be one of your programs has a memory leak, too.

rick barclay

check your hardware is all on the compatability list. check you have the latest drivers for everything. I had similar problems that were all down to the via chipset on the motherboard just not getting on at all with winxp.

Hey Rick,

Thanks, my network card is at the bottom of the bus, but the problem has been there ever since i built my pc, i have no scizi or ide controllers. When you mention a program with a memory leak it could be but i dont have alot running, i unistalled my virus scanner and firewall a week back and the prob still happens, now all i have is msn and the hardware manager(safly remove usb zip drive) running in the sys tray.

Is there any programs i can get that can identify any memory leaks? Also if its a driver confiliction how do i fix this? I have the latest avalible drivers for all my hardware.


Hey Stoned Coder,

I also have a VIA Chipset, could this be causing the lockup?


Thanks
TNT

are you using the via 4 in 1 drivers??

try using the default microsoft drivers and do not add the 4 in 1's because they seem to cause all sorts of problems. If that works fine then install the 4 in 1s 1 at a time. I found the ide driver ok. the agp 4.1 driver (4.05 causes problems for me) ok. I am having to use microsoft drivers for the other ones in the package. Install the drivers manually.Do not rely on the install program to do it right for you. Check the forums at www.viaarena.com

I've heard a few rumblings that Xp doesn't get along with the NVidia GF2 Detonator 3 video drivers. I have'nt seen this myself, but you could try to boot to VGA mode and see if it still happens. Also, look at the event veiwer after the next time it locks, I suspect there should be a few errors/warnings logged just before it goes kaputski.
Also, look at what programs are installed (Start->Settings->Add/Remove Programs). I had installed Media Player 7 on my 2K Pro box. By default, it installs the MS instant update. I beleive a team of trained chimps wrote this program, because 5 minutes after bootup, I would get an access violation from this program. I uninstalled it and everything was fine. I later removed all of WMP 7, because I hate it
A final thought, have you tried a different mouse/keyboard? Maybe XP hates serial mice?

Hey,

Thanks for your help, i narrowed it down to my nasty cheap creative sound card. I disabled this card in device manager and my pc runs 100% fine.

I tried moving the card to a different PCI slot but she still crashed.

The card is a Creative Soundblaster 16 PCI. It cost me £20 lol. Any way i have the latest drivers for this. Is there anything i can do to fix it? Currently its just disabled and all sound is out the system speacker, which aint to hot.

Thanks
TNT

If you haven't, might try running Windows update and see what's new. Has been known to fix all kinds of wierd things in XP (and others, of course).