Coma

[leemo 0]

My system goes into coma randomly, the cursor freezes, nothing works anymore, and the only way out is to switch off and reboot.

 

This used to occur about monthly, then weekly, but has gradually increased in frequency to as short as minutes before mouse freezes and I lose whatever I was working on. Sometimes it freezes as early as the bootup process.

 

AVG seems to be working ok, updating daily, Zone Alarm also seems to be doing its job, and System Mechanic does a regular sweep for parasites.

 

Any ideas?

 

 

leemo

[Braveheart 0]

How old is your computer and what is it running (ie. system, programs, versions)?

[anabasis2000 0]

I'll echo Braveheart -- we need more details on your system (hardware), and any insights you can provide as far as certain software causing it to happen more frequently than other times, etc. Unfortunately, without a hands-on session, best I can do is make some guesses.

 

I assume everything freezes - not just the mouse? Ie - can you do a cntrl-alt-delete and get it to reboot (I know you said you had to turn it off and back on, just verifying that is really the case).

 

Do you have to be doing something for it to happen? Or can it freeze while the system is essentially sitting idle (say while you are getting a cup of coffee, or something).

 

If it is a tower or mini-tower, and is either more than 12 months old or you have added a new hard drive, graphics card, extra DVD burner, etc then it may be that the power supply is on the verge of failing, and is no longer up to the task of keeping things going. Laptops tend to have less problem with bad power supplies, though still possible.

 

Second possibility is somehow something wrong with your memory - do you have it set up to do a memory check on bootup (some systems skip the memory check).

 

- anabasis

[leemo 0]

Computer is about 8 months old, running XP, was ok till about 3 months ago but can't remember if it started after I installed something, or just a gremlin entered the works.

 

Cursor freezes, keyboard diasbled, cannot shift-alt-del or anything else, can only coldstart. It freezes at random, sometimes on a mouse move, sometimes on idle, and increasingly at various stages of bootup, from booting XP screen to desktop with icons.

 

I do frequent housekeeping to include registry clean (RegMech 4.0, SysMechanic 6). Not sure if it does a memory check on bootup, but does confirm installed memory, if that's what you mean.

 

Am with mini-tower, and don't know if it's important but I recall a while back that my DVD burner did not register as existing, though a moment with device manager sorted that out and it's been behaving since.

 

The first time it froze was when I was playing CIV III. Can't say that prog is responsible because it used to be fine, but reinstalled it just to be safe. Sys also freezes when CIV III is not running.

 

Have noticed it is running slow, compared to the nippy thing it used to be, and also that the desktop icons seem to be sparkling, if that's the word, or flickering rapidly...may be wrong refresh rate that's eating resources or causing memory strain. Monitor is Phillips 170S, screen refresh rate is set to 60 Hertz, and the only other available option is 75 Hertz, but that send the monitor haywire. Note, am not confident that the monitor software is optimally configured, but it was running fine until a couple of months ago when I noticed the flickering.

 

Hope that's enough to indicate where the plobrem might be.

 

 

leemo

[lemons 0]

Leemo, If it's any consolation, I have exactly the same ploblem. One new thought from the replies points towards the power supply. I guess the propeller head down at the pc store can test that?

 

You would think that some bright spark would develop a program to diagnose these sorts of things - he'd make a fucking fortune!

Edited May 20, 2006 by lemons

[leemo 0]

Yes, I think Windows 2050 has an IE-type addon to auto config all software for maximum efficiency. The EU are preparing a major anti-competitive suit.

 

 

leemo

[upena 2]

might want to check for spyware...and also check your system processes and see what it running...you may have some rogue programs running in the background

[leemo 0]

I have 32 processes running on bootup, am familiar with most of them but not sure about the others, esp the more recent appearances.

 

I used to visit a site that explains which processes are critical and which may be removed/deleted, but lost the address.

 

Did a SysMechanic spyware scan earlier, now running Spybot, so if it turns out to be spyware then hopefully we can go back to normal.

 

Thanks.

 

 

leemo

[lemons 0]

Try this one:

 

http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php

 

Just type in the name and it'll describe it for you.

[chas 16]

Leemo - I had the same problem but with a Sony laptop. I took it to TUcom and they diagnosed a faulty motherboard. They replaced it for 6000 baht and it was fine. The problem is, as always, you are in their hands.

When it worked again I checked up on some rather techi forums about the Sony to see if I'd been done. There was agreement that the motherboard was often the problem but solutions varied from a resoldering of the power connections (10 baht) to replacing the board.

The freezing up was very frustrating - I hope you get it fixed ok.

[Gabor 296]

Leemo, you mentioned, that you using RegMech 4.0, SysMechanic 6. I did it too until the SysMechanic cleaned my PC so successful, that I had to format the winchester. So try to recall the quarantined files and replace. Maybe or maybe not your problems are in this area.

[leemo 0]

Have done spyware scans with RegMech (now 5.x), SpywareBlaster, SysMech and one other...all seems clean now, but freezures still occuring.

 

How would I know if it's the motherboard, without schlepping the entire system over to TukCom?

 

One thing for sure, can't do anything without that tense feeling of uncertainty...will it, won't it freeze. No fun at all.

 

Hurry back, Gabor!!

 

 

leemo

[lostinspace 0]

I have the same problem leemo,but its seems onlly when i am watching the races from OZ ,i have to hit the X to get out and start again,but not turn the sony laptop off,well sometimes i have to cause it keeps happening and i have to leave it for an hour.

microsoft are still checking on the error ,but say it may be the driver.

it happen when i was on dial up,

i got adsl on 2 weeks ago and it still happens.

good luck we need it .

paul

[anabasis2000 0]

If it is sometimes happening during various stages of bootup, I would bet it is not a software (spyware, virus, etc) problem and is almost certainly some type of hardware problem.

 

Bad connections on the motherboard, or a sub-par or failing power supply would be my two most likely candidates.

 

- anabasis

[lostinspace 0]

If it is sometimes happening during various stages of bootup, I would bet it is not a software (spyware, virus, etc) problem and is almost certainly some type of hardware problem.

 

Bad connections on the motherboard, or a sub-par or failing power supply would be my two most likely candidates.

 

- anabasis

i took the ad ware,and fire wall down and only left norton on,i think you may be right about the power, the power is always cutting out in pattaya,either very quickly or for a half hr or so,

i am not real worried its just a pain.

paul

[dave_boo 0]

I've found a lot of times with these problems, you may be looking at something as simple as dust bunnies. Not to disparage your house keeping, but have you cracked it open and checked the heatsinks/fans for anything that could be blocking their thermal dissipation? Also, you may want to run memtest and see if you have a stick of RAM (or two) going out. I have a laptop that freaks out on me and it turned out that it was fairly notorious for the so-dimms to pop out of their sockets. Damn Clevo.

 

Futher down, I read that you're also having graphical anomalies, maybe this problem stems from the video card going bad, or perhaps as previously mentioned the power supply. If you have a video card that requires more power than the AGP or PCI-E slot can provide, it will have a suplementary connector. I wouldn't be surprised if this machine, if bought in Pattaya, would have a rinky-dink PSU in it. If you can afford it, buy a quality one, with PC Power and Cooling being my reccomendation.

 

Alternatively, as a side note to what others are suggesting, you may want to reboot into safe mode and run your scans from there. Another oldey, but goodey, is to go under your msconfig tab and disable startup items. Reboot and selectively re-enable them till you find something that is making your stuff crap out.

[short 215]

The magic of computer.

 

Go buy one that runs at 2.0 Ghz. Thats 2,000,000,000 transactions per SECOND.

 

Can you process information that fast?

 

All it takes is just one single bit to be wrong to bring a computer to its knees.

[dave_boo 0]

The magic of computer.

 

Go buy one that runs at 2.0 Ghz. Thats 2,000,000,000 transactions per SECOND.

 

Can you process information that fast?

 

All it takes is just one single bit to be wrong to bring a computer to its knees.

It's actually 2 billion clock cycles a second. Few if any programs I know of can complete anything other than basic math in one clock cycle.

 

That doesn't invalidate your post about one bug though.