It sounds like it has a high priority task that's not completing.
Usually this doesn't quite crash the GUI but does lock it up. Back when
I was doing SDK development it happened all the time, but then I could
usually deduce which task had gone haywire, since I usually created the
problem. In this case it could be anything from a rogue dll that cannot
completely load and doesn't fail gracefully to a hardware problem such
as a problematic sector on a hard drive. You don't mention if you're
using SATA or PATA drives, ribbon cables can go bad over time and lead
to very hard to diagnose problems if the error is intermittent. I don't
have enough long term experience with SATA cables to know if they could
cause the same problem. You can also have similar problems if any
expansion cards aren't completely seated or there are cracked leads to
the cards on the buss.
On 12/14/2012 11:26 AM, John Sessoms wrote:
Doesn't happen enough to make the machine un-usable, just enough to be
peculiar. There's a lot of computer expertise on the list, so I thought
I'd ask.
It's a problem on the level of "Why is the carpet protector creeping
sideways again?"
... not quite as urgent as "I know I made a cup of coffee, but what the
hell did I do with it? ???"
From: "Bob W"
I had similar problems with a Dell laptop that I used to use and I never
found out the cause. It started with some problems on the sound
card, and
issues with the fan and overheating. I think the issue was that
Windows just
became too fat for the machine to support. I did several re-installs,
and
maxed the memory, stripped everything back to basics (as far as that's
possible with Windows and consistent with running something useful and
secure).
It was an old machine so I gave up and bought a new machine with Win7 -
life's too short. I use the old one occasionally for playing with other
operating systems. It currently has Minix on, and someday I'll play
about
with it.
B
-----Original Message-----
From: PDML [mailto:pdml-boun...@pdml.net] On Behalf Of John Sessoms
This is the computer I use for goofing off on the internet. WindozeXP
SP3.
Sometimes this computer will just freeze. Whatever is on the display at
that time will continue. Mouse pointer won't move. If there's something
coming from the speakers it will stutter continuously until power is
shut off. It does this at rare random times.
[...]
The power supply is reasonably new & I put a new, more powerful cooler
fan on the CPU the last time I replaced the power supply.
What else should I look at?
--
Don't lose heart, they might want to cut it out, and they'll want to avoid a
lengthly search.
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