hi all,

i hope someone can help me with this.
for some time my computer keeps on freezing.
after running ccleaner,hitmanpro and norton antivirus
they all came up with nothing.
also defragmantating and system restore to time befor it all started didnt help.
so i decided to reinstal windows again on a other harddrive and disconnect the harddrive with the freezing os.

now i have instalt windows again and norton internetsecurity
and done all the updates,the computer is freezing again.
can anyone tell me how this can be?

im using original windows xp home edition,
have a asus mb p5b motherboard
with a asus geforce en9500gt magic/di/512mb videocard

try uninstalling programs you don't use much. They could be hogging system resources.

there are no thoer programs on it now,
except for msn and opera browser.
cpu is only used at 1-3%

never had any problems with any program whats on my pc running now.
and the the programs i had instalt on my other diskdrive from just before the problems strated and till now arent instalt yet on the hard drive im using now.

Norton itself is a resource hog.

if you don;t have very many programs running at the same time...it sounds like you may be having an overheating problem.

How long has it been since you have had the case open and blew out the dust??

Remove each RAM module and re-seat it. Most unanswered
issues with a "freezing" computer are related to improperly
seated memory module(s). It could also be mismatched RAM
modules, if you've added RAM recently.

To further this, when you remove the module, take a pencil
erasure and rub it against the gold contacts and follow up
with a lint-less cloth to remove any erasure rubber bits
left behind, then install the RAM module back.

The first question I always ask when someone is experiencing
something like this is, "what have you done or changed on
your machine recently?"

i did clean it from all dust before i had reinstalt windows on other diskdrive.
so that wasnt the problem.
fans also working perfect.

i will try that with the ram,
thanks for that tip.

i also check first on what i have done recently if something come up.
i also thought it came from a crack for a game i had,but since thats not on my computer now after i instalt it again,it would mean it cant ben that causing the problems.

Did you pull the CPU to make sure the dilectric grease under it hasn't dried up??

I suspect, by now, you are receiving, error codes. Please present them here, or email me.

Assuming you do a lot of gaming, make sure you have a clean airway. If you hear those fans constantly, that is a good indication of obstructed air flow.

If you have checked all that, and as you stated, defragged.. then the next step is is diagnostics.

Before we go into that, let's look at the following..

Have you recently installed any programs, or aborted any uploads?

Ran spyware ( i think you mentioned you did)

As i mentioned above, make sure the fans are operating, and air flow is not obstructed.

Are you getting low virtual memory messages? if so, look into increasing that.

Next step, check hard drive, if the drive is over 80% capacity, then that is the problem. Delete anything you do not need.

If you are not sure of hard drive usage, follow the below..

click on "my computer" "drive c" on the tools menu, select disk drive? /options, (i don't remember) but by now you should be close.. and select check now..you will have to reboot.. beyond this, i have no clue, other than a memory problem, and i simply can't diagnose that from here. Anyway, that's all i can offer for now.

Sounds like in your case it's either:


A) An overheating problem. Reseat your processor & reapply thermal grease. Check all fans

B) A failing memory module. Download a free bootable diagnostic program called Memtest. Burn it to a cd & boot from it to test your ram modules. Be sure to reseat them also

C) A failing motherboard. Check to make sure the capacitors on your motherboard aren't bulging or leaking. If they are, that's your problem

D) A failing video card. While you have the case open to reseat the ram, also reseat the video card if your computer has one.


You've already ruled out the hard drive & software issues it seems. I would remove Norton right away though. Not a good program, trust me. It sounds to me like this is a hardware issue and probably one of the components I listed above. Good luck

If your getting a blue screen or other error, post it here & we may be able to help with a little more info

The above, is good advice, but i'm not sure he has ruled out the hard drive, HawaiiMusikMan, it could very well be a hard drive issue, though i'm leaning more to a memory issue, as you mentioned. It can also come from corrupt reg, but i'm not thinking that's the problem. I have to wonder, though, if there are no error messages..it could very well be a bad hard drive..that is a bit suspicious to me. A good indication here, is if the machine works well on fresh boot, and quickly fails.

He said he did a fresh install of windows on a separate hard drive & had the exact same problem. I doubt both drives are bad.

He reinstalled Norton though on the fresh install which could be what's causing the problem. I'd remove that first & see if it still freezes. If it does, start troubleshooting the hardware

I missed that, good point. I don't like Norton, it eats up tons of memory..it's a good program, don't get me wrong, but it does eat up a good bit of memory. Around 50 MB, and that can work against an already burdened machine. My anti virus is solid, and uses a third of that.

So, if we rule out the hard drive, there are two things left, (barring overheating) and that is memory, or the processor itself.

*edit* i guess the easiest way to determine..or at least go forward, is ask this question...

How soon after fresh boot, does the problem appear?

thanks all for thinking with me,

to markecephus,

i dont get any errors,also no blue screen.
there is one thing i did forget to mention.
my computer freezes after like a hour or so when
having several windows open.
i also find out when it freezes all i have to do is press ctrl-alt-del and from there close 1 window and system is running again for some time.
i didnt had the time yesterday for checking the ram-memory.
but today i have so i will look into that.

hawaiimusicman,

i will download that test program.

and will let you know if it all workt out.
i have also a progrma to check temperature of the cpu and drives.
i will run thattoo for some time to see if theres a problem with that.

Do yourself a favor & remove Norton. That would be the first thing I'd do

If it's freezing after an hour with multiple apps open, it could very well be a heat issue. Parts that overheat are typically the processor, the video card, ram, and even the power supply if the power supply fan has gone out.

I'd bet money the problem is either norton, overheating or bad ram

norton always work fine for me,
of all antivirus/firewall programs i tried i find norton
most easy in use.

i have instalt speedfan to check temperatures.
temperature never go over 40 degrees celcius.
most of the time it stays at about 37 celcius degrees.

also checkt memory banks and nothing seems to be wrong with that either.
still no error notifications.

also the fan of the power suply is working good,
voltage also stays very stable.

Remove Norton just to see if that takes the freezing problem away. You can always reinstall it later if you want.

My next thought would be the video card. Does it have a fan on it? If it does, is it working? Have you been seeing any graphics artifacts on the screen?

Did you check for bulging/leaking capacitors on the motherboard?