Intermittant Hang

HoseB · SirTweaksabit Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 260

My rig has recently taken to arbitrarily hanging. Just stops responding to mouse, keyboard... no error message... have to do a power-off shutdown and restart.

The hang can occur any time after the desktop is loaded, and is not occurring at any specific function or specific software.

I've recently changed IDE cables to Vantec round ones + been fussing with System Mechanic and Raxco Perfect Disk.... and of course I checked connections to be sure all were tight. PSU is about 6 months old and has been no problem.

I'll fuss around with recent changes, and I know this problem could come from lots of different places....

But I was wondering if any of you had suggestions of more logical things to check..

TIA

Hose

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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

How old is your Windows install?
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racing87stang · Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2005 12:43 pm Post subject:

Mine does the same thing... I thought at first it was just my wireless Keyboard and mouse when I was gaming, But it turned out to be something else. The only thing different that I have done was switch over to running D2OL in the background. Other than that I have no idea. I had to shut down the program on my gaming rig, and restart the computer, Since then it hasnt done it. So I dont know if you are running it too, but I think maybe the program has some corruption to it.
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HoseB · SirTweaksabit Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 260

fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

Typically what will cause a hang like that is a bad program or DLL, something you've got running in the background like 'stang said up there. Try shutting everything down in your taskbar that's not needed (which is pretty much everything but the clock....

) and see if it keeps it up. Also go through the Task Manager processes tab, and shut down anything you don't need.
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HoseB · SirTweaksabit Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 260

Thanks for the tips. But lots of processes have names I don't recognize so don't know which to shut down.

This one might be a bugger, especially as it's intermittant. I'm making a log of everything I change.... I'll just have to see.

fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

Google 'em. You'll find the files, and usually a description of what they are, and if you can shut them down without causing problems.

You can also go to Run > msconfig and click the Services tab. That'll show you what everything is, but not if it's safe to shut down.

Also go to the Startup tab, and disable anything there that you really don't need starting up automatically. Some programs don't give you the option, they just fire up and run in the background without you knowing.
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