XP keeps locking up on a Notebook and Desktop? Both were OEM loaded
with XP and the advice seems to be to reload XP and loose all data and
progs? Can this be the only way?

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Request for Question Clarification by wengland-ga on 07 Jun 2002 06:29 PDT

Hi there!

I'd be glad to help you with your lockups, but we'll need to know a bit more first.

1) Brand, model and configuration of each machine
2) What exactally happens when it locks up?
3) What was the user doing just before it locked up?

Looking forward to hearing more about this!

Will

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Clarification of Question by sandywg-ga on 08 Jun 2002 07:29 PDT

The XP OEM Notebook is a 1GHz P3 made by German company called Targa
512Mb Ram.
It runs for approx 10 mins and then locks up...NO blue screen just
everything seizes up whatever application you are in
:Word.IE6:OE6:DeFrag:Scandisk etc No mouse or keyboard..........the
only way out is a power down! Their tech people say you have to
reinstall (clean) and loose all data and progs etc! They say XP cannot
be "dirty reinstalled" like Win 98.(ie. just reinstalling all system
files). The screen shows nothing except your last activity....frozen!
Strangely the desktop does just the same and nothing has been recently
loaded and am careful with email attachments.....my 8 yr old son says
it must be a virus Have taken any external USBs etc  out

No, it is not the only way; and is infuriating when technical support
departments tell you that.

Can you help us to understand your problem? When the system crashes,
does it throw up a blue screen? Is anything written on that screen?

Hi sandywg,

I have found VirtualDr.com to be a lifesaver many times.  It's a GREAT
place to get computer help of any kind.  Be prepared to give detailed
information though, your processor types, amount of RAM in each
machine, anything you are doing at the time that *might* be a
factor...

It's a BBS - Forumm where volunteers assist others. I have never
failed to come away from there with a problem unfixed.

http://www.virtualdr.com

Good Luck...

There are many factors that could affect systems in this way. Keep a
log of each time the computers crash. What you were doing, how long it
had been since the last reboot, etc.  You may start to see trends
emerging.

Software. Cross-check the non-OEM software (and/or drivers) installed.
Check for insidious programs like Gator.

Check the drivers loaded for all of the devices and update any that
are out of date. Just make sure you aren't using beta drivers.

Hardware. Hardware is very sensitive to heat, humidity, and most
hardware these days is made as cheaply as possible. RAM problems are
most often attributable to very strange behavior your computer may be
experiencing. Also, overheating is a common problem (check for
overheating: if you turn the computer off for 15 minutes, it will run
fine after booted, crashing after 30-60 minutes, and subsequent
reboots will leave you with less and less time before crashes). While
troubleshooting, be sure to remove any hardware that was not provided
by the manufacturer (This includes PCMCIA cards, non-standard
keyboards, extra RAM, etc.

Also, make sure all external connections are solid. A loose firewire
or power cable can cause havoc on computers expecting steady streams
of electricity.

Finally, don't forget: Even though their symptoms are similar, the two
issues may or may not be related. If they are both OEM computers from
the same manufacturer, do your own checks for compatibility of the
hardware. If you find something they distributed to you that isn't
compatible with XP, contact customer service.

Good luck!

One of the best tools Windows XP has for debugging problems with the
system is the 'Event Viewer'. You can find it in:

Start -> Programs -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer

If you do not have an 'Administrative Tools' menu in your Start menu,
then you need to do the following procedure first:

1) Right click on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen and choose
Properties
2) Click on the 'Start menu' tab at the top of the screen
3) Click on the 'Customize' button
4) Depending on whether you have 'Start Menu' or 'Classic Start Menu'
chosen
   A) If you have 'Start Menu', click the 'Advanced' tab at the top,
and then scroll down the list until you get to 'System Administrative
Tools' and put a dot by 'Display on the All Programs menu and Start
menu'
   B) If you have 'Classic Start Menu', put a check by 'Display
Administrative Tools'

Then the 'Event Viewer' should show up in your start menu.

In the Event Viewer there are 3 categories of events. Application,
Security, and System. If your Windows XP computer crashes, when you
reboot it check the event log to look for errors or warnings that
occurred before or during the crash in all 3 categories. This can
usually give you a very good idea of what is causing the problem.

If you can find any sort of suspicious events, warnings, or error
messages in the event viewer, then I could help you further resolve
the problem.

If there are no problems in the Event Viewer when your system crashes,
then that can be troubleshooted as well.

AdamF - Researcher Applicant

While I have not seen a lot of negative comments on XP, I have a firm
personal rule for Microsoft products in general and particularly
Windows. Do not buy them untill they have been on market for at least
a year, after which Microsoft usually gets all the bugs out. However,
this is not helpful for OEM on new machine.

***Reloading / reinstalling any version of Microsoft operating system
is NOT destructive to other programs or data. Whoever put that idea in
your head does not know what they are talking about. I have done it
many times for many reasons and have NEVER lost anything accept
corrupt or incorrectly installed Windows files which, obviously,
solves many problems.

Have you downloaded all off the updates? This might help.

If you're fairly good at tracking down PC problems yourself, try
www.sunbelt-software.com, and download the File Monitor. That will
tell you everything your PC is doing right up until it crashes. May
give you some idea of what is causing the problems. Be warned - it
generates a LOT of information - you'll have to sift through it to
find your problem.

I take it, that you own both laptop and pc.  I would also assume that
you've basically got the same software on each machine.
You probably have a background program running, which is conflicting
with XP.
As a test, to see if this is the case, got to Start - Run, type
"msconfig", click ok, then click on the "Startup" tab, then the button
marked "disable all", then click apply then ok, restart your computer,
and test.
If the pc then stops crashing, you need to look at the software which
is loaded

Have you activated the software? Is it XP Pro or Home? You're not
loading the same software on both the laptop and PC are you?

What Office products are you running? I would also, check for updates,
this can be very time consuming via dial-up.

And one last question... what brand of anti-virus software are you
using?

Try System Restore, or upgrade u memory and/or processor

As always with Windows, the problem could be due to a number of
things.

A brief list:
1) a buggy program at startup
2) corrupt system files
3) incorrectly configured system
4) virus/worm
5) your hardware

=First. Boot up the computer, and in the ten minute window that you
have, remove all 3rd party software that is executed upon startup
(including antivirus/firewall, if you have it.  if you don't, more on
that later).

=Second. Reboot.  If the system can successfully run continuously,
problem solved.  If not, then an external software problem is LIKELY
not the cuplrit.

=Third. Run a check on the system files.  As I'm not very acquainted
with XP, you're on your own with that.  I know that in Win98 & 98SE,
that there is a system utility that checks the integrity of system
files.

=Fourth. There may be conflicting configurations on your system. 
Check to see that all drivers are installed properly, all the hardware
is assigned to correct IRQs, etc, and that is in proper working order.
 I once worked on a Win98 box that had the exact same problem as the
one you are plagued with now, only my box locked up upon login.  The
problem: a bad CDROM drive.

=Fifth. Do you have antivirus?  If yes, maybe it's time to update.  If
no, maybe it's time to get it.

Perhaps this helped(?).

I'm a tech in a small town computer shop, and I've worked on many XP
machines.  My advice?  Switch to Windows 98, or Millenium if 98 isn't
available.  XP is just an over-bloated operating system with a very
few awesome new features (like the driver rollback!  I love that idea)
with about 10 to 20 new problems (Realeasing of USB IRQ's, unsigned
drivers working only 15% of the time and only half the drivers that
claim to be for XP are actually signed, you cannot reinstall over top
and keep your desktop, programs, settings etc. like in previous
versions, if you have to resinstall you have to reactivate (activating
is pretty dumb in the first place.  Good for piracy, bad for
end-users), very poor backwards-compatability, no NETBUEI for
networking (makes my job harder when I have to network a 9X machine to
XP since I have to manually setup each folder for sharing permissions
instead of just the entire drive), the built-in firewall is useless
and more often than not causes conflicts in the very areas it's
supposed to "enhance" and "protect", the built-in burning software
doesn't give extended options that us over-burners like to use and it
causes havoc when you try to install any of Roxio's software since
XP's built in burner is made by Roxio (figure that one out!), and I
could go on but I won't.)

Needless to say, I've had very few good experiences with XP.  I will
admit it isn't ALL crap, but it's 95% fecal matter with 5% chunks.

With a ten-minute lock-up time like you said, it sounds like a heating
issue.  When a system has bad airflow, heat will steadily build up to
the point where system performance plummets-and eventually crashes.
Next time the system freezes up, feel around where the processor is.
If it feels scorching, then you have circulation issues, which will
probably entail in getting extra fans or underclocking the system.

If it truly is a software issue, you will probably need to clean out
the startup sequence. However, just getting rid of shortcuts in
Start->Program Files->Startup won't do the trick.  Bring up the Run
menu (hold down windows key+ hit R) and type in "msconfig" and hit
enter.  A small window with several tabs should pop up, this menu is a
quick solution to speed up boots and other things, but first:
Click on the "startup" tab.
Uncheck EVERYTHING but Systray, and both LoadPowerProfile entries,
this makes only the essentials load when you restart, thereby shaving
off several seconds and freeing up memory.
Close the window, restart at the prompt.
If there was something loading that wasn't supposed to, the problem
should go away.  If not, then it may be a corrupt windows file, I DONT
think it is a virus, if it was, your computer would probably not boot
in the first place, or have more visible damage to it. As for XP, out
of the box it is horribly slow, but it is possible to clean out all
the crap, leaving you with a pristine and extremely fast modified
Win2000 kernal, try out sites like www.slashdot.org or
www.maximumpc.com for more information on this and other
computer-related stuff.

WinRescue XP looks promising.  
http://www.superwin.com/fxpcrash.htm