Win 2000 freeeeeeeeeeeezes!!!!!

[S_K_I]

Gentleman, i posted this same issue a few weeks back and none of you seemed to have an answer for this one. well basically the situation is this, every once in a while, i'll be surfing the net, opening a folder, right-clicking a folder, or even just moving my cursor and all of a sudden my computer just freezes. i've had suggestions that it could be my ram, that wasn't it, someone said it might be some programs that could do this, well i unistalled all of the the ones that may have done it, nope. another suggestion could be drivers, nope, have em all up to date. someone said not enough ram, well does 446 megs of sdram enough?
here's my spec's by the way:

Pentium II Xeon 350mghz overclocked to 400 (overclocking isn't the problem either cuz it never did this on 98 or me)
Nvidia Riva TNT 2 Pro
yamaha ds-xg sound card
spacewalker motherboard
Windows Service Pack 2

any more details, please ask
one thing i noticed for sure is that some programs i will scoll over on like the file, edit, favorites, and tools scroll bars will have the the window scroll bar pop up normally like any other program and for sure it freezes right there. i can't explain it cuz it does it on some programs and not on others, it even does it on my windows folders when i right-mouse click them, so thats how i resolved the program error problem, cuz windows is also doing this too which happens at times but every so often, just enough to get under my skin. is there anyway where i can get an error log just when this happens so that i can figure out what causes this problem, cuz when it freezes, nothing moves, can't ctrl-alt-del, move the mouse nada. Gentleman if you can figure this one out, more power to you, and if you need any more info, let me know fa sho mang.....


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S_K_I

[kenja]

Found your previous post (http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/Forum16/HTML/000353.html). You've got plenty of RAM. I had the symptoms you describe; the cause was cruddy generic memory. The faulty DIMM worked fine by itself, but intermittant freezes occurred after installing additional memory. I finally determined the culprit by running different configurations continuously through the Sandra 2001 Burn-in Wizard, set for memory only.

[Whyzman]

Welcome to the world of Win2K!! There are a couple of things you might want to check out on Microsoft's site. Win2K is primarily a business application and as such has built in security measures. Initially direct access to some of the hardware involved a breach of security and Win2K would subtly point out such violations by "hanging" one out to dry!

I would suggest your first course of action would be to check your hardware against the dreaded (HCL) Hardware Compatibility List...Q131303 will take you there. Secondly would be the protocol you followed when upgrading to Win2K...try this one Q250297. There are also some software programs that butt heads with Win2K. You might want to just do a search with "System Hangs" or "System Freezes" and peruse the various problems on the Microsoft site. Best of Luck!

May all your dealings in life be win/win!

Whyzman

[iisbob]

S_K_I this sounds like a faulty RAM module issue; i've got w2000prof running on a 300mhz ( oc'd celeron ) and it runs peachy with 64mb's pf PC66 memory ( fsb is now 75.7 mhz-hence the 300 celey).

i had an old Nanya stick in ther and it didn't take kindly to OCing; once i put a set of crucial's-even PC66 rated- it's worked flawlessly, no lock ups at all. As suggested above, try different RAM stick combos, see if you can pinpoint the culprit.




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iisbob
"Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run."

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." --Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

[kenja]

...and if it's not the system memory's fault, my next guess would be video card incompatibilities. Nvidia TNT2 M64 (PCI) works fine for me, but at the same time I was fighting the SDRAM, my ATI Xpert 2000 was occasionally causing freezes (KT133 chipset on Soyo motherboard).

[S_K_I]

You've got plenty of RAM. I had the symptoms you describe; the cause was cruddy generic memory. The faulty DIMM worked fine by itself, but intermittant freezes occurred after installing additional memory. I finally determined the culprit by running different configurations continuously through the Sandra 2001 Burn-in Wizard, set for memory only.

well i think you may have figured out my dilemna bro. i just so happened to have a copy of sandra 2001 and i did perform the test. it didn't freeze up yet (didn't try continuosly yet cuz i'm afraid of it freezing), but it did just hand there forever, which probably means it is the ram now. problem is now, which one of my sticks is it? and please don't suggest to take out all of them and do each one one by one, cuz i am one lazy son of a gun. is there a program out there to analyze which one may be the faulty stick? help me out here, i'm dying.....

ps: here's some details on my ram here, and also one more thing, good choice of words with "intermittant" i was trying to find a good word to explain my problems but you just seem to be a poet:

256mb pc133 pny

128mb pc133 bought from comp usa, can't remember which one though (kingston maybe) but new!! too lazy to check now

64mb pc100 this one i have no clue, i figure this is the culprit. its my oldest one, like little bit over 3 years now


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S_K_I

[kenja]

"...is there a program out there to analyze which one may be the faulty stick?" Not that I'm aware of. It was a somewhat tedious process for me, and I still haven't gotten around to putting cover back on my desktop case. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

I became accustomed to writing the word "intermittent" in equipment logs when I was an industrial technician. Sometimes I would even spell it correctly!

[Ghost_Hacker]

They are a few...none of them do a great job IMHO. But here's a link to one anyway.
http://www.qualitas.com/product/ramexam/whatisre.htm

A search at google should turn up a few more.


The best way to test ram is to use a hardware based tester just like the ram manufacture would, but those puppies aren't cheap.

Best just to switch them out by hand.

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Comment heard from a Klingon programmer.

"Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!"

[BigBlue66]

Howdy,

Well, I just have to jump into the frenzy here and agree that the only way you can really test your RAM is by process of trial and elimination.

You should try every combination of memory sticks and memory slots that there is. I recently found two bad DIMM slots by doing just this. Sorry, you'll have to have a cup of java and just do it. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

HOWEVER, I see that noone has touched on the subject of overclocking, unless I missed it.

My advice: Clock that puppy back to where it's supposed to be, before fiddling with the RAM. That could very well be your culprit right there. Run it for awhile and see what happens. If all checks out, then of course you will have found the error. If not, then it's time to roll the sleeves up and get busy testing that RAM.

Oh, and it's usually advised to install the largest and/or fastest RAM in the first bank that the system reads. May or may not have anything to do with the immediate problem, but something to keep in mind for the future.

Good luck. Please post back with your progress, even it's just to report that you found the problem. We always like to have closure. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

As suggested previously, it would also be a good idea to check the compatibility list of your specific hardware against WIN2000 specs.

Big Blue 66


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"Right turn Clyde!"

[S_K_I]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by BigBlue66:
Howdy,

Well, I just have to jump into the frenzy here and agree that the only way you can really test your RAM is by process of trial and elimination.

You should try every combination of memory sticks and memory slots that there is. I recently found two bad DIMM slots by doing just this. Sorry, you'll have to have a cup of java and just do it. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

HOWEVER, I see that noone has touched on the subject of overclocking, unless I missed it.

My advice: Clock that puppy back to where it's supposed to be, before fiddling with the RAM. That could very well be your culprit right there. Run it for awhile and see what happens. If all checks out, then of course you will have found the error. If not, then it's time to roll the sleeves up and get busy testing that RAM.

Oh, and it's usually advised to install the largest and/or fastest RAM in the first bank that the system reads. May or may not have anything to do with the immediate problem, but something to keep in mind for the future.

Good luck. Please post back with your progress, even it's just to report that you found the problem. We always like to have closure. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

As suggested previously, it would also be a good idea to check the compatibility list of your specific hardware against WIN2000 specs.

Just for you mang, i'm gonna go through this tedious process and keep you posted..........

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S_K_I