Lockups: is it hardware or software?

[David]

Does anyone have a good theory on what causes a computer to suddenly stop responding? (Mouse pointer freezes, can't toggle num lock LED, ctrl-alt-del no effect) I have had this type of problem occur a few times in recent months.

On a least one recent occurrence, I noticed that the HDD activity LED stayed lit. (And the drive didn't sound like it was seeking.) It occurred with at least 3 different programs (not counting background/OS processes.)

Is it possible that these lockups are caused solely by software? Or does it sound like a motherboard problem? (I could use someone to convince me that the motherboard's probably OK before I order more RAM for it.)

One of my earlier theories about it was that even if the CPU halts, the integrated IDE controller would be smart enough to turn off the HDD LED. Perhaps this is not the case. Maybe the controller waits for a confirmation from the system before turning off the LED. Or perhaps an NMI sent to the CPU also goes to other chips on the board. Any thoughts? My lockups aren't that big of a problem right now, but I'm still interested in knowing what causes them. They occurred with Win95B. Motherboard: Abit LX-6. CPU: PII-233. I use 32 MB ECC SDRAM. I'm using gold modules with tin contacts; I re-seated them a couple days ago.. no prob so far. I checked to make sure ECC was on in CMOS.

Again, this is not an urgent problem. But I'd like to understand what I'm dealing with.

Thanks in advance,

David http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/cool.gif

[Charles Kozierok]

Lockups are about as easy to understand as tornadoes, politics or women. (Sorry. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif ) OK, they're not quite as confusing as women. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif
They can be caused by hardware or software causes. On the latters, drivers are often the culprit. One of my machines had a frequent lockup problem that it took me weeks to figure out, in the end it was the motherboard...

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Charles M. Kozierok
Webslave, The PC Guide (http://www.PCGuide.com)
Comprehensive PC Reference, Troubleshooting, Optimization and Buyer's Guides...
Note: Please reply to my forum postings here on the forums. Thanks.

[Paleo Pete]

Try running scandisk and defrag a few times, from DOS instead of windows, and see what happens. Use the F8 key during boot, go to command prompt only in the boot menu. Intermittent lockups are one of the hardest things I know of to troubleshoot...Win 95 doesn't have a registry checker like 98's scanreg, you might try installing Tweak, and using the repair tab to rebuild system files. Also check and see what you can remove from the start up folder.

When booting, use the F8 key and Step by Step Confirmation a few times, letting only one non critical application start every time and see if one particular thing might be causing it. You'll need to let a few things run every time:

doublespace driver
Process the system Regisatry
Device=C:\windows\himem.sys
Device=C:|windows\ifshlp.sys
Load the graphical Interface
Load all windows drivers

Load all the rest one thing at a time and see if dropping one fixes it.

Run sysedit and look in the win.ini file and do the same thing with programs being loaded at startup. Look for lines that start with run= and Load= and place a semi-colon (;) and a space before each, re-enabling them one at a time. Remember to write down all steps and changes, and save the win.ini file before rebooting and trying it out. Also try each step one at a time, don't boot with step by step confirmation and disable lines in win.ini at same time. Do them separately.

Seems like a lot of trouble, but with patience you can gradually rule out one thing after another.


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If you had everything...Where would you put it?

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