Mysterious and fatal?? computer problem (windows)

[ritaxis]

I don't need Mac comments, okay?

Lately, and I'm afraid with increasing frequency, my xp-pro computer does this insanely frightening thing. All of a sudden, with no event to mark it, it freezes and becomes unresponsive to mouse, keyboard, and reset button (I hate hate hate the way that modern computers do not have an off button). The only way to even turn the thing off is to unplug it (and this is why I think computers ought to have an off button).

I pulled the plug three times in the last two hours.

Yep. I did. I was trying to write the lead-in to the Great Confusing Party Scene, with mistaken identities, overheard and misheqrd snippets of conversation, etc. I got two paragraphs written. And then written again, and finally I saved after every sentence so I wouldn't have to write them a fourth time.

I suspect it has something to do with the internet. We have DSL, and I'm often cruising in the background while I'm writing. Especially downloading trinkets for my Sims. I'm going to try unplugging the ethernet cord while writing, but that means I can't have lj or rasfc in the background either.

I have saved my entire documents folder to my jump drive. I'm not making the mistake of being undersaved again! (most of my writing is also stored in a web-based file too).

Comments

[ellarien]

That sounds scary, and backups and frequent saving sound like a good idea. Have you checked the Event Viewer? (Under Computer Management in the Admin Tools folder under Control Panel.) That might tell you if something bad is happening. My first guesses (mostly because those are the bad computer things I've had experience of in the last year or two) would be either the early stages of disk failure, or some spyware-ish thing taking up too many resources. Running the Task Manager might give you a clue what is happening, as well.

The trouble with disconnecting modern PCs from the internet is that they then waste cycles trying to find the connection to do whatever background things they want to use it for.

[brooksmoses]

Yeah, eep!

Some computers do have an off switch, on the power supply near where the power cable goes in. This is pretty much equivalent to pulling the plug, though, and just as hard to get to.

Does pusing the "power" button and holding it for 10-15 seconds turn the computer off? Sometimes that works -- they're often set so that pushing it briefly sends a signal to the operating system that means "shut down", but pushing-and-holding is handled at a much more direct way.

Honestly, I should not be at all surprised if what's going on is flaky hardware somewhere. These days, Windows is generally reasonably good at dealing with flaky software and not crashing because of it, but flaky hardware will do it in easily.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Isn't it usually more like 5 seconds instead of 10-15?

[brooksmoses]

In theory, the time they're designed to take is usually around 5 seconds, yeah. What you see there is an engineering safety factor, to make sure the advice works even if it's off-spec and Lucy's counting is too fast. :)

And mine always seem to take a little bit longer than 5 seconds, too.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Mine doesn't work at all when the computer's doing its unresponsive freeze thing.

I'm still working on it. I'm taking notes.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

You may have a malware infestation. Do you have a firewall and anti-virus software, and is your Windows system up to date?

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

If I have a malware infestation, it's one that AVG, Ad-aware, Spybot and some damn thing Microsoft just ran on me can't find.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

It does sound like a hardware problem, then. Hunh.

[beth-bernobich.livejournal.com]

Does it freeze completely? Or does it slow down to an interminable crawl? I ask because I had problems with the latter last autumn. When I checked with Task Manager, I discovered that my browser was consuming 100% of the CPU cycles, even after I exited. And it was the same for IE and Firefox.

If that is what's going on, and if you've eliminated viruses and malware from the list of causes, try running your browser in safe mode (No Flash. No extensions, etc.)

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

The Mac I used to use at work had a 'force Off' option that was something like command + ctrl + 'on' button. I looked at my PowerBook to see what buttons were where I remembered putting my fingers, but it has a slightly different keyboard. Anyway, I used to use the three-button solution above (as well as command + option + esc for force-quit) often enough that my fingers still reach for it, like Moe Howard unconsciously preparing his index and middle finger to poke Larry in the eyes.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

The Windows equivalent is CTRL-ALT-DELETE, but if the system is frozen, so will those keys be.

[julesjones]

Definitely time to do a malware sweep with an up-to-date viruschecker and spyware checker. That's a very common reason for this sort of behaviour. Failing that, a soft reinstall of Windows, just in case you've got a corrupted registry. But yes, flaky hardware could be the issue as well.

I have here a folder with last week's builds of Adaware and AVG (and Zonealarm), having been burning CDs of same for someone else. If you can't get online long enough to download stuff for a quick check, I can burn you a copy and post it over.

[infernarl.livejournal.com]

How old is the hard drive?

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

apparently seven years, and apparently 90% full. I am taking steps, thank you.

[infernarl.livejournal.com]

I would try something like Spinrite (http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm). Which can be acquired via more communistic means..

I suspect bad sectors on the hard drive.

The half life of hard drives is about 5 yearss.

~/my two cents

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I'm going to try unplugging the ethernet cord while writing

I hope that works, but I'm going to guess that there is some kind of hardware problem, in which case there is nothing you can do without outside help. One of my computers kept freezing, and it was under warranty, so a technician came and took a look at it. It turned out the motherboard was messed up. He swapped in a new one, and that took care of the problem.

I have saved my entire documents folder to my jump drive.

What is a jump drive?

Do you have a CD or DVD burner or offsite storage? For example, a Gmail account where you can send yourself a backup copy?

most of my writing is also stored in a web-based file too

I'm not sure what a jump drive or web-based file are. Possibly this means you already have an offsite copy? That would be good.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Jump drive is another name for an external drive -- memory stick, etc. A web-based file is a file she put on a website.

Thomas, you should come to Minicon again!

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Minicon was fun! I do want to go again....