Win XP help, random freezes (+ tweeking tips)

[bloodline]

As the subject says, I've been having random mouse freezes in WinXP, I've been keeping a carefull eye on the task list but can't see any thing strange...

does any one have any ideas how to solve this problem?

It's a pain, as the audio stops as well, the freezes last for about a second or so. As I used this machine for producing music, and jitters in the audio stream are bad (tm).

[DethKnight]

You must be mistaken, most of the marketing literature and WinXP proponents tell me WinXP can't or doesn't lock up.

[Van_M]

now I'm very serious on that:
HAVE YOU INSTALLED ANY  WINDOWS FIXES FROM AUTOUPDATE??? IF YES THIS SHOULD BE IT. REMOVE THEM AND YOU WILL SEE.
I have the same problem. If I install a service pack (like SP1) everything is fine and smooth. On the other hand, if I install a single patch (say a security-fix) my system starts locking up at random times, and everyone who used windows 2000/XP knows that it may be more stable than 9x, but if it crashes, there's no other way than the reset button on the box.

[bloodline]

Ok, This happened before I had installed anything on it. Then I put Logic Audio, Sound Forge, Reason 2.0 on it. Then I installed all the service pack, updates etc from M$.

And still it happens. I have just noticed that often the freezes happen to coincide with HD access, I'm wondering if I had some odd settings somewhere.

I have made sure the drive does not spin down (power saving), and I can't find any other cache options. I have installed the latest IDE drivers from the chipset vendors website... still the machine stutters :-(

[restore2003]

Have you installed new hardware lately? Updated drivers etc ?

Btw do u have AMD or P4?

[bloodline]

restore2003 wrote:
Have you installed new hardware lately? Updated drivers etc ?

Btw do u have AMD or P4?

The machine is a brand new P4 3.06Ghz with 512Meg.

It does the job really well, able to handle Logic and Reason at the same time with hardly any CPU usage. But the stutters are really annoying.

[restore2003]

Im also a musician :-)  Only use synths and drummachines though.....

 It sounds to be a soundcard problem, what card u have? Is it only happening when playing music?

[Tomas]

It's a pain, as the audio stops as well, the freezes last for about a second or so. As I used this machine for producing music, and jitters in the audio stream are bad (tm).

Freezes for one sec then starts working normally again? then freezes again after some random time?
Or does it freeze completly so that reset is only escape?

I had a very similar problem like this... Turned out to be the drivers for the promise raid/ultra cards... the same thing happened on both of them... i think the ide bus would reset, which caused the whole system to freeze up completly for a sec and then work normally for another min or so before it happened again..

Installing the older version of the drivers completly solved the problem.

EDIT:
might be a dying disk also

[bloodline]

restore2003 wrote:
Im also a musician :-)  Only use synths and drummachines though.....

 It sounds to be a soundcard problem, what card u have? Is it only happening when playing music?

No I don't think it's a Sound card problem (I'm only using the internal SiS 7012 at the moment, Echo Indigo IO here I come :-) ), as the lockups seem to happen when when the hard drive is being accessed. I've increased the disk buffers in Logic to see if that helps, it doesnt :-(

[bloodline]

Tomas wrote:

It's a pain, as the audio stops as well, the freezes last for about a second or so. As I used this machine for producing music, and jitters in the audio stream are bad (tm).

Freezes for one sec then starts working normally again? then freezes again after some random time?
Or does it freeze completly so that reset is only escape?

I had a very similar problem like this... Turned out to be the drivers for the promise raid/ultra cards... the same thing happened on both of them... i think the ide bus would reset, which caused the whole system to freeze up completly for a sec and then work normally for another min or so before it happened again..

Installing the older version of the drivers completly solved the problem.

Spot on, freezes for a second and then runs fine. I wouldn't really care that much, but the audio stops for that second too!

[mikeymike]

As the subject says, I've been having random mouse freezes in WinXP, I've been keeping a carefull eye on the task list but can't see any thing strange...

It could be one of a very large number of different problems.  Badly configured hardware is one of the worse possibilities, though I'd be inclined to go with badly configured OS, in the form of old drivers.  Update as many as you can.

(Factory installs tend to use old drivers already, so I'd advise against downgrading them 'again' :-))

[Ilwrath]

I had a very similar problem like this... Turned out to be the drivers for the promise raid/ultra cards... the same thing happened on both of them... i think the ide bus would reset, which caused the whole system to freeze up completly for a sec and then work normally for another min or so before it happened again..

Spot on, freezes for a second and then runs fine. I wouldn't really care that much, but the audio stops for that second too!

My guess (and this is coming from someone who has a couple NT4 certs) is chipset drivers.  

You didn't mention what chipset your mobo is, but certainly VIA *MUST* be running very recent 4-in-1 drivers.  Most every person who says VIA chipsets are crap hasn't updated their drivers properly.  They run like absolute dogsh!t until you download the latest versions.  The driver CD that ships in the box is worthless, and the built-in Windows drivers cause all sorts of problems.  

Intel chipsets aren't as fussy, but they SHOULD also be running Intel's drivers for your chipset, anyhow.  I just trust Intel to know their own chipsets better than MS would.

Not sure how SiS is on drivers, because I've always avoided them.

[bloodline]

Ilwrath wrote:

I had a very similar problem like this... Turned out to be the drivers for the promise raid/ultra cards... the same thing happened on both of them... i think the ide bus would reset, which caused the whole system to freeze up completly for a sec and then work normally for another min or so before it happened again..

Spot on, freezes for a second and then runs fine. I wouldn't really care that much, but the audio stops for that second too!

My guess (and this is coming from someone who has a couple NT4 certs) is chipset drivers.  

You didn't mention what chipset your mobo is, but certainly VIA *MUST* be running very recent 4-in-1 drivers.  Most every person who says VIA chipsets are crap hasn't updated their drivers properly.  They run like absolute dogsh!t until you download the latest versions.  The driver CD that ships in the box is worthless, and the built-in Windows drivers cause all sorts of problems.  

Intel chipsets aren't as fussy, but they SHOULD also be running Intel's drivers for your chipset, anyhow.  I just trust Intel to know their own chipsets better than MS would.

Not sure how SiS is on drivers, because I've always avoided them.

Yeah, I'm on a SiS 645DX chipset. I've updated to the latest drivers.. all I can think now is that my HD is crap :-/ but I've never had freezing due to a crap HD before.

[Ilwrath]

Yeah, I'm on a SiS 645DX chipset.

Figures...  A chipset I know nothing about.  haha!  Anyhow, it could be a bad configuration with that chipset.  Maybe some type of DMA or IO conflict.  You might try hitting some support forums for that chipset, and see if others are having the same problem.  Odds are, they are... And there may be some configuration help already posted.  

[Tomas]

Yeah, I'm on a SiS 645DX chipset. I've updated to the latest drivers.. all I can think now is that my HD is crap :-/ but I've never had freezing due to a crap HD before.

my ibm 75gxp did this a few weeks before it died... then after a while it would freeze up totally, not being able to even boot the computer with the disk connected

but yeah as other said... the cause can be many... i would suggest you try to unhook any disks you do not need have to use to boot the sys up