Why does my 'puter freeze?

[shelanskey]

My computer freezes up constantly (usually every time I'm on it)!!! Can any one help? I scan it and defrag it all the time, usually it freezes if only one, maybe two programs are running. There is PLENTY of memory space left on my hard drive. The computer is only about a year and a half old. I have tried system restore, still doesn't really help. I have Windows ME. Don't know what else to say but can you help???

[Lasher]

go to start
run, and type "msconfig"
click on the start up tab

uncheck EVERYTHING
clikc apply
restart your computer

[Tasha405]

I had a feeling you had already answered this one! LOL Is there anything you don't know?? :p

[Lasher]

Tons,

but I spend all day on, a computer doing trouble shooting, and playin on BBS acting like I'm working.

[Sha]

How many megs of Memory do you have? You should have at minimum 128...also one thing I have been doing with my customers systems is advising them to apply spyware detection on thier system. There is so many spyware programs that are on a typical users system that causes problems like freezing, boot up problems, registry problems and so on. If you would like info on spyware we refer customer to this linnk to read up on it.

http://www.simplythebest.net/info/spyware.html

there is a link to a site called Lavasoft AD-aware, their spyware detection and cleanup software is really reliable and stable. I hope this can help a bit.

I agree somewhat with Lasher about unchecking things in msconfig,You must first write down everything that is checked first then to begin to troubleshoot your problem you have to introduce it all back one at a time to rule out the problem. Only problem is if you uncheck everything you will loose systray and disable virus dections, AOL programs. Go to the site below and it will tell you what is and is not needed to be in your startup menu to enable your system to work at its best. Hope this helps. Hey Lasher...sounds like you tinker alot with putors too huh? T;)

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm

[Lasher]

Sha
yea you can say that I'm Microsoft certified, there's nothing in the start up tab, that will effect the performance or program drivers, what is contained, are the executable files that enable files to run at start up, if you disable them you free up all of the system memory.
So now matter how much memory is there performance will be increased.

I highly reccomend not adjusting any other settings while in msconfig.

[shelanskey]

Thanks!!!!! Hopefully this will help!!!!!! :cool: :cool:

[Sha]

totally agree with you...just worried that if all is unchecked..we have had problems with customers of ours not knowing what to do because all of thier proggies are not "there" in their words anymore. Alot of people are so used to millions of things in their startup and rely to heavily on it. I don't know maybey its just us idiots in California that do that ! LOL! I guess I have just began to be overly cautious of how I manipulate peoples systems anymore..they get lost to easily when the scenery changes on the screen. I was surprised how much you knew. Hubby is certified also, but isn't it amazing how much they don't tell you in school that you learn just tinkering? I spend too much time in the shop these days and not enough time as hubby says "baking pies" LOL! Nice to talk to you...I always like to hear and learn from others. :)

[Lasher]

(((sha)))

there all other things that can help too, but there is no way i'm telling someone to go into the bios.
I'm still learning a ton off stuff too, one thing I am sure of XP sux!!!!!

[badswife]

But Lasher... what will make your sound go out for no reason at all? Not all the time but atleast 1 a week???

[lilmeanie43]

Originally posted by Lasher
(((sha)))

there all other things that can help too, but there is no way i'm telling someone to go into the bios.
I'm still learning a ton off stuff too, one thing I am sure of XP sux!!!!!

Well I'll have to completely disagree with that... I love my XP... my hubby says it sucks too tho... but it's just cause he had to go back and relearn things after it all got rearranged... once he did all that he's fine with it and techs it on a daily basis too. You techies never cease to amaze me... I feel I know more than average just from watching him work, but just on my computer... I could never dream of touching anyone elses... atleast I know when I break mine he'll fix it... so he's good for atleast one thing. :)

[Tasha405]

Originally posted by Lasher
Tons,

but I spend all day on, a computer doing trouble shooting, and playin on BBS acting like I'm working.

I hear ya! I had to do a lot of stuff to my Gateway computer, I done so much I can't remember any of it..LOL. I just gave up and let me son have it. There was always something wrong with it.

I hope you didn't take that in a bad way. You are always so good to help out with stuff like this. Such a sweetie.:p

[MOMMYOF2BOYZ]

not enough memory, go buy another memory card

[Lasher]

XP overall is a very stable operating system, and I do like the new option of being able to take remote controll of someone's computer through MSN messanger. (BTW, if your logged onto MSN, whoever is taking control of your computer doesn't need your premission, we do it to each other at work all the time)

But, microsoft really dropped the ball on this one, in previous version, they handed out full copies, to all major hardware and software manufactors, so they would have the opportunity to make their products compatible.

This time they handed out a locked BETA version about 10 weeks before they released XP, as a result there are still a ton of products that are not compatible.

Also you can just format your harddrive and reload the operating system, you have to call your computer's manufactor and get a base cd, to get it ready for reload, and you pay for the cd, and you have to purchase a new one each time.

[tucker2]

Lasher,

I hate to bother you with a computer question, since thats what you have to deal with all day, but I'm a little confused on something.

I was checking out my available hard drive space recently, and was surprised at how much was being used. I'm using Windows 98 2nd edition. My computer shows a total hard drive size of 8.5GB, with 4.9GB used. So I went through a bunch of directories to see where it had all gone. I figured maybe its was the songs or pictures I had in the My Documents folder. Nope. So I right mouse clicked on the Windows folder and selected Properties, and saw that it was taking up 3.1GB. So I went into the Windows folder, right mouse clicked on Temp, and saw that of the 3.1GB the Windows folder was taking up, this Temp folder is using 2.2GB. What's with that? There's over 700 files and 36 folders in there. I have no idea what any of it is. Does that sound normal?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Lasher]

Originally posted by tucker2
Lasher,

I hate to bother you with a computer question, since thats what you have to deal with all day, but I'm a little confused on something.

I was checking out my available hard drive space recently, and was surprised at how much was being used. I'm using Windows 98 2nd edition. My computer shows a total hard drive size of 8.5GB, with 4.9GB used. So I went through a bunch of directories to see where it had all gone. I figured maybe its was the songs or pictures I had in the My Documents folder. Nope. So I right mouse clicked on the Windows folder and selected Properties, and saw that it was taking up 3.1GB. So I went into the Windows folder, right mouse clicked on Temp, and saw that of the 3.1GB the Windows folder was taking up, this Temp folder is using 2.2GB. What's with that? There's over 700 files and 36 folders in there. I have no idea what any of it is. Does that sound normal?

Thanks in advance for any help.


The temp folder inside you windows folder is used to temporarily store files needed to set up programs.
You can delete them all, it may give you a warning that you are deleting a program file but it is ok, the actually program file as already been reassociated with your registry and is actually stored in the porgrams folder.

Long explanation_to english, you can delete everything within the temp folder, it will probably be best do did it a couple 100mb at a time, as your computer is already locking up it will probably lock up again if you try to delete everything at once.


Need anything else let me know.

[tucker2]

Thanks for the help Lasher (and such a quick response).

[tucker2]

I went in to start deleting, and decided to sort the files by size to see if there were any really big ones. Turns out, that of the 2GB this folder is taking up, nearly all of it is from 6 files. One of the files is:

~PDT4886.tmp, 574,016KB, TMP File

The others all have very similar names (just the last 4 numbers in the name vary). Any idea what these files could be??

[Lasher]

no idea would have to actually see the porgrams on your computer to tell you, but NOTHING, that is in the temp folder is needed, it's only for tempoary storage of files, during setup.

[tucker2]

okay, thanks again!

[spyfox]

Windows ME was a rushed os that bill put out to satisfy the masses, and his own pockets. All the tech reviews agree it had more bugs in the first month than 98 did altogether. It crashed my, and my dads computer. I would seriously upgrade to xp...very stable...based on the windows nt kernel.