Intro Hello. I am having a major problem which I have not been able to solve. I am not sure whether this is a software or hardware issue, however it is vital that it be fixed. I come here to desperately seek assistance. Problem For the past month or so, my computer has been freezing. When it freezes, and after I have to (manually) power off the computer and restart it, the same freezing occurs later on. From what I can see, whenever it freezes, it duplicates one instance of a program and disallows any more openings of programs, and attempting ending the duplicated program fails. For a better visualization, I took a picture from my phone so you can see. Since the computer was frozen, I couldn’t take a screenshot… edited by ddp Sorry about the quality, but the two main things to acknowledge in that picture is the fact that it displays two of the exact same tasks being open in processes (despite only one window being open) and their statuses are Not Responding. Also take note that this happens to almost all of my applications, not just Firefox. Attempted Solutions I was so fed up with being in the middle of something and then the computer rebooting. I scanned everywhere with Avast Home Edition and it picked up no viruses whatsoever. I also used Spybot S&D and Spyware Terminator. After seeing that there were no viruses being picked up, I decided it was time to reformat my HDD… So, I did indeed perform a quick-format it and reinstalled Windows XP. I had made a backup disc (two, actually, adding to over 9GB) so I installed all the plugins, put my pictures and music files back in their folders, and then I started to install things… Everything worked fine, until I began installing Nero 9. It froze at 16% and I had to reboot (Same duplication problem). I didn’t know what to say or do, so I just tried again. Same thing happened… OK, so I move on to install other programs. They work, but when I go on Firefox, it freezes and duplicates yet again. Potential Reasons Right now, I am thinking of three possibilities, ordered from greatest possible to least possible, in my opinion. These are all hypothetical, of course. 1. A very sneaky virus, undetectable by the latest protection, infected all my installation/plugins/etc. files thus causing some sort of glitch making programs spawn another instance of itself and freeze. 2. I have a corrupt version of Windows. I had originally owned an HP with a retail-version of Windows XP Service Pack 3 installed. However, when I tried reformatting that HDD and then using the license on this PC, it failed, and Microsoft wasn’t too helpful in letting me transfer that software I spent over $100 for to the new computer. This new installed XP I have is downloaded, I admit, however I feel it is very legitimate given the fact that I had already purchased and still own the original disc itself. When I try using that disc, however, it claims “another user is registered with this license” or something along those lines. I have used this downloaded version for a while though, and before this problem I have had other problems, but nothing similar to this. 3. Something is wrong with my hardware, and for whatever reason, every time I use certain programs at a random time they will freeze. My Computer Specifications Intel Core 2 Duo CPU 2.40 GHz NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT 1GB RAM 150GB HDD 450W Power Supply Conclusion Thank you for taking the time to read this far. If you have any ideas, hints, suggestions, etc., please do not hesitate to mention anything you think will help.
Personally, it sounds like a bad ram module.. I would do a couple of passes with memtest to see if that's the problemm?? Test one module at a time and see if you have any errors..
I would reinstall windows with your CD, all you need to do is request a new product key from Microsoft, it takes less than 5 minutes to do.
elusiv1 - I have memtest86, how exactly do I scan specifically for one module at a time? sammorris - Thanks, if I end up having to reinstall Windows again, I undoubtedly will do that.
I just added another gigabyte of RAM, and it hasn't frozen yet. It froze before that after the RegFix/Cleaner/Memtest..now with 2GB RAM, I will see if it will improve the situation. It has yet to freeze, but if it does, I will do a full-format and proceed from there.
So you had a 1GB stick before and just added a brand new 1GB stick to give you 2GB right?? The way i test with memtest is i test one memory stick at a time because if you do two at the same time you won't know what memory module actually has the errors.. Remove one stick and run a few full passes for a couple of hours on each stick individually, i usually test each stick for 3 to 4 hours, some people test for 24 hours but that's a bit much in my opinion.. I'm not sure your memory is bad since you still have the original 1GB stick in there and for now your PC is no longer freezing ?? If it freezes again just reinstall windows again like sam says, keep us posted...
