Comp freezes during long term processes

RogueLemming · June 30th, 2004, 03:39 AM

Hello all!

This has annoyed me to the point of plain anger, so I'm seeking help here.

Anytime I try to run a process that will take a while (Defrag, Full virus scan, etc..) it will work for a few minutes and then just freeze the computer. I know it's not program related because it happens to everything regardless. It's really annoying to try and run a virus scan to have it freeze up at 80% complete and have to hard boot.

I'm running WinXP on a machine that should be more than able to handle it.

I'm hoping this is just something stupid with a simple fix. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

FatalException · June 30th, 2004, 03:42 AM

It probably has to do with heat. Once a computer is under load, it tends to put off more heat than when it is idle. Try taking the side panel off the computer and placing a room fan so that it blows air into the computer. If you can do these heavy tasks using proper ventilation, it is probably heat causing your problem.

If that doesn't help, it could be bad memory or something like that, but let's try the heat solution first and see if it fixes things. If so, it's time to go out and get some new case cooling fans!

Also, bear in mind hard drives get very hot too - make sure they are ventilated during your test as well since you mentioned that these crashes occur during heavy disk access too.

MitaDC · June 30th, 2004, 03:51 AM

^^^ I 2nd that, was gonna say ram first but heat could be the problem too

RogueLemming · June 30th, 2004, 04:16 AM

Thanks for the responses.

I don't think it's heat, I've got a few more fans than normal.

And I play UT2k4 for absurd amounts of time with no problems. But I tried out the heat theory on what led me to this in the first place...a scan by AVG. Again, I'm pretty sure it's not heat, but I noticed something interesting: it always gets stuck on the same file.

It used to get stuck on something else, but I deleted that file (it was for a game, I think), so I didn't notice it right off. But now it always stops on "quartz.dll" in the "RegisteredPackages" folder of Windows. Does that have any implications?

Would "trouble files" also explain why it freezes on a defrag, or when I leave the OS locked for an extended time, or why other programs also freeze up after time (for example, my utilities program).

Thanks again for all your help!

evereddie · June 30th, 2004, 06:28 PM

Memory?

FatalException · June 30th, 2004, 06:32 PM

Maybe it's not frozen at all... if it's a compressed file, it may be going so deeply into it that it makes your computer slow to a halt. Run a "chkdsk /f /x" on the drive that is effected and then try the antivirus scan again.

RogueLemming · July 1st, 2004, 03:57 PM

I tried a CHKDSK with no luck on the scan. However, when I went online and downloaded a new "Quartz.dll" (which was half the size as the one I had

) and replaced the file, the scan worked fine. So I guess it was an issue with the file?

I don't know much (read: nothing lol) about .dll's, so I'm sure that wasn't the best idea, but it seems to have worked. Well, it works until I find what else I broke in the process.

Thanks to everyone for your help!