Computer Freezes Soon After Startup

[SShadow]

After I turn my computer on and go into windows it lets me play around for about 1min then it just freezes up. I can move the mouse about but cant click on anything press alt+tab a few times and it just switches through blank windows and then completely freezes. This keeps happening each time I restart, When i press F8 during startup and go into safe-mode it is perfectly fine and I can play without the 1min freeze at startup. If I reinstall windows on my windows drive I can play again for about 10hours straight then it will freeze and if I try starting it up again it will come with the same problem.

[Serunson]

What is your computer? What are it's specs?
Can you boot into Safe mode (F8 at startup) to see if it will freeze then?

[gaurav_indian]

I had a similar problem for the last one month.And i have checked everything.But now i have removed the gfx card and its working fine so far.Cant tell for how long though.Plz provide your computer configuration here.or look into other similar threads that might help you also.

[SShadow]

Yeah safe-mode works fine.

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Graphics Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT

[gaurav_indian]

Yeah safe-mode works fine.

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Graphics Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT

hmm start from your GFX card.Remove it and then run windows xp.See if it helps.My windows xp was also working in safe mode.Thats becoz safe mode doesnt load drivers for gfx and lan card etc.

[Serunson]

Take out any other PCI card you have a boot. Leave the gfx card in. Do you still get the freezing problem? Also try, moving your RAM sticks into each slot that you have, may be a RAM slot issue.

[SShadow]

yeah I thought it was the ram at first too, i've tried that. The weird thing is that when it does the freezing thing, I keep restarting and it always freezes like 1min after windows is loaded. Then I just reinstall the windows and it works fine for a while (like a good 8 hours) and then will freeze up and just do the same freezing thing when i go to restart.

[Serunson]

What version of Windows are you reinstalling? If it is not SP2 then that would the cause. Have you done any significant Hardware upgrades since you have purchased the computer? Such as a new Hard-drive, RAM, graphics card, sound card etc.? If so take these new components out, put the original ones back in, then reinstall Windows. That could be your problem.

[mjdodd]

I have had a number of very similiar probs with clients machines and on several occasions have found the machines full of dust eg in fans etc. this causes overheating and cut out (especially on the video cards....) I recommend regular cleaning if in a dusty atmosphere!

[Serunson]

Yeah this could be caused by dust as you suggested mjdodd. Turn off the power at the mains, hold down the power button for about 20~30 seconds to discharge any capacitors in the computer (to avoid electric shock) and either use a duster or a hoover to get rid of any dust build-up.

[Jove]

Take out any other PCI card you have a boot. Leave the gfx card in. Do you still get the freezing problem? Also try, moving your RAM sticks into each slot that you have, may be a RAM slot issue.

When you say gfx card are you referring to a Video Card I googled Wikipedia and could only come up with Video Card as follows;

"A video card, also referred to as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, graphics card, and numerous other terms, is an item of personal computer hardware whose function is to generate and output images to a display. It operates on similar principles as a sound card or other peripheral devices.

I'm new to this forum so hi !

I guess I'll post in a new topic, but for now for the sake of explanation, will appreciate yout feed back.

Jove

[Serunson]

Yes a gfx card is short hand for graphics card = video card.

[SShadow]

I found out my C drive was corrupted, just installed another version of windows on the different drive and it worked...

[Serunson]

Please mark this thread as solved!