Member Avatar for defanestrate

I've been having this problem on my Dell Vostro 400 XP SP2 for around 3 weeks now.

The PC boots up fine and then functions well as it has always done for a random period of time. Then it starts slowly freezing eventually giving me no control at all over the PC. The clock freezes at the time that the PC froze, and I have no control.

Occasionally, a loud long continuous beep is emitted from the CPU and I have once experienced the BSOD.

The annoying thing is that the freeze occurs at random times, regardless of what I'm doing at the moment. It can occur at any time period, maybe when I'm surfing the web or watching a video on YouTube. The fact that it's unpredictable makes it all the more difficult to figure out and makes it more annoying. I have typed all these symptoms into Google and even though I have found many people with the same problems, they don't seem to have been solved on any other forums, including one post on this website.

If anyone has any ideas for why this problem is occurring, I'd be glad to hear it. Thank you very much for your time.

Edited by defanestrate because: n/a
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Member Avatar for joekbit

I've been having this problem on my Dell Vostro 400 XP SP2 for around 3 weeks now.

The PC boots up fine and then functions well as it has always done for a random period of time. Then it starts slowly freezing eventually giving me no control at all over the PC. The clock freezes at the time that the PC froze, and I have no control.

Occasionally, a loud long continuous beep is emitted from the CPU and I have once experienced the BSOD.

The annoying thing is that the freeze occurs at random times, regardless of what I'm doing at the moment. It can occur at any time period, maybe when I'm surfing the web or watching a video on YouTube. The fact that it's unpredictable makes it all the more difficult to figure out and makes it more annoying. I have typed all these symptoms into Google and even though I have found many people with the same problems, they don't seem to have been solved on any other forums, including one post on this website.

If anyone has any ideas for why this problem is occurring, I'd be glad to hear it. Thank you very much for your time.

The clock freezing may be an indication of an internal battery issue. CMOS battery located inside the unit. Looks much like a watch battery, they vary in size. I would chek that and see if it is good. It is a shot in the dark but computers reli on that clock. Everytime you open or create a file or log on that clock is checked. If the clock is loosing power and the systey tries to update it may cause the freeze. Like I said a long shot but easy to chk.

What about heat? Is the system getting unusually hot? Heat will stop a system in it's tracks. You shut down and it cools down, then after turning it back on it works fine till the heat builds up again. If that is the case a good cleaning may be all it needs.

If heat is the problem then you are still in good shape. The fact that it has not quit completly says that the heat has not yet damaged things but it can turn your computer into a brick. I clean my systems about once a month. Even my laptops.

Hope that helps

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