Hello,

I bought my computer from a local reseller (MDG) almost exactly one year ago and it had been working fine up until very recently, when I moved apartments.

Presently, my computer will occasionally FREEZE and become non-responsive to any key input, requiring a reboot and a loss of all unsaved data.  I have noticed that the instances of ‘freezing’ come in two distinct flavours: (1) When bringing the computer out of ‘STAND By’ mode, the computer will whirl up, however the monitor will not automatically turn on in response to an input signal, and no key strokes will register.  As well, the restart/power soft buttons on my tower will not respond to single pushes, so the only way to restart the system is to hold the power button down for five seconds and then turn it back on for a hard boot.  (2) Soon after brining the computer out of ‘Stand By’ mode or soon after starting the computer up from rest (usually less than 2 minutes later), the system will freeze and become non-responsive.  In this case, the system does respond to a restart via the buttons on the tower.  In both circumstances, the system has not been on for a long time, so I don’t think that it’s overheating.  Usually, once it has been on for 5 or so minutes, I know that I’m in the clear, as it likely won’t shut down during my work.  I realize that these situations occur around having the computer suspended in a stand by/sleep mode, however I’m not sure how this can be affecting the system (stand by has worked fine for me for the past year)

I’ve tried to think of as many of the things that have changed since I’ve moved, so I’ll list them here:
-      In the event that the physical moving of the tower has caused anything to become loose, I’ve taken out and reinserted the cords and boards in my system while down.
-      The only hardware that I’ve installed since the move was a new wireless card.
-      I’ve taken the tower temporarily out of its compartment in my desk, and removed one of the side panels in the event that it has been overheating.

My system specifications follow:
-      Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Version 2002, Service Pack 2
-      Pentium 4 CPU 3.00 GHz, 512 MB of RAM
-      I am running both Norton Antivirus 2005 and Microsoft Antispyware, and have had recent scans showing no infection/spyware
-      Typically, the most that I’m running on my system at the time of the downage is MSN Messenger, Mozilla Firefox, Outlook 2003, Windows Media Player, etcetera (i.e. nothing that my system has had any problem handling in the past)

I’m REALLY at my wit’s end here, as I need my computer to be functioning and I don’t want to have to take it all the way out to the suburbs (where I bought it) for servicing, where they might not be able to even observe the problem (as it occurs so sporadically), let alone fix it.  Has anyone encountered something like this before?  Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be?  If you need anymore information, please don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks so much for your time,

KurtHas anybody dropped this pc or knocked it upon moving?.......upon boot up......hold down the f8 chose safe mode options from the list.....and then chose shutdown from /start menu........and re-boot pc ......Hello again,

Thank you for your prompt response.  After reading your e-mail, I followed your advice and restarted the computer and did a full load/restart in safe mode.  I restarted the system once again in normal mode and used the system for about a half hour, after which I put it into stand by (as a test), and attempted to bring it out of the stand by mode after only 10 minutes or so.  Once again, the system failed to properly load, and I had to shut it off and do a hard reboot.

Regarding your question as to if anyone dropped the machine during the moving process: I don’t believe so, as I made sure that I was the only one to move the tower itself.  I did consider the possibility that the vibrations from moving it in a van may have made something loose, so I attempted to disconnect/reconnect most of everything in the tower (which, mind you, I’ll likely try once again after I send this message).  I should note that a couple of weeks ago, I placed a medium-sized book on top of my tower without unreasonable force, and the machine did fully restart.  This lead me to check everything inside, however I think that this issue is unrelated, as it did not cause the freezing difficulty that I have been encountering recently.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

Thanks,

KurtFirst I would hope that while R+R the system boards you were wearing a wrist strap? Number two I would start with the obvious installation of the wireless NIC. When you say new wireless NIC do you mean new as in, never had one before? Or, new as in old one stopped working so I replaced with new of same brand make and model? If the former is true I would look at the IRQ assignment of the NIC. It may be conflicting with another device that is needed when the computer comes out of hibernation. I had a NIC that took the same IRQ as my mouse once. Needless to say that I had problems with none responsive mouse when on the network.
This was of COURSE a USB mouse.
Hope this gives you some help.
P. Lane
Kc9EYE
www.qsl.net/kc9eye/Disable stand by mode and see what happensHello again,

First and foremost, I was careful to ground myself before tinkering inside my tower; Thanks for your concern.

Yes, this was a brand new installation of a wireless network card, as I had always used a wired setup for my home networking before the move.  I checked my IRQ assignments (listed at the bottom of this message) and there doesn’t seem to be any other assignment to IRQ 22.

I must add that this problem does not occur every time that I come out of stand by, so it’s hard to test to see if something has ‘worked’ (i.e. I just have to wait and see if it happens again, which it did).

Regarding disabling stand by mode, would I do this in the BIOS setup?  I would prefer to use some form of hibernation/stand by, as it helps me continue working without having to re-search for websites that I need.

IRQ 0      System timer      OK
IRQ 1      Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 KEYBOARD      OK
IRQ 3      Intel(R) 82801EB SMBus Controller - 24D3      OK
IRQ 4      Communications Port (COM1)      OK
IRQ 8      System CMOS/real time clock      OK
IRQ 9      Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System      OK
IRQ 13      Numeric data processor      OK
IRQ 14      Primary IDE Channel      OK
IRQ 15      Secondary IDE Channel      OK
IRQ 16      RADEON 9200 SERIES       OK
IRQ 16      Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D2      OK
IRQ 16      Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24DE      OK
IRQ 17      SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio      OK
IRQ 18      Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D7      OK
IRQ 18      Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers      OK
IRQ 19      Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D4      OK
IRQ 20      Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection      OK
IRQ 22      802.11g PCI Wireless Network Adapter      OK
IRQ 23      Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller      OK