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Whack - A -...Computer?!

My computer is behaving incredibly strange!
It seems to freeze but I still get full function of the mouse and can move it around click on things etc. and nothing will happen. UNTIL! i give the case a little tap....(sometimes slightly harder than a tap) and everything that i clicked on whilst being "froze" happens, like its just trying to catch up with itself.

I've updated and scanned with everything I have; AVG free, ad-aware, spybot S&D, and CCleaner. In that regard my pc has a clean bill of health.

I took the entire thing apart and blew out all the dust with compressed air and then put it all back together....just to have it work normally for about 45mins then go back to its strange habits.

the only thing I can think of is a faulty piece of RAM that is somehow intermittently working...??

does anyone have any ideas on what could be causing this problem???

Are you sure its not the hard drive thats faulty? When you tap on the case it may be that thats responding...

first off, please stop tapping your case. vibrations while the PC is in use can cause odd hardware issues that'll never get resolved.

secondly, does the device manager open? if you can open the DM, find out how many processes are running. that'll give you some idea of whether or not this is a software or hardware issue.

third, try to find the pattern. when a PC freezes, it is always due to a pattern of use (whether or not we realize it) and by localizing the pattern, we can determine the underlaying issue.

fourth, does this happen in safe mode? hardware failure can often be traced by starting in safe mode and trying to make it crash.

if it is a matter of time that causes the crash (45mins later it happened again), then we need to analyze the data collected by the event viewer. typically, a system-wide failure is documented by the EV and this information can prove to be priceless.

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just pretend i said something smart and funny...

close, but you'll be looking at the task manager, not device manager for processes... and you should also go into v iew, select columns, and check the boxes for PID and CPU time, look for processes that are running longer than expected.

safe mode will cut out a lot of hardware and software... best way to check is to create another profile (or if you already have one, load another profile) and boot regularly... make sure your profile isn't donked. a lot of software issues are user specific.

i'd say its probably related to DPC's (deferred procedure calls) which is generally related to either hardware overheating or driver issues. it could be as simple as a badly seated video card or a loose cmos battery to an automatic update of a driver that you didnt even know about.

i'd start inside the case, make sure everything is bolted down, no shorts, then work into software fixes.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Dwaggy
Thats alot of words for someone that sells DVDs out of the back of a truck

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quote:

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Originally posted by doctor zoidy
close, but you'll be looking at the task manager, not device manager for processes... and you should also go into v iew, select columns, and check the boxes for PID and CPU time, look for processes that are running longer than expected.

safe mode will cut out a lot of hardware and software... best way to check is to create another profile (or if you already have one, load another profile) and boot regularly... make sure your profile isn't donked. a lot of software issues are user specific.

i'd say its probably related to DPC's (deferred procedure calls) which is generally related to either hardware overheating or driver issues. it could be as simple as a badly seated video card or a loose cmos battery to an automatic update of a driver that you didnt even know about.

i'd start inside the case, make sure everything is bolted down, no shorts, then work into software fixes.

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just pretend i said something smart and funny...

Posting after J.R.!!!

I booted in Safe Mode last night, set the time on my PC and let it sit til this morning. I set the time at 11pm and 8.5hrs later it says its only 1am.

I did that Task manager thing and looked at the PID and CPU time and nothing is running more than expected.

What do you mean it could be a driver issue? and how do i go about checking that?

I'll try creating another profile today after work and see what booting with that does.


Thank you Everyone for the input.

quote:

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Originally posted by sloth1234
I booted in Safe Mode last night, set the time on my PC and let it sit til this morning. I set the time at 11pm and 8.5hrs later it says its only 1am.

I did that Task manager thing and looked at the PID and CPU time and nothing is running more than expected.

What do you mean it could be a driver issue? and how do i go about checking that?

I'll try creating another profile today after work and see what booting with that does.


Thank you Everyone for the input.

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just pretend i said something smart and funny...

quote:

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Originally posted by LOLobo
Posting after J.R.!!!

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just pretend i said something smart and funny...

FIXED

FIXED IT!!

I thank everyone who gave me information on some possibillities....

quote:

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it could be as simple as a badly seated video card

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Re: FIXED

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Originally posted by sloth1234
FIXED IT!!

I thank everyone who gave me information on some possibillities....

DING DING we have a winner!

Specifically to doctor zoidy but also jay are who mentioned the chip creeping; thank you.

once again, thanks to everyone who put their ideas out there.

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just pretend i said something smart and funny...

i'm just glad you reported back with the results, more often than not its a mystery in the end if anything worked...

yay! working computer!

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quote:

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Originally posted by Dwaggy
Thats alot of words for someone that sells DVDs out of the back of a truck

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Sometimes people don't notice Zoidy, but he is the man.

Another for the sig zoidy lol

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