The Steel Guitar Forum

Wiz,

Or anyone who might help. Lately I'm having my computer lockup every so often when I'm using the mouse.It seems to lockup more often as time goes by. I I know the mouse is not the problem but I have replaced it with several 'til I'm up to a Logitech LX-8 Laser wireless.
It is just frustating when you are doing something important like burning a disk and half way through there's a lockdown.
Its A homebuilt system with Micro-Star International MS-7061 Board ,200 Gig Hard Drive,1 Gig Memory, with Windows XP Service Pack 3.
Joe

Is it just the mouse? or is it the entire PC is locked up? It sounds more like the entire PC is hanging.

Could be anything, from a driver, to a hardware device (video is a prime suspect) or even corrupted Operating System.

First thing, update the drivers, especially the video or if there is no later update than what you have reinstall the latest update.

If you have a hardware diagnostic, run that.

Jack Stoner -

I experience the same condition as Joe and more often than I'd like. The page seems to freeze and the mouse does not respond. At times, things will "unfreeze" and return to normal. At other times the dreaded "ctrl-alt-del" must be used. Since I didn't understand all that you suggested, would you please educate me? Would be most appreciative.

Respectfully,

Richard

There is so many possibilites, it's hard to pin point what is happening many times.

If it's just "locks up" for a period and then starts working, it could just be the program is just waiting for something to occur or with a browser (any browser, not just Internet Explorer) it may just be waiting for the site you are connected to or trying to connect to, to respond. This happens to me quite a bit with the forum, I click on my link to the forum and many times it just sits there and nothing happens for a while.

The CTRL/ALT/DEL in Windows XP or Vista will bring up the Task Manager and if a program is "not responding" or just hung up, it can be Ended (End Task) and after that you can continue doing whatever.

How much memory (RAM) you have will determine how many programs can be open at one time and if too many programs are opened either the entire PC can hang up or processing will slow to the point it appears that the system is hung up. On a Windows 512MB is "bare minimum" and if you want to have a lot of programs open or do a lot of memory intensive operations (such as graphics) then 1GB or even 2. For Vista systems 2GB is a good working amount of memory.

For problems when the entire PC hangs up and unresponsive, it could be anything from static electricity causing the PC to hang up, to a device or the device driver, to a problem (corruption) in the Operating System. As noted the device driver for Video seems to be one problem area.

Many PC vendors have driver downloads for their PC's and it's best to start with the PC Vendor for driver updates as some vendors (such as Dell) have a lot of their own proprietary hardware or implementations of the hardware and if you try to use other drivers either they will not work or work properly.

Generally, Video drivers are standard and Video drivers from the Video vendors are the best place to go. e.g. Nvidia, or ATI, which are the two main Video types are the places to go for video drivers. There are some Intel video systems with "integrated" (on the motherboard) Video chips.

However, with drivers - whether device drivers or BIOS updates, if you are not having any problems then the "if it ain't broke don't fix it applies". Also many times driver updates are issued to fix a particular problem or to add support for new hardware devices and if neither the fix or new hardware apply to your particular PC then there is no need to install those updates.

The AC power line can be another source of PC hangups. I would recommend that everyone use a mini-UPS system on their PC's. UPS - Uninterruptable Power Source. You can buy one that will handle a PC for under $50 and it's well worth it.

Overheating for the PC, even if it happened 6 months ago can weaken components and show up later, either as a complete failure or an intermittent (that could even cause hang ups).

Bottom line is that there is no "one fix" for hang up problems. Each one has to be handled on a case by case basis and try to weed out what is really happening.

If the mouse is wireless check or replace the batteries! Low batteries cause erratic wireless mouse behavior.

Thanks, Jack. A lot of info to absorb. Will do my best to sort it out.

Thanks, Wiz. I do have a wireless mouse. A change of batteries is in the offing.

Respectfully,

Richard

I gave up on a Logitech wireless mouse because it ate batteries like popcorn, causing the pointer to freeze. It also didn't play well with my KVM switch..

One easy and reliable to tell if the computer itself is "locked" is to hit the "caps lock" key, and notice if the light (usually over the numerical keypad) that indicates the caps lock feature is turned on is lit. If this light doesn't go on and off as you toggle the caps lock key, then the processor is probably locked up, and you'll have to reboot.

Of course, it goes without saying that light also won't come on if the keyboard is unplugged!

Thanks for all the answers to my problem.To explain a little further, I had a complete motherboard failure a few months ago and replaced it with a new board.The computer locked up before I changed the board and I hopefully thought the problem would go away with the new board,but no such luck the problem persists.

It seems to increase in frequency the longer my computer is on and used, which as Jack suggested could be a power problem. Just as I started to post this item I had to boot the thing three times before I could even get to the site. The reason I mentioned the mouse is that it seemed to be a little better since I got the new mouse, could just be wishful thinking.

Thanks to all for even bothering to read this post. Jack, I especially value your opinions and copy and save most of your problem solving solutions.

Bad RAM? Bad power supply? Improperly mounted CPU and heatsink? Corrupted system files?

There are diagnostics to test most hardware components but nothing to really test a power supply. There are power supply "testers" available but all they do is show whether the voltages are there, not what will happen when the power supply is put under load.

Hardware diagnostics can't test for an intermittent problem, if everything is working then in most cases everything will pass the diagnostics. If it's not working then the diagnostic is not even going to run, so in most cases the diagnostics are useless.

Since it happens with two motherboards, I would, in most cases, rule out the motherboard. It's back to a potential problem with one of the reused hardware devices, an OS or driver problem. Video is one prime suspect, if you have another video card, swap it out and see what happens.