pc hangs randomly

[piterdevries]

my pc used to be fine until i jacked in another hard disk, after a few hours the system hangs up leaving me with no other option but to reset. i removed the hard disk and the system still hangs but randomly ranging from a few minutes after startup up to hours.

WHY??  ???  ???  ???  ???

[Andrew]

Check temperatures.

Maybe you broke something when putting hard drive in?

[piterdevries]

temps are okay, didn't break anything too.

today everything went on smoothly until I ran scandisk, at phase 3 the system again hanged.

brother said that it could be the work of a 3rd party software? antivirus and anti spyware doesn't detect anything, but when scanning with ad-aware at full scan the system freezes.

i also get that problem when i try to open/cut/copy/paste files windows explorer suddenly crashes then a popup saying that Dr Watson Postmortem debugger has closed.

[Dragoon Knight]

Sounds more like something's gone kaput with the file system.  Windows likely thinks there's meant to be something there when there's not, or vice versa.

Try running the Windows Disk Check program.  Go to Start, then My Computer (or Computer with Vista), then right-click on your main hard drive and go to Properties.  Under the Tools tab, you'll find the Error-checking section.  Run the Check Disk utility, making sure to tick all options.

Windows might tell you that it can't check the disk while it's in use and ask you to schedule a check the next time you restart.  If this is the case, say yes, then restart your PC.  Then let Check Disk run all the way through - this should hopefully fix any problems you're having.

[piterdevries]

did it like thrice, still it hangs randomly.

does this mean that my hard disk needs to retire? it's been here for five years on four different motherboards.

[veK]

Try formatting and reinstalling a new clean Windows to exclude Software issues first.

[Dragoon Knight]

A fresh install of Windows is the next thing I would have suggested.  Assuming all of your scans returned no problems with the hard disk, try your best to back up all your stuff and then wipe & re-install.

You might have to slave your drive to someone else's PC if you're having trouble copying and pasting, or perhaps use a Linux Live CD, such as Ubuntu, to get in and move stuff about.

[gryphon]

Depending on the type of disk you are using (presumable an older IDE disk? ) you can change settings for it in Windows that can resolve it.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc758482.aspx

You Disk Drives option in the Device Manager has similar options. Find out the ones that fit your drive best then see if that resolves your problems.

[piterdevries]

okay... i got me a different hard disk but this one's younger and have more capacity than the former, and also reliable...

formatted the drive then installed a fresh new copy of windows xp.

while playing kane's wrath, fifteen minutes later, BOOMSHALALA! FREEZE!!!

could it be caused by my ram sticks, both 1gb but have different frequencies? i've used the pair for a year and didn't cause any problems, not any. i dont know for now if they are the culprits?

btw, dr watson postmortem debugger still appears sometimes

[Dragoon Knight]

Did you remove the RAM sticks when you were changing the hard drive?  Is it possible that some dust drifted into the connectors?  You might want to run a memory test, to check that your RAM isn't fried, but if you didn't touch it I don't think it will be the cause.

[piterdevries]

i did remove them because the pc wont start when both of them are jacked in. i tried it with one stick then the system booted. i re-inserted the other one and after three on and offs the system finally booted.

i read in another forum where a guy has a similar problem like mine then he solved it by jacking in a new power supply.

[piterdevries]

*Update*

I removed one of ramsticks (the 667) and the system hanged

I removed the other one (533) and, so far, no hangs yet.

[Dragoon Knight]

I was going to say, if you put them back in different slots (i.e. swapping their locations, or if you have more than 2 slots, putting them in different slots entirely), then it's possible that's what's causing the problem.  Swapping your RAM about it probably your best bet.  Do a memory test as well.

If all else fails, then new RAM should be pretty cheap.  Best to make them the same speed, voltage, etc. to ensure there are no conflicts. :)

[piterdevries]

i put the other ram back again coz i need some speed, and i still dont have the budget to buy a new one... i couldnt do a memory test coz my cdrom is busted.

did a scan in malwarebytes and i got a couple of trojans, could they possibly contribute to the system crashing?

attached here is the logfile of the scan

[Dragoon Knight]

Er... yeah, those trojans could be your problem.  Especially since they're in your registry.  I would advise removing those pronto.

Also, don't use that PC for any sensitive data or online banking / shopping until you're sure it's clean.

[piterdevries]

the pc's only used for gaming and surfing, nothing serious in here.

yesterday i used the pc the whole night and there was no hang, not even one.

[veK]

i put the other ram back again coz i need some speed, and i still dont have the budget to buy a new one...

Is it that expensive at your place? Because you almost get it for free over here. Even 4GB memory costs almost nothing, it's absolutely insane compared to former prices.

[piterdevries]

2gb here costs 1200 PHP ($10 i think)

Yeah they're cheap but problem is I don't have any budget coz school's out for summer. lol... I'm just waiting for the recruiter to accept me in that online job.

[piterdevries]

mmmkay, second day of 10 hours of pc use without a single hang... everything became fine after i got rid of the trojans

[piterdevries]

ok no more hangups , i think its the trojans that are to blame. thanks for the help guys