Lock-ups on my PC

Post by **gmattson** » Thu Nov 25, 1999 1:53 pm

First Van Sensei's "super" computer, now Alan's "megasuper" machine. Just reading the specs gets me all excited!

My two year old Toshiba Pentium (now an orphan, since Toshiba got out of the desktop business) works quite well, but has the annoying habit of 'locking' out on a regular basis. I hear that Windows 98, although a big improvement over earlier versions, still can cause this condition. However, whenever I switch programs (which is frequent), my machine often quits. I have 65meg ram (which I just checked and is 94% used) and 166 MHz processor.

Any suggestions where to look for the culprit or how to make my machine more stable? BTW, lock-up oftens happens while on-line.

Thanks

Jackie Olsen · Post by **Jackie Olsen** » Thu Nov 25, 1999 2:48 pm

I'd also be interested in hearing how this happens. This has started happenning to me when I switched to IE5. With Netscape it never happened (coincidence?).

Jackie

Allen M. · Post by **Allen M.** » Thu Nov 25, 1999 11:43 pm

How much hard disk space do you have left, George?

Aren't you running NT on a newer machine?

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Allen, now at his new website www.ury2k.com

Allen M. · Post by **Allen M.** » Fri Nov 26, 1999 2:53 pm

Dial-up networking? Hmmm...

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Allen, now at his new website www.ury2k.com

Allen M. · Post by **Allen M.** » Sat Nov 27, 1999 3:35 am

George, were you in the registry last week?

Post by **gmattson** » Sat Nov 27, 1999 5:20 am

Al: Plenty of harddrive room.

I've been getting error messages when turning computer on:

couple of files were deleted and I can't find the references:
realtime/system/viaspoxd.vxd and nspmm.dll for a wave program.

Also shows that my wave driver is missing. Anyone know where this program can be reloaded?

Also my mobile disk for my pcmcia hard drive (camera) may be screwing up the computer. Shares parallel port with keyboard and printer....

Thinking about reformating my machine and starting over!

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GEM

Post by **gmattson** » Sat Nov 27, 1999 9:37 pm

I've been everywhere in my computer Al. . . Tony found a new corner or two that I missed. I'll let you know how it works out.

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GEM

Allen M. · Post by **Allen M.** » Sun Nov 28, 1999 2:28 am

Norton has a piece of s/w that allows you to clone entire hard drives or parts of hard drives (not the same as copy or xcopy). Consider cloning your entire windows and/or NT onto an unused ancient hard drive after you solve the lock-up issue. Could be a lifesaver in the future.

Post by **gmattson** » Sun Nov 28, 1999 1:50 pm

I've backed-up all my hard drive data, onto CD Rom disks. I'm just about committed to reformating my computer and more carefully installing just the necessary software. . . using a 'install' program that can uninstall properly. Since I experiment with lots of software, then delete those I don't use, I suspect my computer contains lots of conflicting dll and other files that is causing the problems.

I've tried software that can list duplicate and unused files, but no software can assure me that the deleted file can 'safely' be deleted! When dealing with hundreds of such files, the process of deleting, very dangerous. (As I've discovered)

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GEM

Allen M. · Post by **Allen M.** » Sun Nov 28, 1999 2:15 pm

You are right about the DLL stuff, George. I hate it when I uninstall a program and the uninstaller removes a DLL required by other applications.

The software I mentioned is not just a "Backup" application, but an application which will allow you to take snapshots of your operating system, registry, etc.

Sometimes, George, the best solution IS to reformat then rebuild your OS. That's often a time-consuming call, and once started, there is no backing out.

Very carefully make sure you have the ORIGINALS handy for all your apps. Just backing them up alone does not mean they will function again.

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Allen, now at his new website www.ury2k.com

Allen M. · Post by **Allen M.** » Sun Nov 28, 1999 4:29 pm

I just checked out the site, Anthony. The software looks good.

What happened to the good old days when all you had to do was type. Today you have to be a software manager just to successfully operate a home PC. "Oh, I long for CP/M and Wordstar..."

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Allen, now at his new website www.ury2k.com

Post by **gmattson** » Mon Nov 29, 1999 5:27 am

Tony: I just downloaded the program. This is a great idea. Simply take a picture of your computer before installing a new program, then going back to that configuration when you decide to get rid of the program. A perfectly simple and elegant solution.

Well.. . hopefully will see you later today with my newly reformatted computer!!!

bye for now...

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GEM

Allen M. · Post by **Allen M.** » Tue Dec 07, 1999 4:09 am

Hand Grenade that PC.

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Allen, now at his new website www.ury2k.com