BleepingComputer.com: Desktop Freezes And Restarts.

I've been having these problems for probably 4 months now and nobody can figure out what is wrong with my computer. It's the most annoying thing ever. This desktop I have is not even a year old. I can just being surfing the web and it'll just all of a sudden freeze up for no apparent reason. The mouse arrow does that little circle thing like it's busy and then it just completely freezes up. I have to hold down the power button to turn it off. This happens at least 3-4 times a day.

Then about every 2 weeks or so, my computer decides to restart on its own. It'll be working fine and then all of a sudden I hear the fan or motor or something get louder and it restarts. And it is not low on memory or anything. It has plenty of memory. This happens probably every 2-3 weeks and if I leave it on, it'll continue restarting every 20-30 minutes. So I usually just turn it off for a day or so and then it's better usually. At least for another 2 weeks or so.

I seriously feel like throwing this computer out the window sometimes! It drvies me absolutely insane! Please help me!

It sounds like some application may be trying to update itself. It could be having problems getting through to the server or fighting with another program.

Do you have Windows update set to 'automatic'?
What antivirus do you have?
What is your Firewall?

Yes, I have Windows set to automatically update.
I use AVG Anti-Virus.
I have the Firewall turned on if that's what you mean.

I don't know if this makes a difference but the freezing problem seems to mainly happen when I'm using Firefox. Could Firefox be causing it? I don't know what to think about the restarting problem, though.

Also, could it be a Vista problem? That's what a few people have told me. They said putting XP on it will fix it. I have my doubts about that, though. I know Vista can be screwy but have you ever heard of it causing a computer to freeze and restart all the time?

Sounds like a driver issue, have you made sure to check that all your device drivers are updated, as well as, all necessary software patches are applied?

No, I haven't. How do I check that everything is updated?

There are several things to try to help diagnose this problem:
1) Go to Start and type "perfmon /report" (without the quotes and with a space between perfmon and /report) - then press Enter. Let us know if there's any errors or warnings showing after the report is done.
2) Go to Start and type "compmgmt.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter.

Click on the + sign next to Reliability and Performance in the left hand pane, then on the + sign by Monitoring Tools, then click on Reliability Monitor. Check in the graph in the right hand pane for errors that have occurred. Scroll down the list to find details about the errors and post the info on them back here.

If neither of those tell you anything, go to Start and type in "eventvwr.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Click on the + sign next to Windows Logs, then select the Application and the System logfiles to have a look at (by clicking on them). Look in the right hand pane for any errors around the time that the computer is acting up - and post them here for us to have a look at.

Ok so I did the first two things you said and apparently it found a lot of errors. I have no idea what they all mean though so I'm just going to post screencaps of everything I found.

1)




2)


From the looks of that, there seems to be a LOT wrong with my computer. Of course, I know next to nothing about the hardware issues of computers.

Go to Start and type in "cmd" (without the quotes) and press Enter
Then type (in the black screen) "chkdsk /r" (without the quotes) and press Enter (BTW - there's a space between chkdsk and the /r)
If it tells you it can't run right now and asks if you'd like to schedule it for the next reboot - answer "Y" for yes and press Enter. Then reboot and let it run. You'll know it's done when you're back in Windows (it may take up to an hour or two).
That'll address the Dirty bit issue. If it comes back again, then it'll need further looking into.

As for the errors, there's a problem with an ADS Instant HDTV device. Do you use such a device? If so, I'd suggest uninstalling the device software from the Control Panel...Programs applet. Then go into Device Manager and uninstall the device by right clicking on it and selecting "Uninstall" (to get into Device Manager, go to Start and type in "devmgmt.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter).

Presuming that this card came preinstalled on your system, then I'd go to the Drivers and Support section of the computer manufacturer's website in order to download a fresh copy of the drivers and software to install on your system.

Finally, the devices on your system that correspond to drive letters H, I, and J are very low on free space. If these are restore partitions (and not used) then there isn't anything wrong with this. But, if these partitions are used, then their performance will suffer due to lack of space. As it states, drives should have 15% free space in order for Windows to work well. In extreme situations, a drive that's too full won't even be able to delete the data that's on it (requiring a format and loss of data).

Ok, I tried the chkdsk /r thing but it said 'Access Denied as you do not have sufficient privileges. You have to invoke this utility running in elevated mode.'

I have no idea what that ADS thing is. What is it exactly? Maybe then I'll know if I use it or not. I don't think I use it but I'm not sure since I have no idea what it is. It must have come pre-installed on my computer.

And the H, I and J devices are all external hard drives. So I don't think there would be a problem there, would there?

My bad, I forgot about UAC. Go to Start and type in "cmd.exe" (without the quotes) - but DON'T press Enter.
At the top of the search block there will be a listing for cmd.exe - right click on that and select "Run as Administrator"
That'll fix the access denied error.

The ADS thing is a TV Tuner that's installed on your computer. What's the make and model of your system? That'll help us to find out what's going on with that.

As for the external drives - they're just too full. Either delete some stuff off of them in order to get 15% free space, or get another external drive and move the excess over to it. With the drives as full as they are, they're slowing your system down. And they're also increasing the risk that you won't be able to recover the data on the drives if they get too full.

If you have a 10 gB or larger file on the J: drive, try moving/copying it somewhere. I'd suspect that it'd refuse to copy - but if it does, you'll be able to see the performance degradation in the slowness of the copy - and the thrashing that the J: drive receives.

I ran the disk check thing and I did another report and it still says it has a Dirty bit issue.

Oh, so I do have a TV Tuner already installed on my computer? Wow, I feel so stupid that I didn't even know that. Somebody built this computer for me so I don't think there's a make and mode number unfortunately. I've taken it back to them to fix at least 3 or 4 times now and they always tell me they can't find any problems. It's been such a nightmare. It's less than a year old and it hasn't worked right since I got it. It drives me absolutely crazy because they tell me there's nothing wrong with it but obviously there is. So I have no idea what to do.

Do you think these errors are contributing to my freezing and restarting problems?

If chkdsk doesn't fix the dirty bit, the only other way to fix it that I know of is to format the hard drive and start over.

I would suggest removing the TV Tuner stuff from the Control Panel...Programs applet, then uninstalling the device in Device Manager (as mentioned in Post $8).

whatever8586,

When is the last time you have cleaned the inside of your PC case? Obviously, your PC has driver issues which probably are causing the problem, but if the fan gets loud there is a good chance that the computer is overheating. I would suggest you power everything off for 30 minutes and then open the case. If you have compressed air use it to clean the cooling fans, otherwise you can just use self-air but prepared to get a mouthful of dust.