BleepingComputer.com: Computer stalls and freezes after 30+mins of use

Hi. I've been having this problem with my netbook for a while. A couple months ago I had a malware infection that I was able to remove. Shortly thereafter I started having the problem mentioned in the title: after about 30+mins of use, the computer will show signs of stalling and then freeze outright, forcing a hard reboot. Sometimes if I try to shut down or restart normally before the problem begins, it will freeze during the shutting off process.

I checked the hard disk for errors and found none, and I also ran diagnostics on the RAM and found no problems there. I tried checking to see if there was any malware that might be causing this, but again I found none. The only thing I can think of is possibly a problem in the registry or something like that that I wouldn't know about or know how to fix. Or worse, a problem with the CPU, which I will not be able to fix or replace. The computer is a MSI Wind U100, which allows for push-button overclocking of the CPU, which I often used with no problems. However, I fear that may also have worn it out to the point of causing this issue. Why it would happen so soon--if indeed it did happen--after malware removal procedures, I do not know. But then I don't know why the problem is occurring at all.

Any help and advice would be appreciated.

<<The only thing I can think of is possibly a problem in the registry or something like that...>>

Sounds like classic symptoms of overheating to me. Have you checked the CPU temperature after one of these freezes?

In view of the fact that it's a netbook...I'd investigate that possibility.

How to Avoid Overheating Hardware Secrets - http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/142

Cleaning the Interior of your PC - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/cleaning-the-inside-of-your-pc/

Louis

No, I haven't checked the temp. It was operating fine up until about a month ago, even overclocked and running World of Warcraft with no problems. I do know that it's clean inside, as I've had it open to install and later to check the RAM.

Something I forgot to mention before is that the last time I used it, it started to stall on me, and when I opened the task manager I noticed that CPU usage had dropped to 0% and stayed that way up until it finally froze.

This post has been edited by tigerbot: 05 May 2010 - 01:06 PM

CPU usage...are you referring to the percentage reflected at the bottom of Task Manager?

If so, that's perfectly normal. I just opened Task Manager and my system reflects 0%. That just means that no serious system resources are being used, which is good.

The System Idle process should reflect a 99% reading or close to it, in such cases.

Louis

Yes, that's what I mean. However, I was running firefox and possibly winamp at the time, but still showed no CPU activity.

I have a video-editor open and am online...and mine reflects zero usage.

Louis

I've since performed a recovery of the system to out-of-the-box conditions. It's appeared to fix the problem, so I guess it was an issue with the registry or something similar after all. I'll keep an eye on it for a couple days.

I should have just bit the bullet and done this in the first place, it would have saved me a lot of time and frustration. It's a lot easier to put my programs back on than it is to try to restore everything from images.

This post has been edited by tigerbot: 12 May 2010 - 02:08 PM

Glad to hear that you resolved it, happy computing .

Louis