BleepingComputer.com: Freezing Comp. Only runs in Safe Mode

Any help would be most appreciated,
My computer randomly freezes. Sometimes it goes a day with no issues, other times its five seconds after loading my desktop. I have the latest Norton anti virus and had Bit defender prior to that. No virus or malware issues were ever detected. I have eliminated most start up apps using the guides on this site and no improvement. I defraged and ran skndsk /r multiple times. still no improvement. Yet i am able to run in safe mode with no crashes. I just started using Wise Disk Cleaner to look at my registry. I however don't know what i am to look for. Any pro tips for me?

1) Boot to the XP cd and choose the first repair option. Once in the Recovery Console, run chkdsk /r
2) Download memtest, burn it to cd, and check your ram: http://www.memtest.org/

I ran the chkdsk /r a few times already. Both from safe mode and off the Win XP CD. I will get a copy and run a memory test now. Thanks for the Help.

Well, The PC passed memtest. I suppose that's a good thing. I already went out and purchased a new power supply today because the fan was broke. I would hate to have to go back for more memory.

Quote

I am never sure of these Registry cleaners that claim to perform 'magic repairs' on your system - They can be very dangerous if not set up correctly -
As you are not 100% sure how to use it, then you would be better off removing it from your system - You may then see an improvement already -
Do not use this program to make any changes to your system -

Thank You -

noknojon, on 07 February 2011 - 05:38 AM, said:

I am. Set up "correctly" or not, registry cleaners can do a lot of damage. The best registry cleaners are benign - they will do no harm. The worst of the bunch will leave the system unusable. Either way, none of them do anything useful. That's why every support forum with which I've ever been associated strongly recommends against the use of registry utilities. There is never a reason to use registry cleaners - never.

This post has been edited by Allan: 07 February 2011 - 08:15 AM

OK. used the restore feature in the registry cleaner and restored my system, and the registry keys, to what they were prior to installing that program. Ran chkdsk /r again. It ran much faster but my PC is still on the fritz. Any other things i should check/run?

Getting desperate over here. I'm thinking of just backing up my photos on my external and reformatting the drive. Reinstalling programs is not appealing but at least i know how to do that. Maybe I'll just build a new rig and upgrade to win7.

My vote on this one would be to uninstall Norton using the Norton Removal Tool. I have seen Norton products cause no end of probems, many times slowing a system to a crawl. Thats why I have a strict no Norton products policy.

Norton doesnt check for Malware. Some people say that it actually IS malware. There are several selections of free products that are better.

Download, install, update and run both MalwareBytes AntiMalware and SuperAntiSpyware. Get the free versions & do the full scans with both. It will take a while so go kill some time while they are running. If neither program finds something I will be very suprized.

The problem I am having persisted before I switched to Norton. I had Bit Defender before but it slowed my PC down. So when it expired I switched to Norton. I will download and run those programs and keep the board posted on anything that they find. Thanks for the advice. Also what Anti Virus do you prefer. I really liked Bit Defender but my computer was to weak for it.

Eyesee, on 07 February 2011 - 07:06 PM, said:

I'm sorry, but claiming a well known and well regarded product is malware is simply an irresponsible comment. After Peter Norton sold the company years ago, Norton products went through a tough time - quality suffered, bloat increased, and they were deservedly panned. However, in recent years Norton products have made a strong comeback and are now once again well regarded and effective.

Sorry to sound contrary, but this tendency to bash Norton products is, in my opinion, right up there with Vista bashing and Microsoft bashing. I'm posting this simply so other readers who use, and are happy with, their Norton Anti Virus products don't feel a need to suddenly jump ship.

I ran in depth scans of the anti malware programs and the PC has received a clean bill of health. The mystery continues (cue cheesy mystery TV music).

You said there is no problem in safe mode. I'd like to try a clean boot, but the issue is that you said you could go days without the system freezing and the process I have in mind would be tedious at best under those circumstances. Here are some suggestions:

1) Update your video and audio drivers (get them from the OEM websites, not from Windows Update). Also check your system mfg's site for an updated chipset driver.
2) If the problem occurs after updating drivers, open Task Manager to the Processes Tab. Sort on the cpu column (with highest usage at the top) and leave it open. If the system freezes, see if one task was spiking (it would be at the very top)
3) Still happening? Then we go to the tedious method. Open msconfig and choose selective startup (disable everything from loading) and reboot. Does the problem still occur? If not, start adding items back to msconfig one or two at a time, rebooting after each change, until the problem reappears and you'll have identified the offending process. However, if the problem continues even with the first selective startup it's possible we're looking at a hardware related issue.

Thank you for the advice Allan. I will get to work on it right now.

You're welcome. Just understand that it's very hard to diagnose an "intermittent" problem.

One other thing you can do is see if you have the latest bios release.