Freezing PC

[LOS Design UK]

Hi Mike

What model you got?

I had the same problem with my old war horse Compaq Presario 6540. It is now 7 years old and bangs out better performance than my newer laptop with a higher spec...

All I did.do is take off the side panel and give it a good old hoover one a quarter or so...carefully of course.

Not had the problem since.

HTH

Regards
Daren

[Mike Seddon]

Thanks for the advice guys.

It did it again today after only being on for a couple of minutes.

Can imagine that is overheating.

I'll clean it over the weekend but I do wonder if the hard disk is the problem.

Maybe I am better of replacing the hard drive.

The thought of a new pc and reinstalling all that software (finding the licence keys etc) leaves me cold.

[HuggyBear]

Thanks for the advice guys.

It did it again today after only being on for a couple of minutes.

Can imagine that is overheating.

I'll clean it over the weekend but I do wonder if the hard disk is the problem.

Maybe I am better of replacing the hard drive.

The thought of a new pc and reinstalling all that software (finding the licence keys etc) leaves me cold.

It is possible to clone your hard drive (mirror the contents of the hard drive from one to the other), this means that you dont have to install anything and everything will be as it was on your computer.

However, to do it, you need another computer to insert the hard drive into.

[Mike Seddon]

Hi Mike

What model you got?

I had the same problem with my old war horse Compaq Presario 6540. It is now 7 years old and bangs out better performance than my newer laptop with a higher spec...

All I did.do is take off the side panel and give it a good old hoover one a quarter or so...carefully of course.

Not had the problem since.

HTH

Regards
Daren

Its a Dell XPS 600

[Place of design]

Calling the tech experts!

My PC has frozen twice today. The screen just locked. I had to unplug the power supply to restart. Even the soft reboot button did not work.

Is there anything I can check to see why this happened?

The only major change to software recently is I have removed Norton and installed McAfee.

Also, I did get two blue screens during that very hot day we had last week.

I wonder if the hard drive is on the way out?

Any advice very much appreciated.

Ta

Mike

You removed norton - did you go to add remove programs or use SYMNRT?

Check ALL the fans, especially the graphics card fan & processor MOBO fans - we have had hot weather. Check the heatsinks are not clogged up with gunk. if they are, use a soft brush to remove the gunk (or an air blaster. DO NOT remove the heatsinks

Go to the task manager, click on processes - is somthing using a lot of CPU time?

[HuggyBear]

Hi Mike,

Have you managed to get anywhere RE your computer crashing?

HB

[accountantpete]

Hi Mike,

Have you managed to get anywhere RE your computer crashing?

HB

The delay in responding might be an indicator Huggy!

or a sign that I forgot that it's gone 12 o'clock and "yesterday" is only 15 mins ago.

[HuggyBear]

The delay in responding might be an indicator Huggy!

or a sign that I forgot that it's gone 12 o'clock and "yesterday" is only 15 mins ago.

I was just intrigued to find out if, and how he managed to fix it as a lot of suggestions where put forward

HB

[accountantpete]

I was just intrigued to find out if, and how he managed to fix it as a lot of suggestions where put forward

HB

Actually his computer has been slow for ages - it'll probably be on Antiques Roadshow next year

[Mike Seddon]

Slow! It's no slower than I am

Actually since I started to look for a replacement, it's been behaving very well.

I've sorted all my back ups ready for a transfer to a new machine and (crosses fingers) the crashes all seem to have stopped.

I'll probably still go ahead with a new pc

Thanks to everyone for their advice. It was great to get the support in my hour of need!