Strange freezeing Problem

[Barry]

My desktop and programs are freezing at random but the program i am working with is still working fine

say i have 6 things opened up (3 browser windows/macromedia fireworks/notepad/ftp prog) if i am working in fireworks and i go to use switch to one of the other programs i can't click on the program (no responce) and the taskbar/desktop is not clickable but fireworks is fine if i hit CTRL ALT DEL everything comes back to life again i have done virus scans and checked for everything i can think of and found nothing

i did a complete fdisk and fotmat to wipe the whole disk and reinstalled and with in a hour uptime it started again i had probs with (IRQ) i think yestaday when i took my pci soundcard out the rig (windows would freeze at 34 minites to finish install (driver install part) and the only way i could install was by moving the NIC to a diffrent PCI slot (it was happy in the slot it was in for months )

not sure if its hardware or software so i posted here

edit: alt + tab brings it all back to life again

[Barry]

^

[Barry]

Other strange effects this is having:

can't drag and drop at all!

when it freezes any webpage/prob with moving images ect are still moving even tho i can not click on it

alt + tab brings it all back to life again

things tested and checked:

ram checked

IDE cables checked

[Anders]

Since you have reinstalled Windows it suggests the problem is to do with your hardware or your hardware configuration.

You mentioned swapping PCI cards around so you could have an interrupt request (IRQ) conflict. You can have a look using the "System Information" tool, under "Hardware Resources" -> "Conflicts/Sharing". However it is not uncommon to have many things sharing one IRQ value, but this might give you an idea. Just looked on mine and my graphics card, sound card, USB universal host controller and Highpoint RAID controller all use IRQ 11 without out any problems <touch wood>. You might check under "Forced Hardware", it is not so common to have items listed under this heading.

Try taking out all the parts of your computer that you do not absolutely need to get it to function, for example, sound card, LAN card, things attached to USB ports, modems and extra Hard Drives. If this helps then add the cards, etc. back in one at a time to try and isolate the problem. If removing all those bits does not help then you might (clutching at straws) try reinstalling Windows without all the extra parts installed.

[Barry]

not 1 thing, all USB ports ect i don't use so they are disabled

[Anders]

Hmm, you could still try taking out all the unnecessary parts. I do not know if problems can still occur even when no parts appear to be sharing IRQs.

---edit---

The only other thing that I can think of at the moment that could transcend installations of Windows would be infections from a virus/worm. You got all the latest Windows patches, Anti virus up to date and a firewall?

[Barry]

just tryed with bare bones, same as before

afaif i have counted out a virus/worm because i fdished and reformated the whole drive and all my firewall and AV is up to date.

[Barry]

should there be 5 memory controllers in the list

[Anders]

Not having had an Nforce2 I cannot say definitively, but maybe someone who has can? However, I would guess no. My first instinct is to ask have you got the latest drivers, especially for the motherboard. Second instinct (guess) is to say go into Windows Safe Mode, bring up the Device Manager and delete all duplicate entries for a device.

Having saind that, I still think this must be a hardware or hardware configuration related problem because it happens over multiple Windows installs. I would like to know more about the problems you mentioned in this paragraph:

“i had probs with (IRQ) i think yestaday when i took my pci soundcard out the rig (windows would freeze at 34 minites to finish install (driver install part) and the only way i could install was by moving the NIC to a diffrent PCI slot (it was happy in the slot it was in for months)”

What IRQ problems did you have? Were they related to removing the sound card? Windows would refuse to install unless the NIC was moved to a different PCI slot?

As a last note/side note. If you are not up to date Windows patch wise then merely connecting to the Internet can let a Worm re-infected your PC. Likewise, reinstalling infected software would make previous problems reappear.

IMO the hardest problems to solve are those that occur with no error messages like yours.

[Barry]

im not 100% sure what caused the problem with the soundcard and nic on install (both tested fine),

all drivers are latest from the nvidia and ATI site and all patches were on cd (downloaded before install)

I can't see it being a worm of sorts as i am not the main rig on my network and it started before i connected it to the net

[Barry]

^^

[Blub2k]

I'll have a look at my nforce tonight but it looks to me like you could have a memory leak in some program you are using.