[delta_7890]

My computer is about to drive me insane..  Here's the problem, which I've had for far too long and am finally sick and tired of it.

My computer enjoys 'locking up' on me.  A lot.  I'll be doing something, and then it will just stop.  Cursor freezes.  Keyboard doesn't respond.  The little activity light on the computer either stays completely lit or unlit throughout this period of freezing.  This can last anywhere from seconds, to (usually) minutes.  Very, very annoying.  But here's the catch.  It only does this when I'm running memory-intensive programs, such as Photoshop or Morrowind.  Browsing the internet or listening to music doesn't often cause this to happen.  It's only with my more advanced programs, which leads me to believe this isn't a cooling problem.  My question to you people is, what is the problem?  Is it something with the memory?  What can I do to solve this?

My computer's stats:

HP Pavilion xt1973
Windows XP
256 MB ram
1.1 GHZ Intel Celleron processor
GeForce4MX

Please, I'm begging you.  Help me..

[Thorn]

256 RAM... Windows XP.. thats cutting it close, since XP usually eats up more than half that. Opening PS or a newer game would probably cause the thing to swap a fair bit.. Try changing your Virtual Memory settings maybe?

[delta_7890]

Originally posted by Thorn
256 RAM... Windows XP.. thats cutting it close, since XP usually eats up more than half that. Opening PS or a newer game would probably cause the thing to swap a fair bit.. Try changing your Virtual Memory settings maybe?

Thing is though, it used to be fine.  This is something that developed out of nowhere.  oo;  I'll try changing the virtual memory and see how that goes.  What do you recommend?

[Thorn]

Recommended settings is 1.5 times your RAM, so 384
How old is that install of Windows? I find that even XP gets bloated with **** given enough time.

[Stealth]

yeah 256MB is fairly low for a XP machine.  i'd also say try changing your virtual memory paging file to 1000MB.  currently on my machine i've also only got 256MB RAM, and a total paging file of 1000 MB seems to work fine.

try that, and let us know if you experience any more freezes

EDIT:

Thing is though, it used to be fine.

hehe, that actually makes quite a bit of sense.  the longer you have the machine, the more programs you're installing, and the more processes are running unnoticed (seemingly. hehe.) in the background.  so eventually when you open a memory-eating program (such as photoshop, etc.) it just doesn't have enough RAM, which explains the freezing up.  my best guess would be the virtual memory, although i'm still new to XP.  try it though, it's worth a try

[Drew]

i run my XP on 256 DDR but iv managed to tweak the ****in hell out of it and it runs almost as fast as a 98 machine....

XP has of VM problems...

turn of *all* backround processes
it might not even be your ram, it oculd be of other hardwear, or your XP could just be fuct....
(celerons blow. that could be your probem)

what u need to do is a massive system matinece (clean the spywear, defrag, skandisc, all that ****, maybe even repair XP)

[Liberator]

Don't forget to clean the temp folder(s), check for viruses, and you might look at the HSFs and case fans(if any) and see if they need cleaning, which might be the case if you keep on or near the floor.

Also, check Black Viper's site and kill all the unneeded stuff in the background.

[Sandwich]

Am I to understand from your first post that the computer usually recovers after a while?

[delta_7890]

Originally posted by Sandwich
Am I to understand from your first post that the computer usually recovers after a while?

Yes.  It will 'freeze', and then go back to running normally after a few minutes or so.  My problem is that this happens constantly.  Sometimes this freezing process will occur repeatedly.  I just upped my virtual memory to 1000mb, so we'll see how this goes.

[Janos]

Oh, and be sure to disable Error Reporting (dumprep.exe). That can crash the machine. Error reporting creates more errors.

[pyro-manic]

Originally posted by Liberator
Also, check Black Viper's site and kill all the unneeded stuff in the background.

Ooh - got a link? That sounds useful. I've switched off a lot of stuff, but I'm not sure how much more I can get rid of.

[delta_7890]

Update: Upping it to 1000MB didn't seem to help.  I've upped it to 3000MB, but won't be able to test it until I get home later this afternoon.  Also, that Black Viper site does sound interesting.  Link?

[J3Vr6]

Maybe you got spyware running rampart in the background?

[Triple Ace]

My system has 384 ram and runs great so your problem is probably related to something else.

[Arc]

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm (from google)

[delta_7890]

Well, upping the memory to 3000mb didn't work.  I've already virus scanned, error scanned, defragged, all of that stuff, so that isn't the problem.  It must be something else.  Ideas?  I really want this bugger fixed.

[Stealth]

if it's not working with 256MB Ram and a 3000 MB Buffer, then don't try any more, it's pointless.  obviously my idea didn't work.

Run Windows Update... install any and all critical updates

[Liberator]

It might be a program error of somekind, but lets exhaust all the other options first, cause PS and Morrow have settings to retain.

Your RAM might be flaking out.

It would be immensly helpful if you could find out your chip temp.

More RAM is ALWAYS better, never underestimate what more RAM will do for you.  You could see as much as a 30% performance boost!

[Stealth]

Originally posted by Liberator

More RAM is ALWAYS better, never underestimate what more RAM will do for you.  You could see as much as a 30% performance boost!

yeah, but we're kinda trying to fix his problem without just saying "get 256MB more RAM"

[Liberator]

Sometimes you just gotta.