Windows freezes, please help!!

ancalime

Member

​

Joined

Mar 26, 2007

• Sep 10, 2007

• #1

Hey guys. I was just using my rig in my sig when it suddenly froze. So I reboot and once I reach my desktop, it freezes! It seems to boot normally and the login page is normal. Once I login though, to any of the 5 accounts, Windows just freezes! Once, I managed to open task manager and the CPU was under 50% load. I tried to look through the processes for any abnormal .exe applications but everything looked normal.

Please I need help here. Any input would be great, thanks.

EDIT: I am using Windows XP Media Center Edition.

 

Automata

Destroyer of Empires and Use

​

Joined

May 15, 2006

• Sep 10, 2007

• #2

Can you start in safe-mode OK? Have you installed any drivers/hardware/software recently?

 

OP

ancalime

Member

​

Joined

Mar 26, 2007

• Sep 10, 2007

• Thread Starter
• #3

Hm, for some strange reason, when I enter the boot menu, it doesn't have an option for safe booting. It only allows me to choose which drive to boot from.

Why would Windows just freeze though, and what are my options?

 

Automata

Destroyer of Empires and Use

​

Joined

May 15, 2006

• Sep 10, 2007

• #4

ancalime said:

Hm, for some strange reason, when I enter the boot menu, it doesn't have an option for safe booting. It only allows me to choose which drive to boot from.

Why would Windows just freeze though, and what are my options?

Click to expand...

You spam f8 to get to the menu to choose safe-mode

There are alot of reason that Windows would freeze; hardware issues, driver problems, software problems, malware...the list goes on. It is like asking a mechanic why a car breaks...We need to narrow it down.

 

OP

ancalime

Member

​

Joined

Mar 26, 2007

• Sep 10, 2007

• Thread Starter
• #5

Yeah spamming F8 is what I did, but there is no option to safely boot into Windows.

 

Automata

Destroyer of Empires and Use

​

Joined

May 15, 2006

• Sep 10, 2007

• #6

ancalime said:

Yeah spamming F8 is what I did, but there is no option to safely boot into Windows.

Click to expand...

Its called "Safe Mode", it will be at the top of the selection list. Every version of Windows has it

 

OP

ancalime

Member

​

Joined

Mar 26, 2007

• Sep 10, 2007

• Thread Starter
• #7

I can assure you I know what safe mode is. I find this weird too but this is the screen I see when I spam F8 during boot.




I don't see a option for safe mode. I also consulted the manual and see no mention of it.

 

iD10t

Member

​

Joined

Jan 29, 2003

• Sep 10, 2007

• #8

That right there is a BIOS screen. You can't really get to safe mode from that...

Are you pressing anything before you start spamming F8 by chance?

Does the A8N BIOS really have F4 as an exit hot-key?

 

OP

ancalime

Member

​

Joined

Mar 26, 2007

• Sep 10, 2007

• Thread Starter
• #9

Yes, spamming f8 AFTER the boot screen worked, sorry about that. And to answer thideras original question, yes it starts up fine in safe mode.

 

OP

ancalime

Member

​

Joined

Mar 26, 2007

• Sep 10, 2007

• Thread Starter
• #10

Well shutting off all startup tasks seems to have fixed the problem. Now I just have to figure out what application was causing the freezing...

 

OP

ancalime

Member

​

Joined

Mar 26, 2007

• Sep 10, 2007

• Thread Starter
• #11

When I scanned with AVG, it froze when it reached Dr.Watson. This happened twice. A quick Google search revealed Dr.Watson is a Microsoft debugger of some sort, but why would AVG freeze (computer froze too) when it reached the point of scanning Dr.Watson? It looks legit seeing as how it is made by Microsoft but I am a bit confused.