Computer is irritating the piss out of me
 

Ok, so I finally got my desktop setup after it sat for a little over a year while I was deployed and moving. Here is what is really pissing me off and I'm hoping somebody here can help me out. My computer hangs for some unknown reason. I thought it was hanging when it was in sleep mode so I disabled it. It still hangs now, just that when it happens now I stare at an image on the screen. Sometimes I can see and move the mouse, but nothing happens when I use it or when I try to use ctrl-alt-dlt. I'm currently in the process of updating drivers to see if that helps. I just updated the driver on my GeForce GTX280 and once that is finished, I'm going to install the 100+ updates from microsoft. Oh, there was also one BSOD but it restarted to fast for me to catch what caused it. I am also going to try updating the MB drivers as well. This is really starting to irritate the crap out of me. If anyone has any ideas on what I can try I would be thankful for the help.

So I have updated the video drivers. Currently in the process of getting 116 windows updates installed. I think once that is finished I'll move on to the drivers for my sound card and check to see if there is anything for the MB.

Hanging issues def sounds like a graphics card driver issue or possibly a graphics card hardware issue. If the driver update doesn't work, I would try re-seating the graphics card. Make sure the contacts are clean. Last try would be swapping out the graphics card with the on-board if it has one or if you have a spare to see if that's the cause. Do all the software updates first though.

So far it has run for a couple hours no problem. When I checked the drivers for the video card, they had a new one released back in October, got it installed and I think it should be just about finished with the windows updates. Then I 'll wait and see how it goes, if it is still running in the morning when i get up, I'll consider it good to go.

I can be of service

1) Control Alt Delete

2) Shutdown

3) Put computer into box

4) Post computer onto ebay

5) Travel to nearest Mac store and purchase an Imac

6) Never have an issue again and learn to love your computer

:tup:

If only that were true :icon14: Mac's are far from perfect and you still get plenty of crashes, especially when working with graphic heavy applications.

7) Never play any decent games again.

I have both and use both very heavily. Macs do crash but are more "predictable" I would say. If you're doing heavy work/graphic processing...they do have tendency to freeze or lag but it's always because of some type of "overload" I feel like. Windows uses resources more "freely" but that opens up the door for random unpredictable crashes. If you use a Mac and just have a browser open most of the time and one or two simple apps, and tend to restart ever few days you'll have a much more pleasant experience as a novice user.

To the OP, your issue does sound like a hardware issue. Graphics card is what I thought initially as well. The software updates or even a format could fix things though.

I (average user) have had -0- problems with my Mac, my old PC was a POS and I have never looked back since upgrading 4 years ago ;)

Well, I got up this morning and Windows Media center had stopped responding. Fortunately it was just WMC and I was able to force close WMC w/o having to do a hard restart. I've considered a Mac but for now I'll keep the current setup of a WIndows desktop and MBP. There are a few things I do on the desktop that I can't get software for on the Mac.

If the computer starts freezing up hard, i.e. no response, frozen screen, then typically in my experience this is a hardware problem. Check that the cooling fans for the CPU and graphics card are functioning correctly, I've seen the fans go out in as little as one year in a dusty furry environment. If the computer was recently moved around then consider re-seating the CPU with a clean and fresh layer of thermal paste and re-seat the add-in cards.

ive had freezing issues related to corrup registry or drivers.

problem is it could be 1 of 1,000,000 issues. If you have all your data backed up, i would just do a fresh install.

:iagree: Format and if it continues to happen then you'll be a 100% it's a hardware problem

Yeah, backup your data and reinstall your OS. See how things go then.

Mac's are good. even an older machine will run crisp and smooth.

The issue is your paying double the price for the same hardware that a PC uses. So essentially you are paying a premium for the OS or Name.

And with a little bit of knowledge (what not to do), a PC can run just as well. My 4 year old PC i built still runs like a champ.

PC gaming ftw.

this isn't true, if it was i would be out of a job and not have a Z. fortunately the dept of education in nc sees fit to purchase these thus securing my job future indefinitely :happydance:

indeed

I respectfully disagree. Windows sucks ***, always has, always will, until Microsoft gets serious and completely rewrites the OS. You know, like Apple did when they brought out OS X.

That is changing as more and more Macs replace PC's. Market share FTW.

Windows, by it's very nature (chained to Legacy apps and the HAL), is horribly inferior to anything based on Unix.

I recently had an issue with my Windoze gaming PC. It worked OK except when I played videos (youtube,etc) then it would randomly freeze.

Now, I've been an IT tech since 1973. Mainframes to PC's, I know WTF I'm talking about. :tiphat:

I did everything under the sun. Drivers, card swaps, registry cleaning, better cooling, you name it. Everything would have pointed to a hardware issue, except that even when gaming (which uses more HP than just about anything) the computer worked fine. It was only with video that I would get completely random lockups.

I finally threw in the towel last week and did a complete reinstall, which was a biatch because the computer had tons of software on it. You can back up data, but you can't backup and restore apps (bare metal) and expect a clean install.

Everything is fine now. Windows Blows. And don't even get me started on spyware, virus, rootkit, and malware BS.

I actually have an old windows xp desktop that still runs good (at least it was before the deployment). I'm considering pulling out the hard drives and putting them in my current setup. One drive is only the OS while the others are for storage of music, movies, amd games. I realize the games may not work (doesn't matter) but I should still be able to get access to everything else. And I have to say that as happy as I am with my MBP each OS has it's pro's and con's. OSX does somethings very well that Windows doesn't and Windows has somethings it does very well that OSX doesn't do so well.

downside to that is as they gain a larger footprint, their weaknesses to viruses gets exposed. anyone, even a k-5 kid can crack a mac password. seen it done at quite a few sites. apple reps have told us that they aren't and refuse to cater to the enterprise field of it, which will keep them from taking business away from non-mac machines. macs are good, at certain things, but to each his own. you'll never be able to buy a gaming powerhouse that you can build a pc to be without apple opening up their hardware to 3rd party developers and making their product consumer mod capable.

Oh and I came back from work (left WMC running) and everything was running fine. I think WMC is/was causing the issue. I never really used it, but I use it now with netflix. I'll just keep tabs on it. So far the only time I've had it lockup is when WMC was left running in Fullscreen.

They did, it was called Windows NT and was a complete re-write from everything they had before as a joint venture with IBM and their OS/2. Everything we have now is derived from Windows NT. Also there is no point bad mouthing the Windows HAL, OS X has one too they just don't call it that. Having a HAL makes writing drivers much easier, and more portable.

i think its funny how even the dude at geeksquad thinks they know everything about it, all the in's and out's. one thing i've learned is that i don't and can never learn enough. every system has flaws, even humans. bashing macs because they are homo and pc's because they are part of the "man's system" doesn't make them any better than the other. use what you want because you like it. i have both, and work on both as well as knowing the flaws of each... they both are awesome(at times) they both suck major ***(at times) and all i can hope for is they never fully work without me :tup:

Here here. I've been a software engineer for 20+ years on many platforms and agree that every system has its strengths and flaws.

^damn right, they all piss me off at some point in time... but nothing, NOTHING pisses me off more than USERS. how can someone with a doctorate not know how to operate a computer in this day and age?

lol Wais, you opened up a can of worms. :rofl2:

:icon17:

:stirthepot:

definitely something with Windows Media Center. It causes everything to freeze. If I leave it windowed I can use ctrl-alt-dlt to close it but there is something causing it Windows Media Center to crash.

I have and use both also. For the "average" user, the Mac is far simpler and more reliable and I def recommend it to most people. I'm just say'n it's far from flawless. I use Photoshop, Aperture on the Mac and can tell you it still crashes every now and then. Not that it crashes all the time or anything, just that its about the same with a PC running Windows 7. I'm not hear to stir up a Mac vs PC debate, I could care less about either one. I'll be keeping the PC because upgrading is far easier, has more upgrade options and far less expensive. I also need it for AutoCad and 3D Studio Max...and Yes I know its available on the Mac or via bootcamp. The ocassional gaming is better with the PC hands down. If money was no object, I wouldn't mind a maxed out MacPro, but alas I don't have that luxury. I think it's also fair to say you pay a premium for the Apple logo ...and this is from a guy with an iPhone, iPad, Macbook Pro & an iPod.

As far as that whole virus, spyware crap. You just gotta stop looking at pornz :icon17:

So i finally managed to dig up the hang Windows Media center is throwing, can anyone decipher this?
Description:
A problem caused this program to stop interacting with Windows.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: AppHangB1
Application Name: ehshell.exe
Application Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Application Timestamp: 4a5bd053
Hang Signature: 4a4e
Hang Type: 6400
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Hang Signature 1: 4a4eb6d04dd76ac94ab55616d642b806
Additional Hang Signature 2: 7c4e
Additional Hang Signature 3: 7c4e1ba47c35aa1ebb32c637675596b8
Additional Hang Signature 4: 4a4e
Additional Hang Signature 5: 4a4eb6d04dd76ac94ab55616d642b806
Additional Hang Signature 6: 7c4e
Additional Hang Signature 7: 7c4e1ba47c35aa1ebb32c637675596b8

Skeeter, there seems to be a hotfix release from MS for this:

Computer Stops Responding or You Receive "Ehshell.exe - Common Language Runtime Debugging Services" Error Message When You Perform Repetitive Tasks in Media Center

LOL bro, I deal with PS and Aperture fcking with me all day and I have 6GB of ram. Exactly what I was talking about as far as "overload" issues with Macs, if you're processing huge RAW image files with Aperture and you have PS open it eats up RAM like Godzilla eats people.

Yeah, I searched it and found a few solutions. I tried the first one I found and so far so good.

I know what you guys mean with the Mac gobbling up RAM. When I work on editing my videos it slows down to a crawl (and I'm just using iMovie). I would hate to see it if I tried using an even more advanced video editor.

Skeeter- If you received a BSOD, you can take a look at the minidump file that it generates. Here is a nifty little tool that will let you open up that dump file and view it's contents: Blue screen of death (STOP error) information in dump files.

I THINK the dump files are located at c:\windows\minidump
but you could always search for "minidump"

Well, it's been a few days since I last said anything. After installing all the updates from microsoft and updating the drivers for everything it has been running nice and stable for the last 48 hours nonstop. I'll look into that minidump thing as well