Why does my computer keep freezing?

[robcat2075]

Suddenly, starting about a week ago, my computer has been freezing for brief periods. A few seconds and then it catches back up.

 

At first i thought it was the new version of A:M because I'd notice it was stuck on "finding Patches" on very small models. Normally that step is so fast you don't know it's there.

 

But since then I've seen the freezes happening in my browsers and in videos, for no apparent reason. I've been watching the resource monitor and there doesn't seem to be any process that is suddenly ballooning and taking up a bunch of capacity. Nor is there any indication of any virus situation.

 

Anyone else having this?

[Fuchur]

Suddenly, starting about a week ago, my computer has been freezing for brief periods. A few seconds and then it catches back up.

 

At first i thought it was the new version of A:M because I'd notice it was stuck on "finding Patches" on very small models. Normally that step is so fast you don't know it's there.

 

But since then I've seen the freezes happening in my browsers and in videos, for no apparent reason. I've been watching the resource monitor and there doesn't seem to be any process that is suddenly ballooning and taking up a bunch of capacity. Nor is there any indication of any virus situation.

 

Anyone else having this?

 

May be a RAM problem? If there is a problem it may get catched by a workaround routine but that is often heavier on hardware. Maybe a adware problem or if u r on win7 the search index process?

 

See u

*Fuchur*

[GAngus]

Note the exact time if/when it happens again, then check your sys log files for any clues. ???

[Kamikaze]

Are you on the internet while this happens? any browser open? if so go to your task manager / performance tab / resource monitor / processes with activity /and see whats running.

 

and of course make sure your anti vir. and anti add ware are up to date along with....firewall up and running.....

[robcat2075]

Are you on the internet while this happens? any browser open? if so go to your task manager / performance tab / resource monitor / processes with activity /and see whats running.

 

and of course make sure your anti vir. and anti add ware are up to date along with....firewall up and running.....

 

The puzzle is: what just changed? The internet? I've always been on the internet. anti-virus? It's still there doing what it does like it always has before in the background like it always has before. The Resource Monitor? it presents the same long list of things taking up 0% of the CPU time a it did before, there's no obvious hog that I can see.

 

So i thought it must be the new version of A:M. A simple copy and paste of a few splines can take forever to kick through although not always.

 

But no one else seems to be having that specific trouble?

[Kamikaze]

Under resource monitor I should have said go to the network (activity) tab and see whats there......I have not had the problem win 7 17b 64 bit 8 gb ram......

I remember having this sort of problem years ago .....how many AM windows do you have open while working/modeling?

[steve392]

Not sure this is related but since updating to v17b I sometimes get a model that keeps re drawring itself whenever I move the mouse even a fraction there are allso no colour or decals on the model .It stops when I go to an action,I open the model in v16 and its ok then back to v17b and sometimes its ok again,

draw_prob.avi

[mtpeak2]

Hey Steve, do you have "progressive render lock" ON?

[robcat2075]

Not sure this is related but since updating to v17b I sometimes get a model that keeps re drawring itself whenever I move the mouse even a fraction there are allso no colour or decals on the model .It stops when I go to an action,I open the model in v16 and its ok then back to v17b and sometimes its ok again,

 

that looks weird! Look under Options>Global>interrupt drawing and make sure Limit max drawing time is unchecked. It should be off by default. That's probably not it anyway, but just-in-case.

 

If all else fails, try "Reset all settings"

[steve392]

No no render lock Mark and the limit drawring is not set.It seems to be just on this model now ,very strangeas it works ok in v16and it did in v17 a.Could I dl v17a ?

Thanks for your thoughts guys

Oh I just tried reset settings and it worked,thanks a lot thats magic

[robcat2075]

I wish there were a "reset all settings" for Windows.

[steve392]

ah thats why I stay with xp ,only thing I miss is the extra ram . Its probably something so simple your overlooking it .I hope so anyway

[Roger]

Could be a lot of things.

 

1. Heat - is your fan/heatsink functional? If your fan stopped working, your cpu might be overheating

2. RAM - you may have a RAM module that is failing or has come unseated from the motherboard

3. Software problem - possible spyware problem, corrupt registry setting in Windows

 

Did you change anything recently? Hardware upgrade, change in your software? BIOS update gone wrong?

 

I can't really think of anything else off the bat, but anytime I have strange, intermittent problems those are the first things I check for.

[Fuchur]

Could be a lot of things.

 

1. Heat - is your fan/heatsink functional? If your fan stopped working, your cpu might be overheating

2. RAM - you may have a RAM module that is failing or has come unseated from the motherboard

3. Software problem - possible spyware problem, corrupt registry setting in Windows

 

Did you change anything recently? Hardware upgrade, change in your software? BIOS update gone wrong?

 

I can't really think of anything else off the bat, but anytime I have strange, intermittent problems those are the first things I check for.

 

4. Powersupply... after a overvoltage or just because of dust on the wrong spot it could have a problem and have a small blackout which your computer maybe able to cope with but needs time for that.

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[robcat2075]

2. RAM - you may have a RAM module that is failing or has come unseated from the motherboard

 

This sounds promising. One recent change to my system was testing a different video card and then putting the old one back in. Maybe I jarred something.

 

I'll try and re-jar everything when i get back from Thanksgiving trips.

[pixelplucker]

A bad memory stick can cause that. Here is a utility I use to test my machines: http://memtest86.com/

If it isn't the memory, run Hijack This and look for any malware, you can use malware bytes as well.

Also get a nice registry cleaner. CC cleaner has a nice mobile version that can run on a thumb drive. Next defrag the hard drives.

 

Basically check the memory, next check for malware then clean up and defrag.

[robcat2075]

Is it normal for Memtest to display like this? It looked like it had done one "Pass" to 100% then started over looking like this...

 

[robcat2075]

I changed to the v3.5 test and that seemed to pass OK.

[Roger]

Is your system still acting up? Did it turn out to be a loose/bad stick?

[robcat2075]

So far, after being away for a week, I haven't noticed a pause yet. Maybe just sitting cold for a week changed something? But I haven't done a lot of A:M since I've been back yet so i'M not sure it's gone.

[Gorf]

I had this for the whole of last weekend, well before reinstalling A:M after a long hiatus. Running XP, nothing changed, suddenly the PC was hanging for 10 seconds in every 30.

 

Seems OK now. I'm blaming it on a program called "Steam" as it self-updates and there's little else installed on this machine.

[pixelplucker]

Glad the memtest passed.

Still getting the freezes? System updates can cause that too, forgot about those.

[robcat2075]

Now that the computer has been running for a day straight it's back to freezing. I'll try re-seating everything to see if that might be it.

[pixelplucker]

Does it happen when the computer has been on for a while?

Does it run fine at first when everything is cooled down?

 

If you can check the cpu temperature, it may be throttling down if it is overheating. Intel chips will do that to protect the cpu.

 

Also check the hard drives and see if one is starting to fail or running hot.

 

If it isn't any of the above I would downlaod Malwarebytes and run that to check for any naughty bits.

[robcat2075]

Malwarebyte found one "startmenu hijack" but getting rid of that hasn't changed anything.

 

I'm thinking this is something videocard related. I've noticed that when a video freezes, the sound continues on normally. And if I am recording sound with Audacity it may appear to freeze also but when it comes back the audio recording obviously was still going on underneath and wasn't interrupted.

[pixelplucker]

It could be bad memory on the video card, If you have a spare card floating around it is easy enough to test by swapping them out.

[robcat2075]

I found a utility that did a test of the RAM on the video card and that said it was OK. But I still suspect the video card.

[Roger]

Don't know if anyone else mentioned this already or not, but if you've got a generic power supply that is crapping out on you, that could be causing all kinds of problems. Especially if your video card is not getting enough juice. Do you have a voltmeter to test if it is in spec?

[pixelplucker]

Power supply could do that but would probably affect more than just video.

 

Yup a voltmeter would show you if your not getting the right output.

 

If the machine starts to chunk after it has been on a while, I would suspect something is failing after it is getting up to temperature.

 

If it chunks all the time even from a cold start then the parts are really on the way out or it is probably software related.

 

In my past experience when things chunk and it is hardware related it usually points to a bad or failing memory stick or a failing hard drive where there are retries on error correction. Usually with a video card you would get undrawn blocks on the screen or lines flickering horizontally.

[robcat2075]

If the machine starts to chunk after it has been on a while, I would suspect something is failing after it is getting up to temperature.

 

My casual observation is that it gets more frequent the longer the computer has been on.

 

It seems to be a video-only thing, but not including the cursor. I can still move the cursor around while I'm waiting for the screen to unfreeze.

[pixelplucker]

Can you see what temp your cpu is running at? Make note the temp when you start and then again when it chunks.

 

Intel chips will throttle down when they start to overheat. If the heatsink is plugged, fan not working as well, or even the thermal goop is dried out and heatsink isn't making good contact to the chip it will overheat.

 

Check the fan on the video card too, make sure it is clean and spinning freely. A bad fan can even drag the system down since it will cause a draw on the system.

[Rodney]

It seems to be a video-only thing, but not including the cursor. I can still move the cursor around while I'm waiting for the screen to unfreeze.

 

I must be having sympathy pangs here because for the last two days I've noticed similar slowness and response (while the mouse will move around with no problem). Last night reached a new low when I couldn't even shut down my computer. Failure to shut down in my experience usually is an indicator that something is being installed (so Windows delays shutdown in an attempt not to interrupt that install).

 

After a full shutdown last night (as opposed to a restart) things are worked much better this morning.

 

Unlike your problem I hadn't noted many issues with video until last night.

 

I take it this problem isn't limited to when you are browsing? (I may have missed that in the discussion)

[robcat2075]

I take it this problem isn't limited to when you are browsing? (I may have missed that in the discussion)

 

I first noticed it in A:M, but then noticed it was beyond A:M.

[mtpeak2]

Hey Robert. I noticed an extreme slow down in A:M and windows when I installed 17c. When I reinstalled 17b, everything seemed to be back to normal.

 

How long were you testing 17c?

[robcat2075]

Hey Robert. I noticed an extreme slow down in A:M and windows when I installed 17c. When I reinstalled 17b, everything seemed to be back to normal.

 

How long were you testing 17c?

 

I forget when we started but the problem seemed to arrive at the same time I installed v17c, so that's why I thought it was A:M doing it. That would still be my main suspect if my browser weren't also freezing.

 

in A:M I first noticed it taking a long time for "finding patches", something that should normally be instantaneous.

[mtpeak2]

I experienced my browser freezing as well. I would try uninstalling 17c and see what happens.

[Fuchur]

I experienced my browser freezing as well. I would try uninstalling 17c and see what happens.

 

Do you use the SSE4-version?

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[mtpeak2]

I experienced my browser freezing as well. I would try uninstalling 17c and see what happens.

 

Do you use the SSE4-version?

 

See you

*Fuchur*

 

Yes.

[Phil]

I had a similar issue, turned out to be my video driver. Nvidia was installing abunch 3d stuff in the background. followed this and it went away