Desk top decided to slowly stop

[gman (Grant)]

Just when all was going well, one of my desk tops computers decided to slowly wind up.
Things just started to stop working.
Task bar - constant ? when you run the mouse over it. - I shut down the part of the system that looks for new hardware/software as this was the most likley cause.
Then no internet connection but I could access the hard drives through the LAN with the other computer.
TCP/IP issues?
I don't like the smell of this

The "I'll fix this once and for all" attitude kicked in.
I have been threatening to clean up this PC for some time now.

I copied all files to another desktop over the LAN.
Some 100gigabytes

Then - no LAN - What the?

Copied emails and contacts to a mem stick and imported them into the other desktop.
Noted all programs on the pc and then broke out the XP CD

With any luck this computer will be flying again in the morning.

My wife thinks I planned this all day so I get to stay in the study all night on the computer.
Told her I would prefer to be in fron of the tv with a cold beer.

[sheeny (Al)]

I hope its sorted with a minimum of fuss, Grant.

Al.

[gman (Grant)]

Well what can I say Al,

Sat up until 3am working on this computer and.............

, its cracking along just like the day I brought it home a few years ago.
Whilst it is not new, the P4 3.2ghz processor still wizzes along quite nicley

One of these days I should take an image of the freshly installed systems to make the backup process easy but that takes all the fun out of it.

[GeoffW1 (Geoff)]

Hi Grant,

A common cause of this is overheating in the CPU after a long session. The PC simply slows and becomes unresposive. Next day after a nice rest it is fine.

Microsoft Update when set to auto has been shown to cause this behaviour also.

Less likely but possible is that the PC has caught a virus and has gone to bed for a good sleep.

Cheers

[deadsimple (Ash)]

Originally Posted by GeoffW1

Hi Grant,

A common cause of this is overheating in the CPU after a long session. The PC simply slows and becomes unresposive. Next day after a nice rest it is fine.

It doesn't really work like that. The P4 CPU has thermal protection that can reduce the speed by up to say half or two-thirds, never so slow that it becomes unresponsive! If it's still too hot the CPU will just turn off to prevent damage and your PC will be completely off.

Anyway the speed throttling is done on a short timescale (fractions of a second), so no need to give it a 'rest' if you can drop the ambient temperature a bit.

Microsoft Update when set to auto has been shown to cause this behaviour also.

Less likely but possible is that the PC has caught a virus and has gone to bed for a good sleep.

Those are typical candidates. Could also just be a Windows install that's getting old, since -all- Windows installations eventually slow down and die given enough time.

I usually format once a year, clean the case - removing dust from all the surfaces especially the CPU heatsink and fan (a major source of overheating if the layer of dust is too thick).

[gman (Grant)]

It needed a good clean too!
Also gave the case the heave ho
The CD/DVD draw covers had lost their springs so off to case heaven it went. (Had a spare case given to me a while ago)

Removed all the components, gave them a good clean and added another DVD burner.
I have a Creative Live 5.1 sound card here that I was going to put in but I don't listen to music etc on the computer anymore
(not since I ripped all my vinyl albums and needed an amp connected to the PC)
Also removed the heatsink from the CPU and cleaned the heatsink thoroughly.

Applied a layer of thermal paste, reseated the heatsink and then reformatted the hard drive.

Long process but it is a rewarding feeling when it fires up like a new PC again.

[GeoffW1 (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by deadsimple

It doesn't really work like that. The P4 CPU has thermal protection that can reduce the speed by up to say half or two-thirds, never so slow that it becomes unresponsive! If it's still too hot the CPU will just turn off to prevent damage and your PC will be completely off.

Anyway the speed throttling is done on a short timescale (fractions of a second), so no need to give it a 'rest' if you can drop the ambient temperature a bit.

Hi Ash,

Close but not quite right. The P4 does do that but it depends on what it is set to. In "On Demand" mode it might cycle at anything up to 12.5% on/87.5% off. The 50% cycle is certainly the most likely however.

Cheers

[deadsimple (Ash)]

Originally Posted by GeoffW1

Hi Ash,

Close but not quite right.

(Note: the post below is meant to be taken in a respectful tone)

Close? I deliberately quoted a rough figure (note my use of the word 'say') that illustrated the order of magnitude of slow-down - to get my point across that high temperature will not cause a PC to become so unresponsive that you can't do anything. Even if the speed is throttled down to 10%, you still shouldn't see these symptoms.

I didn't want to quote Intel Thermal specs as it's out of the scope of our discussion - especially when it's not clear which P4 chip it is, what thermal control mode is on nor what the factory set automatic duty cycle is on.

No use being pedantic when there's little data to work with

Anyway I'm glad stuff worked out. My laptop's install of Windows is starting to slow down (Quicklaunch menu takes 10 seconds to appear), so looks like I'm about to start a painful backup + reinstall journey :/

[GeoffW1 (Geoff)]

Ah, well that's all right then

Cheers