very odd problem....computer freezes at same time every day

[bryan_kilco]

Yeah, so I've got a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop. Worked fine for almost 2 years. Then, I noticed that when I would let a movie play at night and fell asleep, it'd be frozen when I wake up. After some time, I realized that the problem was happening EVERY night if I let the computer running at around 2:00 AM.

At first I thought I was just crazy, and that maybe it was freezing due to overheating or something....but it DEFINITELY crashes on me between 1:45-2:00AM. So very strange. I cannot find any answers to this issue and it really kinda bugs me, since I have the image burning into my screen for hours on end, and then I have to manually reboot it and it takes me to checkdisk and never does anything.

Anyone?!?!!?!!!

 

[greyskull]

is this XP or win7?

 

[bryan_kilco]

is this XP or win7?

Vista. SP2.

=(

I can't really grasp it. Someone told me to change my clock.....but the comp will freeze and the clock still ticks through time normally, just I cant click anything. Pretty annoying. Maybe it's a sign saying "Hey fuckhead, don't stay up till 2AM everynight and it wont be a problem".

I still have yet to figure out if it happens while the comp is NOT idle.....but usually turns up like 1:45am and me going "OH SHIT, WHAT TIME IS IT?!?!?!", rushing to the computer only to discover I'm too late.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

My friend had a laptop that had similar issues, it would freeze/lock up and then would move extremely slow in terms of loading and most programs wouldn't work (including internet) after 12am on Saturday until 12am Monday. Only thing that fixed it was upgrading to Win7 64 and he hasn't had a problem since.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Check what time your windows update is set for?

Don't fall asleep during movies?

 

[Eddy]

My laptop (Win7) almost freezes everytime antivir is updating itself. Becomes very unresponsive for a while. Also had some similar problems on my desktop (XP) with a faulty antivir installation.

So I'd guess there's some autoupdating program that has crapped itself causing the freeze.

 

[kev]

Check your scheduled tasks.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Check your scheduled tasks.

99% sure you'll find the problem there....

 

[bryan_kilco]

C:/Windows/Tasks ?!

Not quite sure how to find the scheduled tasks....

but

there are 3 listed in there, 2 are Google updates and another....but they are scheduled for 12:22 and 12:52.... My problem definitely lies right before 2:00 am.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Ok, found Task Scheduler. the only update that is remotely close to my 2:00am problem is a 1:00am Defrag, scheduled once every Wednesday.

 

[John_C]

run a full diskcheck and then defrag manually, in that order

 

[bryan_kilco]

run a full diskcheck and then defrag manually, in that order

Ill try this again. When I freeze up and reboot, it will do a CHKDSK at startup, but never fixes the issue.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

My friend had a laptop that had similar issues, it would freeze/lock up and then would move extremely slow in terms of loading and most programs wouldn't work (including internet) after 12am on Saturday until 12am Monday. Only thing that fixed it was upgrading to Win7 64 and he hasn't had a problem since.

I will add, the issue in this case was a registry file corruption, easily fixed by deleting the file on the day of the week that locked up/crashed. The next time the file is attempted to load, the previous day would be copied and be saved.

Now unless their is a specific task that is causing the crash, then it is most likely a registry issue, but don't ask me where as registries of the system data are stored by days, not hours of the clock. A system restore is the best bet, as it reinstalls the OS without deleting your data or programs. If that doesn't work, most likely its a task, but good luck finding it. If thats the case I would imagine that it could be a background task running into a runtime error, which the PC isn't telling you about because it locks up before it can.

 

[bryan_kilco]

well, did a defrag with a different defragger than I normally use. I also changed my 1:00am defrag every Weds. to I think 3:00pm.

Purposely let the comp on last night to see if it would crash.

Still frozen when I woke up.

If I restart it, and let it run after it froze, it runs fine for hours....just right between 1:30-2:00AM every morning....UGH!!!

 

[darthjujuu]

windows update, anti-virus apps, security apps, and tons of others all schedule updates in the wee hours...but not always via the task scheduler. something is trying to update or scan, and fucking up.

start > run > msconfig

take a look at everything that's running at startup and uncheck anything that looks suspicious.

also in addition to the task scheduler, you can also have a glance at the windows event log and scope out the last thing it reports before crashing every night. use "event viewer" in administrative tools. that should definitely contain a clue.

if you STILL are completely stumped, just use it as an excuse to back up all your stuff and upgrade to windows7. freshly formatting is stressful but always so rewarding when it's done.

 

[Paulie!]

freshly formatting is stressful but always so rewarding when it's done.

+1

This is why I'm seriously considering getting a rack mount hard drive system and saving all projects/recorded files/samples/plugins/etc on that, then just reinstalling the OS/DAW/Etc every 6 months..

-P

 

[darthjujuu]

+1

This is why I'm seriously considering getting a rack mount hard drive system and saving all projects/recorded files/samples/plugins/etc on that, then just reinstalling the OS/DAW/Etc every 6 months..

-P

well...every six months is a bit rash, you can always just "tell" when it's time...varies with your skill and how much web surfing you do, but i get atleast a year out of each install, sometimes a few. but i'm also a 9-5 IT guy.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Ok, just had a buddy over who is a bit more computer savvy than me....

We offset my clock to about 1:40AM (it was actually 11:40pm) and waited.

BAM - 1:59AM it froze. Buddy ran through a bunch of stuff trying to determine the problem but was stumped. So we restarted and re-set the time back to 12:58AM and nothing happened. My guess is it's a process that starts earlier and within the process, freezes.

 

[madbutcher]

AV update won't be in the task scheduler. I have to reset the update times on lots of computers at work because it causes them to freeze if anything else is running simultaneously.

 

[Paulie!]

well...every six months is a bit rash, you can always just "tell" when it's time...varies with your skill and how much web surfing you do, but i get atleast a year out of each install, sometimes a few. but i'm also a 9-5 IT guy.

Agreed... more like a every year or year and a half... unless the porn intake increases...