Freezing Up After New Operating System WHY?

[Bane630]

My computer freezes up after i installed windows xp profession with sevice pack 2, but prio to that I had windows xp service pack 1. I don't understand why my computer freezes up now, when before it didn't freeze up at all. Please any help would be appreciated and if at all possible an email regarding this issue would also be appreciated. (Bane630@yahoo.com) is my email address. Thanks!!!

[bigH2O]

We generally prefer to handle technical questions in the open forum and not via email. This is because the solution to your problem will most likely benefit others with similar problems. That being said, lets get to your problem.

Service Pack 2 added a ton of "features" that basically causes XP SP2 to be a completely different operating system at the core than XP is. Hardware issues very well could be the culprit. Please post a list of the hardware you are running and we can see if there are any compatability problems.

To be honest with you, I haven't really found that much about SP2 that was important to me. About the only real advantage *to me* is the fact that Microsoft is not releasing security updates for the out of the box XP. If you want security updates you need the service pack. One of my machines, an ancient PIII 766 won't run SP2. I had to uninstall SP2 and leave it at SP1. Needless to say, it is quarantined from the internet because I can't get the latest security patches for it.

[Bane630]

Well one question I could not post my hardware because I am replying from work. But, is it possible for the SP2 to actually cause some hardware incompatibility issues, and keep in mind that my computer usually freezes up after being on for some time I reset it and again after being on for some time it freezes again.

[bigH2O]

If it's freezing after a while, you may be experiencing a memory leak that eventually consumes all of your resources. You didn't indicate whether it freezes up while sitting idle, while in use, or both... but this little test can tell us if you are experiencing a memory leak or not. If your box is freezing up after a period of idle time, go ahead and use it normally. Once you've finished using it, press CTRL/ALT/DEL all at the same time. That will bring up the Windows Task Manager. Select the Performance tab, and note the amount of Physical and Kernel Memory in use. Occasionally check back on the system and see if that amount has increased, but don't do anything else...like launching programs. If it's only freezing up when your using it, get the performance window up and note the amount of memory being used. Launch and shut down applications that you normally use, and note the memory before and after you launch and shut down programs. If you close a program and the amount of memory in use doesn't go back down to the level that it was at before you launched the program, then you have a memory leak. If that's not the case, then you need to check the HCL.

Unfortunately, I can't provide a link to the HCL for you. You're going to have to dig around on the net and see if you can find it. I went to Microsoft's site today to find the link for you, and was presented with a page that was updated TODAY, stating that the HCL was no longer being maintained and you need to use the Windows Catalog. The link to the catalog is broken... I guess they are still updating the site. Here (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hcl/default.mspx) is the link to the page that references the Windows Catalog. Maybe you can check it later to see if they have fixed the link.