How to diagnose intermittent hangs...

[BernardV]

A customer of mine keeps getting intermittent hangs during computer usage.
After an initial on location check up and some adjustments, the computer still has issues.
When I turn on the computer, there is no obvious problem to be found, but apparently after some time of usage sometimes the computer hangs (stops responding).
I already advised the curstomer to make a kind of diary, with information when this hangs occured; like how often and what software is running.
Still I can't seem to find a good indication what's wrong. If I look at the list it happens during internet, during games (local), after the computer was idle for some time, etc.
I have already tried an memory scan, looked at the log books, looked at the cpu and motherboard temp, but can't seem to find a good clue to what's wrong.
I did find 2 blue screen logs, however these are very recent and could be a result of corruption because the computer wasn't properely shutdown.

So I hope I could get some suggestions what to do.
Are there any test I could perform, to get some more idea what's really wrong ?


Thanks for any help and suggestions.

[onetech4all]

Have you tried an OS repair?

[Styxbound]

I'd try changing the power supply.

[BernardV]

Thanks for the suggestions.
How do others cope with the intermittent aspect ?
Are there any (additional) test to perform to be sure what's wrong.
I've tried to reproduce, but it's very hard to get the computer to hang.
So how do I make sure that the computer is indeed fixed ? Or should I inform the client that it's hard to find the problem and an 'easy' fix can't be profided ?

[xxsilk109xx]

I would check for bad sectors on the hard drive, I am having issues with one right now and ran the ibm drive fitness test on it and it found lots of bad sectors.

[DanF]

I would say the HDD. It's a pain to diagnose random hang ups / shut downs / restarts and whatever...

[Comtech Solutions]

System logs? Debugging? Whocrashed?

Maybe you just need more RAM...

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Originally Posted by BernardV

How do others cope with the intermittent aspect ?
Are there any (additional) test to perform to be sure what's wrong.

What I personally do on Macs is get the CPU going at 100% sometimes overnight or for a couple of days to make sure there are no issues. On Macs there is a built in grapher utility and a chess application. Get 6 games of computer vs. computer chess set on strong along with grapher running 6 examples and I can almost always get a machine to freak (if it has issues) putting it under that much stress. Another thing I found that works is streaming video. The higher resolution the better.

[sjlplat]

I know you already checked temps, but this really sounds like a heat problem to me. Check all the fans and heatsinks, GPU, CPU, PSU, northbridge...Make sure everything is secured and nothing is clogged with dust.

[Shark]

If you have checked for spy-ware, viruses, and other malicious code. Given the fact that it doesn't start misbehaving until some amount of activity it sure does sound like a hardware issue.It may be the CPU. I do remember having a similar problem before and it was the processor ( I just started replacing various components until the problem went away ). Also check the Scheduled Tasks. I believe that I read someone else's thread on here about a troublesome virus that was using the Task Scheduler. But I believe that your looking at a hardware problem. Note: I believe that some processors go into a low power stage when something may be wrong. Someone else may be able to clarify a little more to that.

Note: I forgot to mention that some of my friends were playing farmville online and was causing a low memory problem. They used firefox and I installed the memory manager. No more problem.