mancamefirst

anyone able to suggest what may be causing my problem.

If i run a virus check on my PC my system freezes.at the same place, when i get to windows/system32/dllcache/ssdpapi.dll.

I have run scans through PCPitstop, and it finds nothing (although its not particularly up to date).

Running XP Home if thats any help. I did find a backdoor program SVCHost.exe, but thats been quarantined.

Gedi

eerrmm, you could start by releasing svchost. Its a generic process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries (DLLs). When you start Windows, Svchost.exe constructs multiple lists of service groupings that need to be loaded.

Don't do what everyone else does and automatically assume a virus is responsible for you PC crashing. Remember, your running windows....most of the time its the fault of some poorly built application on badly written addon.

chiark

SVCHost is a generic process to host services - removing that will knacker your system. Release it.

mancamefirst

Thanks for the advice to date

SVCHost.exe is still running on my PC, it was McAfee that alerted an 'open backdoor' and quarantined the file, what it quarantined i'm not sure, but SVChost is still running I've checked (McAfee isn't i removed it having been advised it might have been causing my PC to freeze). My wife told me this morning the first freeze was whilst loading a game, the PC flashed up a message about a problem with Direct X and froze. Since then it freezes regularly, and generally takes 5 or 6 attempts to load up my desktop, and will freeze at almost any point afterwards. The only way i can guarantee a freeze, is attempting a virus scan, and then always at the same point.

Apologies if i am being numptie, just after a bit of advice cos i really don't know what i'm doing, and my PC represents a fair amount of my hard earned. (And i think the advice from my mate to remove McAfee was probably blarks)

Redkop

I was just about to put a post up too about PC freezing. Have 2 pc's networked by a router - both on XP Pro, the second pc has started freezing for no apparent reason fo the last week or so. Have done defrag and done System Restore to a date about 3 weeks ago, but has made no difference. The pc is virus free.

mancamefirst

Redkop

Is there any pattern to yours?

Been home for 45 mins just managed to load up fully, must have been in the region of 20 reboots. In all cases it gets at least to the point where windows has loaded and i select an account. From there its pot luck whether it will try and load up my desk top or not. If it does and doesn't freeze in the first thirty seconds or so, i am normally OK, unless i then try a virus scan, or run adaware.

Mr.Cookie

run spyware removing stuff (adaware and spybot) just sorted a mates puter out for last time, and this is what was freezing network up big time. Irritating thing is i told him to run it all once a week and viri checks but nope.

Si

mancamefirst

Ran Adaware last nite (eventually).

Found nothing!

Gedi

spyware and viri don't cause OS' to freeze. I have never known a virus writer to write code to freeze machines. It is of no gain.

I am a unix hacker not a windows one so I can't give great advise on this one. Unfortunatly windows is windows and thus does not give users a great amount of power. When it locks thats usually it. You have to reboot. Its not like a unix station where you can roll back and check core dumps to see what went wrong. Fix it and skip away whistling. This is windows, you have no power and a **** load of binaries to work with.

When its locking up do you have access to the keyboard?
Try hitting the capslock and seeing if the light goes on and off.
If it does the kernel may still be operational and you can start to try and gain a bit of info. Start with ctrl + alt + del and bring up the processes. Check what is using all the cpu time.
What file is being checked at the time of the crash?
Its a long and slow process to debug system failures, and unfortunatly M$ is a dirty monopoly which gives the user very little power. You could start to look for logging software to aide you, or just do what most windows users have to do.....
......reinstall the OS.

Even better, Order one of the big Linux distros like SuSE and never look back

[Edited by Gedi - 12/8/2003 7:46:49 PM]

Mr.Cookie

Gedi

Whilst iknow very little about pc's i can honestly say after running spybot this machine

• regained it's internet connection even though nothing was changed.
• booted quicker, it was previously hanging for 2-3 minutes on boot.
• opened file and programs quick and without freezing.

Granted it may of just been so full of crap bt it still worked

Si

Gedi

agreed. I'll contradict myself here.

A badly written piece of software (e.g. activex) that spyware detecting programs will flag up could cause system crashes.

zhastaph

Hey Redkop, our firm looks after PC's all day, and in my experience random locking ups are almost always caused by a knacked CPU fan or one that is clogged to buggery wiv ****e

zhastaph

Mancamefirst;

Just reading through your other posts, I very much recommend that you check the same thing.

The virus scan freezing on "windows/system32/dllcache/ssdpapi.dll" may or may not be connected with your problem.

Also, have you tried replacing this .dll with one from a friends machine?

Modern CPU's operate at about 60deg, if the heat sink on the fan becomes clogged with ****e or the bearings on the fan itself give up the ghost, then this temperature will increase. Once it gets to a certain predetermined level the CPU will shut off to protect itself. On most systems this will result in a totally hung PC *see note at bottom*, on others where the mother board is equipped with a watchdog, the PC will suddenly reboot of it's own accord.


*note, hung PC. As Gedi said the symptons of a totally hung PC are that the num lock & caps lock buttons no longer function. This would imply the kernel has totally frozen. And also as Gedi states this is not likely to be caused by poor software, viruses, adware etc, it is nigh on impossible to crash the XP kernel through software. This normally indicates hardware failure.

mancamefirst

Zhastaph

Thanx for taking the time to reply.

My PC is only a few weeks old, and will freeze within two minutes of power up having been off for 24 plus hours. Additionally once it is up and running, it seems fine, providing i don't scan the HD (been on now for over 4 hours). Do you think the fan might still be an issue?

Incidentally when it does freeze, the keyboard doesn't work at all, the mouse does though in that the pointer will happily fly all over the screen, but clicking on anything achieves nothing.

Thanks again to all for the help so far.

Adam

zhastaph

The fact that the mouse moves implies it is indeed software related.

When this happens can you CTRL-ALT-DEL and get the task manager up. Often when a computer appears to be non responsive this implies that a process has honked all the resources, on XP based stuff this is great as the task list shows how much CPU usage each process has, which makes it easier to indentify.

Also have you applied all the windows updates, this is very important as new updates recently have been released as many as 2 a week. These 'fixes' generally patch over flaws discovered in Windows that allow viruses access to your computer.

Try uninstalling any software you have running in the system tray. Make sure you only have one anti virus apllication running, these can 'argue'.

Check that all your devices drivers are up to date. If you have any external devices plugged in, try removing them.

Chris_

At this moment I have 5 instances of svchost running, never bothered to find out what they do but not bothered as they have always been there.

Lets face it, the problem could be absolutely anything. If it was my comp and given that its so new I wouldnt feel happy that it was playing up at this early stage I would just format it and start again.

If you do format, pull all the unnecessary hardware load the operating system on then add your hardware and software bit by bit.

Corgi

Are you sure it's not scvhost.exe which is a worm.

Have a read here http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/****...32agobott.html

Redkop

The freezing is random, there's not particular pattern to it. When it does do it, nothing works, not even ctrl+alt+del, so have to reboot..... [thats another question for later, it takes 4 minutes for it to load & start up [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]] It's my other half's machine and tbh he doesn't have a lot on the pc - I have had a look at the things which load on start-up - but they might as well be written in hieroglyphics as I haven't a clue what they refer to


zastaph, I have a strong suspicion that the fan could be 'clogged to buggery wiv ****e ' as the tower is housed on the floor.

What is the best way to clear the dust inside the tower, I have an 'air duster spray' or should I use a very soft brush?

zhastaph

Spot on on both counts, brush it out with the soft brush first, like a paint brush. Then finish off with the aero duster.

mancamefirst

Corgi and Zhastaph

Thanks for the replies. I have uploaded everything from the Microsoft website that i could find, including the two patches for the scvhost.exe. I have also uninstalled all anti-virus programs, and locked off Zone Alarms.
I switched off and went to work this morning, I've just popped home for 5 mins, and my PC has booted up first go for the first time since last Thursday. It may be coincidence of course, but its a bl00dy relief i can tell you!

Going back yo work now, I'll see what happens this evening.

Thanks again to all, fingers crossed I'm sorted, I am really grateful for you taking the time to post up though, regardless.

Adam

Redkop

Glad you are sorted... mine is fooked now I think can't get the monitor to work... after gently cleaning the dust out - the pc shut off on booting up and now when it does, the monitor is just a screenful of about 64 white and grey squares

Ignore above - have got it to boot up and the monitor to work, but now the mouse wont work...... [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

[Edited by Redkop - 12/9/2003 2:06:53 PM]

Redkop

Have now got the mouse to work, but the pc froze again. Rebooted and it went through process of checking System Files [not done that before] and it said something about replacing them. I then did the two latest Windows updates and then I got this message while installing them...

Windows File Protection
Files that were required for Windows to run properly have been replaced by unrecognised versions. To maintain system stability Windows must restore the original versions of these files. Please insert your Windows XP disk.

zhastaph

Oh dear Redkop

Are you still having trouble now?