XP System Lock Ups

Hey guys, I'm sure I saw this subject posted somewhere here recently, but couldn't find it when i ran a search, so if you know of the thread, please let me know, apologies.

My mates computer, an athlon xp 1600, 512mb ddr, maxtor 40gb, netgear lan, etc, epox 8kha+, ati radeon 9600xt, creative sb audigy de, etc, has a problem with XP. Every so often, say, once an hour, the computer completely locks up, for about 10 seconds, and then regains control. Normally I wouldn't think much of it, but this happens when no apps are open except for media player, and stops the playback completely. Checked out some of the processes on google, and they're all legit, although a couple of utils for his DSL modem look kinda suss (mainly coz i never seen them before). I'll list a few here. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys.

ati2evxx.exe (ati util?)
ati2evxx.exe (again!)
atiptaxx.exe
dslagent.exe (dsl modem)
gsicon.exe (dsl sys tray icon)

With windows XP I use msconfig to turn off everything loading at startup except my virus scanner. ATI stuff still works apparently without those things, and we all know how flaky ATI's stuff can be... you may or may not actually need the DSL stuff either... I've found with internal DSLs I've seen they don't need it running, but who knows...

Checked for trojans?

Ran an online virus scan on trendmicro, also installed A2 personal and ran that, came up with nil. I'll get him to try to disable the ati utils, and we'll see if he sees it again. Funny that, we ran counters in perfmon for each process, and the problem suddenly refused to occur... Anyway, we'll see.

http://www.mlin.net/

StartCPL: fast, no install, no fuss, free app to do msconfig easily.

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Originally Posted by TechZ

http://www.mlin.net/

StartCPL: fast, no install, no fuss, free app to do msconfig easily.

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ok I haven't tried that stuff yet, but what exactly isn't easy about msconfig?

How often is your isp renewing your ip lease?

Dont gotta go Run-->msconfig and then enter, I'm pretty lazy ;) Also it has a few extra features. Try it.

Quote:

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How often is your isp renewing your ip lease?

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????

Had the same problem...turned out to be a DHCP error...windows was trying to supply one IP address, but there was one already there. Changed them to match, and the problem went away.

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Originally Posted by geoscomp

How often is your isp renewing your ip lease?

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Very good question, I'm not sure on this one, however, I will try to find out.... Im not sure how though, any ideas?

You can call them or start, run, cmd
IPconfig /all

the dhcp lease time will show for the internet connection.

Thought so, Noo, did that, doesnt say. It also says DHCP is disabled.... DHCP is also disabled for the LAN connection.

So you have a permanent ip for the internet?

If tricks with IP will not help, check the harddrive - could be bad or unstable sectors...

Sorry no reply for a bit, haven't had access to the machine. I can tell you that the IP is permanent, however. Also, other problems in the past have led me to believe that the HDD is on the way out, for example, ****ty (am i allowed to say that here? Edit: Obviously not! :p ) performance in games, despite the fact its a 1600+ with a radeon 9600XT, all the while HDD light flashing a great deal. (this happened mainly with 'Enter The Matrix')

ALSO, disabled all the ATI services/startups as well as the DSL ones, and the problem has still been occuring, so this makes me even more suss as to the HDD and will recommend as much, thanks guys.