Anyone know

Ivan Turk · 08-07-2012, 02:58 AM

I thought I would ask first, before I head off to the repair shop. Recently my computer has started to not respond to mouse clicks. It will be fine for up to an hour or more, then out of the blue it will just freeze up. The giveaway, is that when I click on the X to get rid of the page I'm on, nothing, It doesn't go and I can't even get another page or anything back up. I can click on start and get the computer selections up, and click on my computer or what ever, but it won't bring up what I click on. The only way I can fix it is to press the power button for 3 secs to turn the computer off and then restart it again, where it will be fine until the next time. My machine is a 9 year old dell desktop running XP the only thing that I have done to it is put in 2G more ram and a 7600gt video card into the AGP mother board. The HD is only 80g and is about 70pc full.
Thanks in advance for any help.

TeKraken · 08-07-2012, 03:30 AM

Did it work okay before the upgrades?

fincher234 · 08-07-2012, 07:28 AM

First question is:

Is the machine really locking up or is it just the mouse?
When this happens try using keyboard shortcuts instead of the mouse:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301583

For example you can alt-tab through your open applications and then,when you get to the application you want to close use alt-f4.
If you press the alt key and the underlined letter for a particular menu in your menu bar that will open that menu. For example, alt-f will open the file menu, alt-e the edit menu etc.

Wait for your mouse to stop responding and then play around for a while with these keyboard navigation shortcuts to confirm that they work when the mouse doesn't.
If you can navigate around using the keyboard like this then you could simply have a mouse failure and need to buy a new mouse.

Post back with your results before you consider buying anything.

wuliheron · 08-07-2012, 09:31 AM

A nine year old disposable computer isn't worth taking to the repair shop or spending a lot of time troubleshooting yourself. It's an electronic device and they're only engineered to last five years or so. Have you ever cleaned the dust out of it?

DieVerboten · 08-07-2012, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wuliheron

It's an electronic device and they're only engineered to last five years or so.

Where in the world did you ever get this idea? Electronic components are engineered to last as long as they'll last. How long of a useful life span they have however, is a different story.

And as far as that goes, There's no such thing as obsolete. As long as a device is doing something useful for the user, it's not obsolete.

Whether or not it's worth paying to repair is strictly up to the owner. Otherwise he's going to be investing at least several hundred to replace it.

If I'm understanding correctly, the UI is intermittently responsive. This Indicates performance issues. The disk is extremely low on free space. This is one problem. Reboot, uninstall anything you don't need. also look at open running programs, close anything that you don't absolutely need.

Consider reloading clean as well.

skoops · 08-07-2012, 10:01 AM

My guess is that your PC is clogged with junk files and maybe a bit of malware.Ive encountered tons of computers over the years that have become unresponsive due to this. If all of the above doesn't resolve your problem.It could be time to reinstall your OS.More so if it hasnt been reformated over the last 9 years.

fincher234 · 08-07-2012, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DieVerboten

If I'm understanding correctly, the UI is intermittently responsive.

This isn't the way I'm understanding it. At this point I don't think it's clear whether the UI is unresponsive or whether the mouse is ceasing to work.

wuliheron · 08-07-2012, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DieVerboten

Where in the world did you ever get this idea? Electronic components are engineered to last as long as they'll last. How long of a useful life span they have however, is a different story.

And as far as that goes, There's no such thing as obsolete. As long as a device is doing something useful for the user, it's not obsolete.

Evidently you have never heard of planned obsolescence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

The average person replaces their computer about every four years or so and that's roughly how long they are designed to last. Some parts are more durable than others, but it is the less durable and more expensive ones like the power supply that usually determine the overall lifespan of the product. Designing a 12v power supply that can last ten or twenty years isn't exactly rocket science however, instead, for disposable commercial products they are more typically designed to cut costs even if the difference is just a few bucks. The average consumer doesn't care so neither does the manufacturer.

Ivan Turk · 08-07-2012, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fincher234

First question is:

Is the machine really locking up or is it just the mouse?
When this happens try using keyboard shortcuts instead of the mouse:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301583

For example you can alt-tab through your open applications and then,when you get to the application you want to close use alt-f4.
If you press the alt key and the underlined letter for a particular menu in your menu bar that will open that menu. For example, alt-f will open the file menu, alt-e the edit menu etc.

Wait for your mouse to stop responding and then play around for a while with these keyboard navigation shortcuts to confirm that they work when the mouse doesn't.
If you can navigate around using the keyboard like this then you could simply have a mouse failure and need to buy a new mouse.

Post back with your results before you consider buying anything.

You could be onto something here. A while back the mouse I was useing would double click everytime I used it. I was told it was stuffed, so I got another one. A brand new microsoft one. It seems to be ok. I checked the device manager, and it told me that it was working ok, so I am looking at other things. But I am beginning to wonder if it is still the mouse. Does it sound like the hard drive is beginning to go. I have hever had one go before so don't know what to look for.

fincher234 · 08-07-2012, 06:15 PM

You need to do the checks I mention by using the keyboard when the mouse goes out.
This will tell you whether it is simply the mouse failing or whether you have something more significant going on. If the system works fine and you can navigate by the keyboard when the mouse goes then the mouse needs to be the focus or whatever port the mouse is connected to. If the system is locking up and your keyboard is also not functioning properly or the OS appears to have crashed, and is unresponsive, then there is a different problem.

Ivan Turk · 08-09-2012, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skoops

My guess is that your PC is clogged with junk files and maybe a bit of malware.Ive encountered tons of computers over the years that have become unresponsive due to this. If all of the above doesn't resolve your problem.It could be time to reinstall your OS.More so if it hasnt been reformated over the last 9 years.

I have never reinstalled the OS, I didn't think It was something that needed to be done. I regulary keep it cleaned up using CCcleaner and take old games off. It is about 60 percent empty at the moment, bet it it still playing up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fincher234

You need to do the checks I mention by using the keyboard when the mouse goes out.
This will tell you whether it is simply the mouse failing or whether you have something more significant going on. If the system works fine and you can navigate by the keyboard when the mouse goes then the mouse needs to be the focus or whatever port the mouse is connected to. If the system is locking up and your keyboard is also not functioning properly or the OS appears to have crashed, and is unresponsive, then there is a different problem.

I have done what you said to do, but it is still unresponsive. The page will take a long time to go, or will not go at all. The bottom line with the start key and the icons on the right seem to work ok, it's just the main screen that seems to freeze up.

fincher234 · 08-09-2012, 05:29 PM

You don't have to let the machine sit or cool down once it acts up? You can just turn it off and back on immediately and it will run for an hour or more again before going haywire? I'm trying to determine whether it may be heat related or not.

If this is true then my suggestion would be to confirm that it is a software issue by downloading, burning and running a linux livecd environment. I can go into some detail about this if you want to try it. You don't have to instll linux, you would run it off the cd for a few hours and see if it runs fine or if you get similar behavior. If it runs fine for many hours then you have a borked windows installation. If it doesn't run fine and you have the same problem under linux as well then you know it isn't windows related but that you have some kind of hardware problem.

You can take a quick tour of ubuntu here to get a bit of a feel for the interface you would work with once you loaded the livecd environment:

http://www.ubuntu.com/tour/en/

If you feel comfortable doing this we can walk you through how to download ubuntu, burn a cd, boot it and run the ubuntu livecd environment.

Ivan Turk · 08-09-2012, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fincher234

You don't have to let the machine sit or cool down once it acts up? You can just turn it off and back on immediately and it will run for an hour or more again before going haywire? I'm trying to determine whether it may be heat related or not.

If this is true then my suggestion would be to confirm that it is a software issue by downloading, burning and running a linux livecd environment. I can go into some detail about this if you want to try it. You don't have to instll linux, you would run it off the cd for a few hours and see if it runs fine or if you get similar behavior. If it runs fine for many hours then you have a borked windows installation. If it doesn't run fine and you have the same problem under linux as well then you know it isn't windows related but that you have some kind of hardware problem.

You can take a quick tour of ubuntu here to get a bit of a feel for the interface you would work with once you loaded the livecd environment:

http://www.ubuntu.com/tour/en/

If you feel comfortable doing this we can walk you through how to download ubuntu, burn a cd, boot it and run the ubuntu livecd environment.

I have just clicked on the Ubantu site, but nothing is happening except five dots going from white to red. Looks like it's not going to load.

fincher234 · 08-09-2012, 09:31 PM

Double click on the center of the page a few times.

Does this mean that the answer to my previous question was no you don't have to let it sit, you can simply turn it off and turn it on again and it is fine for quite a while?

Ivan Turk · 08-20-2012, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fincher234

Double click on the center of the page a few times.

Does this mean that the answer to my previous question was no you don't have to let it sit, you can simply turn it off and turn it on again and it is fine for quite a while?

Just thought I would let you know that I ended up doing a system restore back three months. Now it's going like a dream. Must have had something bad in there I suppose. Thanks for the help anyway.
Ivan

08-07-2012, 02:58 AM	#1
Ivan Turk Join Date: Aug 2010 Reputation: 2 Posts: 35	Anyone know I thought I would ask first, before I head off to the repair shop. Recently my computer has started to not respond to mouse clicks. It will be fine for up to an hour or more, then out of the blue it will just freeze up. The giveaway, is that when I click on the X to get rid of the page I'm on, nothing, It doesn't go and I can't even get another page or anything back up. I can click on start and get the computer selections up, and click on my computer or what ever, but it won't bring up what I click on. The only way I can fix it is to press the power button for 3 secs to turn the computer off and then restart it again, where it will be fine until the next time. My machine is a 9 year old dell desktop running XP the only thing that I have done to it is put in 2G more ram and a 7600gt video card into the AGP mother board. The HD is only 80g and is about 70pc full. Thanks in advance for any help.

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08-07-2012, 03:30 AM	#2
TeKraken Join Date: Nov 2011 Reputation: 4780 Posts: 6,200	Did it work okay before the upgrades?

08-07-2012, 07:28 AM	#3
fincher234 Join Date: Jun 2012 Reputation: 1069 Posts: 2,039	First question is: Is the machine really locking up or is it just the mouse? When this happens try using keyboard shortcuts instead of the mouse: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301583 For example you can alt-tab through your open applications and then,when you get to the application you want to close use alt-f4. If you press the alt key and the underlined letter for a particular menu in your menu bar that will open that menu. For example, alt-f will open the file menu, alt-e the edit menu etc. Wait for your mouse to stop responding and then play around for a while with these keyboard navigation shortcuts to confirm that they work when the mouse doesn't. If you can navigate around using the keyboard like this then you could simply have a mouse failure and need to buy a new mouse. Post back with your results before you consider buying anything.

08-07-2012, 09:31 AM	#4
wuliheron Join Date: Dec 2008 Reputation: 298 Posts: 2,647	A nine year old disposable computer isn't worth taking to the repair shop or spending a lot of time troubleshooting yourself. It's an electronic device and they're only engineered to last five years or so. Have you ever cleaned the dust out of it?

08-07-2012, 10:01 AM	#6
skoops Join Date: Jun 2007 Reputation: 103 Posts: 2,801	My guess is that your PC is clogged with junk files and maybe a bit of malware.Ive encountered tons of computers over the years that have become unresponsive due to this. If all of the above doesn't resolve your problem.It could be time to reinstall your OS.More so if it hasnt been reformated over the last 9 years.

08-07-2012, 06:15 PM	#10
fincher234 Join Date: Jun 2012 Reputation: 1069 Posts: 2,039	You need to do the checks I mention by using the keyboard when the mouse goes out. This will tell you whether it is simply the mouse failing or whether you have something more significant going on. If the system works fine and you can navigate by the keyboard when the mouse goes then the mouse needs to be the focus or whatever port the mouse is connected to. If the system is locking up and your keyboard is also not functioning properly or the OS appears to have crashed, and is unresponsive, then there is a different problem.

08-09-2012, 05:29 PM	#12
fincher234 Join Date: Jun 2012 Reputation: 1069 Posts: 2,039	You don't have to let the machine sit or cool down once it acts up? You can just turn it off and back on immediately and it will run for an hour or more again before going haywire? I'm trying to determine whether it may be heat related or not. If this is true then my suggestion would be to confirm that it is a software issue by downloading, burning and running a linux livecd environment. I can go into some detail about this if you want to try it. You don't have to instll linux, you would run it off the cd for a few hours and see if it runs fine or if you get similar behavior. If it runs fine for many hours then you have a borked windows installation. If it doesn't run fine and you have the same problem under linux as well then you know it isn't windows related but that you have some kind of hardware problem. You can take a quick tour of ubuntu here to get a bit of a feel for the interface you would work with once you loaded the livecd environment: http://www.ubuntu.com/tour/en/ If you feel comfortable doing this we can walk you through how to download ubuntu, burn a cd, boot it and run the ubuntu livecd environment.

08-09-2012, 09:31 PM	#14
fincher234 Join Date: Jun 2012 Reputation: 1069 Posts: 2,039	Double click on the center of the page a few times. Does this mean that the answer to my previous question was no you don't have to let it sit, you can simply turn it off and turn it on again and it is fine for quite a while?