DescentBB

About 3 weeks ago, I cleaned up my system, in particular I went thru the task manager and the startup manager in msconfig and researched each item, and getting rid of things that were eating too much memory.

Since then, every few days my system freezes. It just stops working, mouse wont move, no kb, etc.
Sometimes this happens right after I start up the system, or restart it. So I'm pretty sure it's not heat related.
One thing is interesting though, IE is always open when it freezes. I upgraded to IE 8, and it doesnt \"seem\" to freeze as much, but it does still happen.

Is there any way to track this, or hunt down the cause of the freezes? I'm scratching my head on this one...


Is there any

Any errors showing up in event viewer?

There's quite a few \"information\" logs, and a few \"Error\" logs.
The \"Error\" is always:
\"The HP CUE DeviceDiscovery Service service hung on starting.\"

I cant verify that these errors were on the dates of my freezes, but I'm pretty sure they were.

disable the cue plugin/BHO for IE or better yet use firefox. It's a sidebar helper for Ie that gives you the ability to drag photos and cue print right from the helper object. most annoying plugin ever ....... . Uninstall it otherwise

hrm. The \"HP Smart BHO\" is already disabled.
The \"HP Print Enhancer\" and the \"HP Smart Select\" are enabled tho.

Ding Ding!!

All or nothing ...related!


missed 1 \"Smart Web Printing\" 4 BHO's for HP!

heh!
Thanks (again) Bubba!

All disabled (I'd delete them if I could figure out how, but I guess the result is the same)!

I'll watch the alerts right after the next freeze (if there is one).

Just had another system freeze.
No errors in the system log.
just before the freez there is a warning though:

\"Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network (from the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address (deleted).
the following error occurred:
The operation was canceled by the user..Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network addres (DHCP) server.\"

There was also an information post:
\"The Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) service entered the running state.\"


Any ideas of where to go from here to determine the cause of the freezes?

router or direct to modem

Just had another computer freeze up.
The event log about 4 minutes AFTER THE freeze says that
\"The HP CUE DeviceDiscovery Service service hung on starting.\"

I checked under \"manage add ons\" in IE8 and
HP Print Enhancer
HP Smart BHO Class
HP Smart Select

were all disabled.

I must be missing something. Can you walk me thru deleting it?
Or perhaps I have the wrong program?

Also, the very last event log before the freeze(under event viewer/system) says:


\"The Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) service entered the running state.\"

I dont think this has anything to do with my router settings, as I never had this issue before a month or so ago. Something else is amiss.

click start type \"services.msc\" without quotes disable service there!

The HP CUE DeviceDiscovery Service

double click, stop, then rolldown from Automatic to Disabled

reboot and see how it goes


Leave the \"HP Network Devices Support\" one alone if you use a Network Printer

That did the trick. Thx Bubba.
Hopefully this will stop the freezes.

Yes I have a network printer so I left that enabled.

Started up the system today to a freeze (2nd day in a row).
The only system event warning was the DHCP thing again, and the service control manager running.

Do you think the DHCP renewal would cause a system freeze?

I have no other clues at this point. Other than to go back thru my startup list and start reactivating the things that I cancelled...

I guess I could try firefox and see if any freezes occur. If not, then that isolates IE.
If so, then it's another program.
Seems a tedious way to do things tho. Should be something in windows that gives a hint as to what is going on.

BTW, Thank you all for the help!

I'm going to assume you have a router

set static ip's for your box and your printer

192.168.1.25 printer
192.168.1.50 1st pc
192.168.1.55 2nd pc etc

DHCP range 192.168.1.116 ~.126 for wireless laptop devices

Gateway 192.168.1.1
Subnet 255.255.255.0
DNS Servers 192.168.1.1, 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220

this is all based on using a linksys, adjust accordingly

you will need to go into your printer properties and add new printer using local port( do not find automatically using the ip as an address.. afterwards you can delete the old printer link or even just modify it under the port tab that it's using for upnp... unless you stopped that service and all the above troubles would make sense

btw im doing this off the top of my head from my mobile phone..sorry for any typos

Awesome, Thanks!
I wont be able to do this for a couple of days but will report back when I do.

Appreciate the help very much Bubba!

stupid question here:

how do I assign my printer an ip address?

I do have a linksys router and a westell modem.
I have 1 laptop, 1 desktop, and one printer connected to the router.

Currently I have everything set up as obtaining addresses automatically...and havent had any issues until recently.

Interestingly, I thought I should try a windows update, it found a 2007 driver for my nic card (on the mb), and I installed it, only to lose connection and ability to access the web (tho I could still print on the printer).
I reset the modem and router, but no joy (the wife's laptop still had net access).
I did a system restore and have connection again.

Makes me wonder if should try a system restore as far back as I can go (January 2010), which *I think* was before the freezes began.

Bubba, you mentioned a port tab used for upnp, which could be stopped and could cause the troubles I'm having. Is there a way to check that?

for the printer, you do it by physically touching the printer itself, menu/network

Network and Sharing Center, Change advanced sharing settings, Turn on network discovery(UPnP).

Got the printer. Thanks.

As for network and sharing center, that I dont know where it is. I'm using xp.
Sorry for the lame questions...

Still working on this issue, just thought I'd update things a bit. I kind of feel like Dr. House, that all things are connected in some way...just gotta figure out how/why!

I did a system memory check using two programs, and there were no errors for the RAM.

I gave up for a few weeks, getting random freezes at various times: right after coming out of standby mode (I dont usually reboot the pc when I turn it off), or a couple of minutes after startup, or after a few hours of working on an email etc (never during games....).

Here's where things get screwy:
About 3 weeks ago, I couldnt bring up the calculator...it just disappeared. I got it reloaded tho.

About a week ago, I couldnt bring up the explorer with windows-key + E.
However, I could bring it up with right clicking the start button and choosing \"explore\".
I did a system restore to a week before, and things worked fine (and still do).


Last night, I was thinking about the registry, and dl'ed a free registry cleaner (Eusing Free Registry cleaner which is shareware), and cleaned the registry (it showed 1700 \"problems\" which it fixed)
Another shareware reg. cleaner that only fixes 25 \"problems\" unless you pay $40 for a 1 year use of the program, said I had 2800 \"problems\". Well, I cleaned what I could with the first program, and restarted.



During this last week, my microphone was always on, which is annoying as I hear feedback over my speakers, even when not using the mic in a program.
Today I went to try muting it in the sound control panel, windows tells me it isnt installed. I found a fix online, loading it from the windows CD, and now it works just fine, no more mic issues.

Very odd that all these things are occurring. They must be connected in some way...

Also, just to see if it impacts anything, I went into msconfig/startup and re-ticked the sb x-fi programs that I had un-ticked a while back, trying to speed things up.

I dont know yet if these things will fix XP (still waiting on my HD from Amazon, and have Win7 pro in hand), but I hope it will....

One thing I can say is the registry cleaners can be dangerous and as long as your not installing and uninstalling a lot of programs should unnecessary. I suggest you download and install Revo Uninstaller and leave the registry cleaners alone.

I would also recommend staying far away from registry cleaners, mass automated meddling in the registry is always dangerous. I'd even venture \"cleaning\" the registry is borderline pointless and ultimately accomplishes very little or nothing to speed up a PC.

I was hoping to \"fix\" any issues I might have created, and which might be causing my system freezes.
Noted and appreciated. Will stay away from reg. cleaners (I did clean the registry last night...no apparent problems...and no freezes *yet*).

ReadyMan wrote:About 3 weeks ago, I cleaned up my system, in particular I went thru the task manager and the startup manager in msconfig and researched each item, and getting rid of things that were eating too much memory.

did you ever reenable those things to see if that was the problem?

Sounds like something is Borked in windows. might be time for a reinstall?

Yes, at least the creative stuff. I'm not sure what it could be among what is left....

Sadly, my system restore only saves things for 2 weeks or so. If it saved for a few months, I'd be able to go all the way back and undo whatever I did

I've been backing things up all day in preparation to install a new HD and win7 64bit.

One thing worth noting is that it is possible to backup/restore the Windows XP product activation: http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/ ... ation.html

You can backup the activation then roast your current XP install and completely start it over without having to worry about calling the automated MS hotline or anything of that nature to get it activated and working again.

I think I've only ever activated this XP once.
I have a couple of copies sitting around here...all originals. Great idea though.

Just saw that my windows key +E (to bring up explorer) problem is back. It takes about 30 or more seconds to bring up explorer that way, and less than a second to start after a right click on the start button and choose explore.

Windows must really be messed up. Heh. Just noticed that I have 3 removable drives and a DVD-RAM drive listed in explorer that dont even exist!

I check for virii the other day...everything was super clean.