Wierd Problem With PC Freezing

[tedanderson]

I have somewhat of an unusual problem with my Gateway P4 3.0 Ghz media center PC. If the machine sits idle for more than a couple of minutes, it completely freezes up. Any time I am using the computer- even hours at a time it works fine. But as soon as I walk away for more than a few minutes, it locks up on me.

At first I thought it was a screen saver or power management issue but all of those features are disabled. I had not made any software changes between the time when it worked fine to when it started acting up. The problem had been intermittant and seemed consistant with moving the PC (I travel with this machine sometimes) because when I take it out to a gig, it seems to work perfectly fine on-site and it will work great for a few days after I bring it back to the office. This led me to believe that it was a loose cable or a hardware problem. But after checking all of the cables, everything is plugged in tightly.

So as it stands right now, the PC works fine just as long as there is activity going on. If I edit a video, I have no problems. When I go to render, it will render the whole video. But after the rendering process is complete, if I allow the PC to sit too long afterwards, it will freeze up again.

Any ideas as to what could be going on?

[kbob]

check to make sure your windows update and other auto update settings are all set to off/disabled. This is even more of a problem if you've not updated the pc in a while. Also, double check AV and Anti-malware programs to make sure they're specifically Not set to scan at next boot/when not in use, or scan at next boot when a scheduled scan is missed.

We've been affected by all of those at some point or another...

[tedanderson]

The PC stays updated regularly.. no virus protection, no spyware, no anti-spyware. Just plain old Windows Media Center 2005 with Adobe Premiere.

[[Director] Joseph B]

Well the quick answer is because it's a Gateway. (Sorry I couldn't help it.)
According to tech support, one of the problems with my Dell (besides it being a Dell), was that I had auto updates on set to install all updates automaticly. It apparently installed something that conflicted with my hardware.

[tedanderson]

Yeah.. I blame it on Gateway also. In fact 2 weeks after I bought it, the motherboard died on me so I sent it back for a warranty repair. When I shipped it, I sent it back in the original box with the packing materials. I packed this box inside of another box with styrofoam peanuts.

When I got it back, the box that they shipped it was falling apart! This wasn't even a gateway box and it wasn't adequately padded. I would have complained and asked for a new computer except for the fact that I was behind schedule and had a bunch of products to finish.

So I picked it up, turned it over, and shook it around a little bit and it seems like it wants to work properly.. but we'll see.