Computer Freezing Randomly

[LNahid2000]

On the weekend, I took apart my RAID array since I wanted to use my two drives as two seperate drives. I made a backup of everything and a ghost image so that I could get running again in 10 minutes. Everything worked fine but then the computer started freezing randomly. Thinking it was the ghost image's fault, I reformatted and installed my programs. Same problem. So I reformatted again and this time only put the programs I need currently on here because I thought it was one of the programs. It went a day without freezing. Then a few hours ago, I installed DVD Shrink, Intervideo WinDVD 5, Microsoft Office, Roxio Easy CD Creator and Nero CD-DVD Speed. A few hours after that, my computer started randomly freezing again. A couple of times, it froze when I inserted a DVD but other than that it was random. At one point I also thought it was heat but now I don't think it is since I ran DVD Shrink for an hour yesterday to burn 4 DVDs and the computer didn't freeze. CPU usage was at 100% the whole time. So now I have no idea what's wrong. It's extremely frusterating since I use my computer to record TV and half the time it doesn't record. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I forgot to add that it is a hard crash. Can't move the mouse, time doesn't advance.

[Lesley]

I hate to be a Roxio basher but maybe try removing it and seeing what happens. I haven't used it for a long time, it's a resource hog and caused me a lot of problems.

Also check msconfig/startup tab and ensure that the auto startup items for the programs you installed are unchecked. Except for dvdshrink I believe they all put one or more items in startup.

If you format again add your programs back in, one at a time,and allow a day in between installations if possible. Make sure you update them as well.

[Shinma]

If applicable,
Check Event Viewer for any messages.

[LNahid2000]

I hate to be a Roxio basher but maybe try removing it and seeing what happens. I haven't used it for a long time, it's a resource hog and caused me a lot of problems.
Yeah, its a resource hog but I've got it on a minimal install and I've stopped it from starting up at boot. I've always used msconfig to stop everything from starting up except things I find useful.


If applicable,
Check Event Viewer for any messages.

Nothing in the event viewer. I've checked several times right after a crash.

I'm starting to believe that it is my IDE controller. Last night, i went back to the RAID setup. The RAID uses a different IDE controller. After RAIDing my drives again, I ran my Acronis image and I've been using it for about 15 hours without freezing. Also, inserting media into the dvd drive causing the system to lock up leads me to believe that the IDE controller is the problem. Before switching to the RAID controller in June, my computer did sometimes lock up when i inserted media. This has not happened since i switched over to RAID and it has not happened in 15 hours.

My motherboard still is under warranty but I really don't want to take everything apart to RMA the motherboard. Plus, I wouldn't have a computer for more than a week. But if I don't, I won't be able to install new drives in the future. Maybe I'll put my old computer together and do it one day.