Might have a RAM problem.

I am guessing I have a RAM problem. Each time I boot my PC all the icons disappear then reappear.This process happens twice upon boot up. My computer also freezes at random times. When playing vids on the internet,and when encoding videos with AVS. My guess that has something to do with memory as well. I hear no beeps when the computer freezes. I have done a sector check,disk check,virus check, and memory test. All have come up clean.


I believe the PC was built in early 2002 or 2003.Operating system Windows XP, Home Build 5.1The processor I have is an AMD Atholon 1800 plus. Video card is Nvidia Geforce MX 4 420 3D now 1.5 Ghz. 512 MB's of RAM. Direct X ver. 9. Mother board is a KV7 Dragon Plus. I know ancient hardware, but it works for me at the moment.

Help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.If someone could give me the name of the site where it has all the error sounds a computer makes that would help too. Sorry this is so long.

The icon thing could just be windows refreshing its cache for some reason.

as for the pausing while playing videos, dunno.. could be the Internet, obviously, unless you are saying the whole PC locks up. And then the same with encoding, if the whole PC is locking up, that could be any number of issues, potentially even the CPU overstressed or overheated and buckling under the pressure.

The whole computer locks up. I thought maybe it was outdated video card drivers. Downloaded them and to no avail. Oh well I just won't use the encoder. My only other option is to do a clean install of everything. Thank you for always giving advice Zach!

I am wondering if there is a solution to this problem. I am not experiencing a 3000 millisecond time out from NVSvc. Found out it is a video card issue. Seeing how old the video card is the Nvidia 4 Gefroce 420 MX series. I might just need a new card.

You can try uninstalling the drivers, instead of reinstalling -over- them..

Guru3D has a drivesweep/clean program too. It's safe enough if you follow the directions. That might help cleaning out old crap too. Although yeah, if I had an MX I'd get a new card too. Even the cheap crap these days are probably an upgrade over an MX.

Hell, Radeon 4850's can be had for around $100 and they are pretty decent especially if coming from a Geforce MX.

Good idea. I will try that. I have been looking into getting a new card. I am on a budget so Radeon sounds affordable. Thanks for the advice man!

Let us know how it turns out, hopefully will solve the issue. But if not we can try and come up with some other things.

Just make sure if/when you do upgrade, you clean out your old drivers, and update other drivers if needed for good measure.

The flashing icons is also a symptom of spyware.

I just wanted to give you guys an update. It turns out I let the video card fan clog up with dust. That was making my computer freeze up. On top of that the CPU fan was completely clogged with dust and junk. The CPU was running way too hot, so when restarting the computer it would not get past the boot screen. The PC would just cycle back to a menu with safe mode and other options. I cleaned both fans. Also cleaned up a bunch of things on my HDD I don't use anymore. Then did a defrag. Doing all this saved the computer in the long run. The computer runs damn near like brand new now.

I recently acquired a Pentium 4 machine. It is custom built in 2003 by Fry's and Electronics for my grand parents.They bought a new Dell( i mentioned the specs of the Dell in another thread.) The P4 runs much smoother than my old set up. The Pentium 4 machine has been upgraded with a new video card in 2004.It has a CD burner 52x write speed, and Memorex DVD-RW drive I don't know the specs on that rig yet. Once i get that computer cleaned up of programs and files. I will post the specs on the Pentium 4 for reference.

Thank you for all the help guys. I really appreciate it. I am going to take much better care of my rigs from now on.