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Computer freezes

17 years ago

I am trying to burn a music cd. Everything works fine until I insert a blank cd. Then the computer freezes. Can't do anything. I have to turn off the power on the strip to get it to shut down. This happens with more than one burning program. It will play a cd that has already been burned. The CD- ROM drive is a COMBI RW16x10/DVD that came with the computer. I went to the HP website and downloaded the latest firmware. I have a HP Pavilion 533w running Windows XP professional. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks, Alma

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Comments (5)

owbist
17 years ago
How old is your computer Alma? Have you ever removed the left side panel and looked for dust bunnies. If the computer only freezes while trying to burn you may have just enough crud in there to cause over heating. Another possibility is a stuck fan or quit altogether causing a heat buildup. Remove the power cord from the rear if you go inside and keep your hand or bare arm on the metal frame to protect delicat parts from static electricity.

The specs on that computer shows the memory (RAM) as anything from 256 megabytes to 1 gigabyte. How much does your computer have? To find out click Start, click Control panel, click System. Now a new, smaller window should appear and near the bottom it will tell you how much RAM you have installed.
owbist
17 years ago
Alma you could try setting the burn speed down considerably and see if that improves the situation. Of course it is not a fix but it will allow you to finish your tasks. Plus it would help determine that heat is the issue - or not.
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First possibility is heat. When was the last time you removed the left side panel and cleaned out all the dust bunnies? Hopefully your tower does not sit on the floor where it gathers far more dust than if it was even 6 inches off the floor. Remove the side with the computer still running but touch nothing! Look to see the fans are all running, being an HP I suspect you have one fan sitting over the CPU (processor) and another housed inside the power supply. Once you have determined both are running freely shut down. Now look for dust and crud built up either on the fans or in the case of the CPU fan it will also be on the cooling fins directly underneath. You can buy a small can of compressed air to clean but take the tower outside and blow out the dust. Be sure to hold your finger on the CPU fan to stop it spinning wildly. With the power supply fan use a toothpick or any small non metallic item to stop the fan. DO NOT remove anything and go inside the power supply, it holds power and might bite if you go in there. Another thing might be to check your Event viewer. Click Start, Control panel, Administrative tools, Event viewer. Click System on the left side of the new window and look down thew right side for any red error messages, scroll down as needed. Double click on any for an explanation. Often there will be a link there, click that to see if a fix is offered. Any of that help at all?
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genes
17 years ago
Or, right click on "My Computer" and select properties. Should be in the last line of text along with your processor speed.
Mo
17 years ago
Are you using a type of disc that's compatible with your drive?
alma
Original Author
17 years ago
I bought the computer in Jan 2003 but had more memory added in July 07,(I believe 1 GB) which was the last time it was opened up so it probably does need a good cleaning. Checking control panel, system it shows 1.25 GB. Belarc Advisor shows 1280 megabytes installed memory. I was trying to burn at 8x, do I need to go lower? Yes it is compatible with CD-RW which is what I was using. Thanks

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