How many times do you re-boot your PC each day?

grrrr

[engine]

The dreaded blue screen of system hanging. The only solution - re-boot.

Memory leakage appears to be a problem, too.

About five or six times a day to re-boot is normal and I've come to accept it as a fact of computer life.

Am I getting off lightly, or do you have the same problem?

[Mardi_Gras]

Five or six times a day seems a bit excessive - I usually end up freezing once every couple of days on my IBM laptop running Win 98. My wife has an old NEC PII-300 that runs rock-steady on Win 98.

I can see why you are agitated! It isn't just the freezing, its the three minutes sitting there waiting to re-boot.

Have you been able to identify any common patterns? We found on one machine at the office that if we open Word after WordPerfect we lose access to the printer. Took us a while to find the common factors.

[Dino_M]

yep 5-6 times is a bit much!

I blue screen of death 2-3 times a week

[dcheney]

Since I moved from Win98se to Win2k (about 6 months ago) - I've only had 2 crashes. (and 1 of those was related to the failure of a video card!)

[rogerd]

Since I switched to XP, far less frequently - maybe once a week or so, sometimes more as a precaution than an actual lockup.

[engine]

Yep, found out the progs that do it. IE is the main culprit. That just freezes the PC and I often have to power off to recover. Microsoft's own automatic reporting software also compounds the issue by locking things entirely.

I do use other browsers but have to develop for the IE compatibility.

Acrobat and Golive seem to leak memory. Once used it's easier to reboot than to risk opening something else.

Before you ask, I've got bags of RAM onboard. Running Win 98, too.

[Slade]

I've got a desktop with 128MB RAM running smoothly on Win2k for over a year. Only crashes were game related.

I just installed Win2K on my laptop, last night. It's only got 98MB RAM, but it looks like it will be ok. It was running 98, and crashed only a few times per week. It had been running that copy of 98 for maybe 2 years, so I was ready to wipe it.

[4eyes]

Since dumping Windows for Linux - never
(OK, every now and then, but always by choice)

Win 98 was 4-5 times a day, usually after it crashed.
XP was better, but ended up crashing once every couple of days.

It was taking 15 minutes each time to reboot and scandisk

Thats 1.25 hours each day for Win 98.

Cost it out and Linux has saved me a fortune over Windows 98.
(Closer call with XP though)

[Hawkgirl]

engine, I'd chuck that PC out the window if I were you. I only reboot about once every 3 or 4 weeks with XP. When I was on Win98 I'd have to reboot every other week.

Oh, I also have to reboot whenever I go to my SysAdmin with an issue. His first line of defense is always, "Did you reboot?" :)

[victor]

I'm on Win98 with 256MB Ram, lots of applications -- though not many from Microsoft -- and run the machine 24x7.

I reboot once a week just in case.

I maybe have to reboot due to a BSD-type event once a month.

I think I'm lucky compared to some :)

[chris_f]

IE is the main culprit.

If it's IE6 then clear you TIF (temporary internet files), history and cache. That should stop it locking.

Chris.

[Sinner_G]

IE is the main culprit.

If it's IE6 then clear you TIF (temporary internet files), history and cache. That should stop it locking.

Had IE problems too, but found another, much better solution. Switched to Opera. Now I only reboot 2-3 times a week instead of 4-5 times a day.

[c3oc3o]

Win98 is a joke. Do yourself the favor of trying out 2k or XP, you will never want to go back. No bluescreens. (Virtually) no crashes.

[tedster]

I get some periodic (once a week) trouble from Windows Explorer - not IE, but the program that runs the Windows interface. This is on my Win98 notebook.

I always get a chuckle from the message "to notify the software manufacturer if the problem persists".

Funny thing - my system always runs better after one of these Windows Explorer crashes, at least until I do a full reboot. The system tray is empty, and all the little memory hogging programs that I can't figure out how to disable are outta there.

[hooloovoo22]

i agree with xp users here, it's much less frequent. about 2 times/month i get locked up. never seen an xp version of the bluescreen.

[4eyes]

From my recollection, the problems are worse for people who try out loads of different software packages.

I was a shareware junky, so stuff was being installed and re-installed on a daily basis.

The install/uninstall routines always messed things up long term (yep - some blame lies with the software authors, but not all)

My girlfriend's PC, (which has new software installed once or twice a year), is fairly stable and only crashes once or twice a week.

[jatar_k]

Two machines

mine- winxp, 1.7 Ghz, 256 RAM - 2 crashes since its purchase 4 mths ago, both due to IE

work - win98, 800Mhz or so, 256 RAM - crashes once or twice a day, if I use IE for a while it will take it out.

good thing I don't use IE, it starts up sooo slowly and loves to hog resources. Mozilla, no prob, my win98 machine loves it. The machine runs much better with it.

[martinibuster]

I don't let software automatic anything. I have to reboot once or twice a day when running Adobe and Macromedia and several other apps simultaneously

I have 512mb ram on a win98 machine with 30% disk space free. It's also how much disk space you have free, and how defragmented it is.

Have you run adaware to see if spyware is hanging your system?
AceFTP Freeware has hung up a client's system.

Also, good to do the old "msconfig" from Start-Run. Then uncheck any memory sucking programs (like Quickbooks), that want a piece of your ram.

[rogerd]

Good point, 4eyes. We here at WebmasterWorld are probably not typical users. I know I have installed lots of commercial software as well as shareware, freeware, and demos. This no doubt puts a lot more stress on the OS.

[crash]

on winme - only have problems with certain programs.. a php builder (don't remember what it is) without fail crashed every time - so I killed that.. all macromedia's have a tendency to crash if i'm doing alot of work (meaning more than 2-3 pages in a session with previewing). on my laptop - also me - if i preview in IE more than about 2 times dw crashes without fail but not the whole system. come to think of it.. i can't remember the last time i got the BSoD

[bodine]

OS: Mac OS X 10.1
Uptime: almost 16 days and still going (and going)

(although starting the MySQL daemon seems to affect stability)

[Gizmare]

Since I have started using Win 2k, and am now using XP, I rarely reboot. Maybe once every two months, and I have never ran into a BSoD on XP while doing normal everyday tasks. Considering I run XP on three machines 1 at work 1 on my laptop and 1 desktop at home, I think that says alot for the stability of XP.

In the Win98 era I used NT 4.0 Workstation instead, it provided me with a more stable environment. In my opinion Win95 was more stable then Win98.

Anyone that relies on a PC for an income should be running Win 2K, or Win XP. And also should keep the games out of the work computer.

[creative craig]

I use Win98 and I only have problems with IE6 but as said before clear history, cookies, temp files and its ok again.

I also have alot of software on my laptop, I may uninstall some of the stuff that I never use!

Craig

[sierra]

MAC OS 9.2 on G-4
I had 3 different machines till now and all of them crashed from time to time. The one i use at work seems to have a problem with my lunch time... it crashes once a day almost everyday. Iīm getting used to it and begining to think of thatīs what makes mac different! SYSTEM BOMBS...

[nipear]

With win 2k - once every month or 2. And it's not the Blue screen of death. Usually it's some other problem like a graphics program won't work right until i reboot....

I remeber the old days with 98 losing hours of work with the bsod.

[EliteWeb]

Havn't rebooted this box in like 3 weeks - Windows XP

[lorax]

Win2K here and I haven't had a reboot in months. And the machine is on 24/7. Never had a BSOD with it and it sees a lot of use. The last time it locked up was because I was a few clicks ahead of Opera and doing something else too.

Ran Linux (which I prefer) but it doesn't support all of my development programs. I look forward to the day it does!

[incywincy]

i agree, linux just loves to go on and on and on ....

that's why i use linux as my gateway, always there when i need it!

[mona]

3-5 times a week. Except when I'm editing for dmoz, then it increases to 3-5 times a day;)

[jtoddv]

Usually two things from experience are the real culprit of crashing systems:

- Not enough RAM
- Not enough rebooting

Buy more RAM, it is cheap, you know. It is the most rewarding purchase a computer user can make. Never underestimate the power of boat loads of RAM. I will not run a machine without 512. It is ridiculous to as far as I am concerned.

Reboot every 3 days at least. This helps to reconfigure the system and makes sure everything is in optimal operating condition. Reboot right before you are done for the day. That way you won't have to wait for it. Is this really that hard? Start>ShutDown>Restart>OK

I have XP Home and Professional for 8 months now and have never had a crash yet. It is like a pet, walk the dog and it won't sh!t in the house. Don't walk it, and you'll be cleaning up the mess.

This applies to Macs as well.

If those fail, you better optimize the hard disk or reformat it. Or, better yet, don't buy a commercial PC, build your own. You won't get all those unnecessary tibits installed.