GAIM Problems

townie · **Posted:** Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:23 pm

Is anyone's computer freezing from GAIM? Ever since that new MS update, when I'm running GAIM the computer eventually just freezes up. CTR/ALT/DEL doesn't work, neither does the power button. I have to take out the laptop's battery and restart. The desktop isn't freezing, but that's running and older Windows. I guess I have to go back to shitty AIM. Is there another program like GAIM?

GreatSpaceCoaster · **Posted:** Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:16 pm

updated MS...that's your problem;)
I don't have any probs but for when my computer screen shuts off in energy saving modes, GAIM has errors and will shut down most of the time.

BTW, if you hold your laptop power button down for 10-20 seconds, will that turn it off?

There is also "trillion" for a multi-IM client. I have never used it, but others I know have.

townie · **Posted:** Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:19 pm

i don't really need a multi-IM program. i was just tired of all the ads on AIM. I didn't try that, but since we restarted yesterday, we didn't log into GAIM and so far, it hasnt' frozen. It also only seemed to freeze when i was in the middle of typing a response in GAIM.

townie · **Posted:** Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:22 pm

Trillian sounds cool. It has audio and video chat capabilities. If we don't freeze up for the next day or so, we're un-installing GAIM and installing Trillian.

townie · **Posted:** Mon Dec 17, 2007 4:30 pm

It's not GAIM. The computer just froze and we were n't even logged in to GAIM so it's something else. It did restart when the power button was held down for 10 seconds (thanks Lisa A.). Any of you tech-competent people have any ideas? I ran all of my virus programs Ad-Aware, AGV, and Spybot and still this keeps happening. Has to be a software problem right?

FatSean · **Posted:** Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:13 pm

Could be hardware, could be software.

How badly does it freeze? Can you still move the pointer around? Do some windows work and some don't? Do you see partial menus or windows appear when you try to use the computer?

I've had freezes where the pointer moves but no programs, not even the desktop or the explorer will open because the hard disk media was failing and the spot where a needed file once was, was no longer readable.

Try opening a DOS/Command window and running "chkdsk /R". Tell it to run the check at the next restart, then restart. Keep an eye on chkdsk as it runs, not sure if it'll pause with the result on the screen.

Other things that cause freezes are processor overheating due to fan failure, but you usually get a few beeps from the computer as temperatures rise into the danger zone.

Have you tried googling with the make/model and different descriptions of the problem?

townie · **Posted:** Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:30 pm

i've tried nothing yet....i'll try the google thing tonight and see. it freezes entirely. just stops dead and just stays that way. ctr/alt/del does nothing, and even shutting the laptop doesn't even shut it down. the only thing to get it out it is to either take out the battery and then restart or to hold the power button down for 15 seconds. it then restarts.

Beanie · Site Admin

right click my computer, go to properties

go to advanced tab, click settings under startup and recovery

uncheck automatic restart

Hopefully you will get a blue screen of death with an error code. Write down the code and google it.

OR..

right click my computer, click manage

goto system tools, event viewer, system

look for the red x's, right click - properties

It will give you a description and a link to Microsoft's Help and support. If you check that and it's too vague, grab the event id and google it

townie · **Posted:** Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:20 pm

The automatic restart box was unchecked.

I found tons of red checks. Here's the rundown:
29053 (17 times)
14103 (8 times)
32003 (7 times)
29032 (2 times)
7000 (2 times)

This is only errors for most of today. Is that really bad? I tried to look at these on the links provided and the language is so fucked I don't understand any of it! I googled "Insperon 6000" and found that lots of people have experienced different kinds of freezing for different reasons. So complicated! I guess I have to research all of these on google tomorrow. I'm tired of thinking of this for now!

Beanie · Site Admin

Hmmm... how have you been using Spybot? Do you occasionally get popups and do you always deny them access?

Do you do manual scans and fix all errors no matter what?

Most of those errors seem to be windows related saying they can't communicate. I have a feeling you didn't use spybot correctly.

If the popup happens when you are installing a program that you want or you are doing updates, you should always allow it. It's when you aren't doing anything but browsing and you get a popup that you should block it.

As for manual scans, when you get the list of items to fix, you never should fix all of them. Each item has a link to describe what it is and you should always examine each one carefully.

Spybot shows you every little thing that gets changed on the computer. Some of them are nessesary.

I just noticed you also have adaware. You should only use one or the other. Spybot will kill adaware and vise versa.

townie · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:50 am

Well I do automatically erase all Spybot problems and use Adaware in addition. I just can't tell from reading the techical shit to know what not to erase and what to erase. So what do I do to fix the freezing, now though?

Beanie · Site Admin

Uninstall spybot and adaware, and reinstall one of them. But first you'll have to figure out if the programs made any backups and restore the backups. Hopefully it will put back the important missing files. And then start over and rescan the bad stuff.

townie · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 3:05 pm

Ok, so it froze and i immediately looked up the event ID. It seems to be Event 11 which, when I looked it up said this:

Details
Product: Windows Operating System
ID: 11
Source: Disk
Version: 5.2
Symbolic Name: IO_ERR_CONTROLLER_ERROR
Message: The driver detected a controller error on %1.

Explanation
This problem is typically caused by a failing cable that connects the drive to the computer.

User Action
Replace the cable.

Um...anyone know if this is something I could do?

Beanie · Site Admin

Not if this is on the laptop.

townie · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 4:29 pm

I went on IM chat w/ a dell tech person (our extended warrenty expires in two days so we're lucky) and they said all the errors were from a virus. We did a system restore to the first week of November. We just started using it again, so we'll see if it freezes again. The tech's gonna call us in two days to see. Until then were were instructed not to install the updates that Microsoft wants us to.
Keep your fingers crossed!