Computer or Software Problem?

[groberts]

On occasion my main laptop which I use for imaging crashes or like last night just hangs (mid-imaging!) and in this event can only be restartred by turning it off and rebooting.  I did this last night and thereafter all was fine for the rest of the 4-hour session.  This ony happens every now and again but, of course, it is catostrophic and a real pain mid-imaging.  It seems to me there could be one of three issues (a) software conflicts (b) something badly wrong with the computer or (c) insuffcient memory.  I'm now inclined towards the latter (c).

The computer is about six or seven years old but for any normal (non astro) use is fine and most of the time is also OK for astro too; actually I only mainly use it as my main astro computer nowadays.  It is a Samsung laptop with Intel Core i5-2467M CPU 1.60GHz chip, 4GB RAM, 64bit & Windows 7 + I'm running EQASCOM + PHD2 + CdC + APT for control & image capture - as it's mainly for astro I've removed all non esstenial programmes and mosty run it offline to eliminate unwanted conflicts etc. 

I'm now begining to think that maybe the RAM is perhaps too small and might benefit from upgrading?  Any thoughts or guidance much appreciated.

Graham 

  

   

[MarkAR]

Probably is c with a random spattering of a. Upgrading the Ram might help, if not then upgrade the processor.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

One of the problems these days is that the Software developers are making use of the upgraded tools etc. but one of the knock-ons is that trying to run the software on older hardware\os's etc. without updating the 'hidden' apps e.g. .Net will produce unforeseen problems....

4Gb is more than enough to run everything, where are you saving your images to ?, is there enough free contiguous space?, how have you configured your page-file?, its usually better to have it on a separate local drive, so that it doesn't get split .... 

[groberts]

50 minutes ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

One of the problems these days is that the Software developers are making use of the upgraded tools etc. but one of the knock-ons is that trying to run the software on older hardware\os's etc. without updating the 'hidden' apps e.g. .Net will produce unforeseen problems....

4Gb is more than enough to run everything, where are you saving your images to ?, is there enough free contiguous space?, how have you configured your page-file?, its usually better to have it on a separate local drive, so that it doesn't get split .... 

Not sure I undestand some of these points but I save each image direct to the hard disk, then transfer elsewhere for processing + deleting as I go along i.e. always plenty of disc space.  

[Dr_Ju_ju]

Have\do you run any disk check & cleaning tools ?

As looking at the age of the system, there's a good chance that files are fragmented across the disk, which will result in unexpected problems, slow down etc. Even using the in-built simple disk check can often help, but there are plenty of free tools available e.g. https://www.lifewire.com/free-hard-drive-testing-programs-2626183 

[RT65CB-SWL]

Is your HDD...

1. a traditional one... i.e. magnetic?
2. or SSD?

If it is 1. then maybe needs defragging - if 2. then it is advisable not to 'defrag'.

Run 'chkdsk' or 'scandisk'- before using type chkdsk /? or scandisk /? - these are the help files and up to you decide which options before proceeding.
Depending on when it was last run, they may take a long time especially 'defrag' and assuming your OS is Windows. 

[groberts]

I do clean the disc using DiscCleaner and routinely scan with AVG. 

It's an old school magnetic disc - I'm very familar with the tools mentioned and is set up to run auto-fragmentation once a week.

Thanks

Edited September 15, 2020 by groberts

[michael8554]

Windows has Error Reports, scan through those looking for the names of your software (if that's to blamer) or just look what caused the problem.

Michael

[Atreta]

Random freezes or reboots usually are a sign of something wrong with the RAM,  sometimes the hard disk may be the culprit too. You can use memtest to check your computer memory. 

Here is the link: https://www.memtest86.com/

For the hdd i like to use crystal disk info:

https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/

Hope it helps.