DIY PC Diagnostic Advice Sought

My PC has recently been doing funny things with programs that have worked without issue for months or longer.  The machine is a dual core Intel (about 5 years old) with 2G running XP SP 3.  Not that I expect anyone to diagnose the cause from the information here, the symptom is programs freezing (sometimes to the point where I have to disrupt power in order to shut down Windows).  The errant programs invariably show up twice in the task manager (both “not responding”).
 
Question 1: How long do I need to run memtest for a valid result?  Last night I let it run for a little over three hours and it completed three passes.  No errors, but is this sufficient, or should I, say, run it overnight?
 
Question 2: I have yet to run disk check.  Is one pass enough (assuming no errors found in the first pass) or should I run it multiple times to be confident of the result?
 
Question 3: I’ve got up to date virus protection (MacAfee) but I’ll run a full disk virus scan anyway as soon as I get a chance.  But is there any other home diagnostic I should/could be running before carting the machine in for professional treatment?
 
Thanks for any advice.

Do you have any other programs that you can run besides Sonar to ensure that the system is stable overall?

If you can confirm stability of the computer aside from Sonar, then chances are that some process within Sonar is causing the system to crash. 

This is not to say that Sonar is the issue, but something related to running Sonar could possibly be the cause.  Like audio driver, video driver, plugin version, etc.

Fred
PCAudioLabs

When things like this start to happen, often times it's a sign of something hardware-wise preparing to go. Certainly run Disk Check, that could easily explain and fix a problem of this nature. 

n0rd

Question: In the five years you have had this computer, have you ever re-formatted and re-installed the operating system. If not, you might want to backup everything and try that. (You would want to backup everything before taking your system somewhere anyway just in case).

If you do end up taking it somewhere - get quotes first. Most will say "we won't know how much it'll cost until we take a look" and neglect to tell you that just "looking" costs you $$$.

No, I've never reinstalled Windows.  This may be a dumb question, but I assume that when you do what you suggest that you then have to reinstall everything from scratch, right?  I mean I've done the same sort of thing when moving to a new computer, but lordy! ... that's a lot of work. 
 
At this point, given the age of the machine, I'd probably just opt for a new machine if I have to go to all that trouble anyway.  My grand plan includes acquisition of a high dedicated DAW machine in about a year, but I don't need a faster, more current machine for anything else, so I don't have the incentive of using this as an opportunity/excuse to upgrade in the near future.

fsr76


@dmbaer

Reinstalling ASIO drivers entails uninstalling the M-Audio driver and reinstalling it.  The ASIO drivers are a part of the M-Audio installer.

I'm not a big fan of MacAfee because it seems to take security measures into it's own hands, and possibly it's running some background processes that's causing the computer to get hung up?

Fred
PCAudioLabs

So, I guess you're saying I just did install the latest WSIO drivers without realizing I did so?  Well, I can check that one off the list.
 
MacAfee has been present for ages.  SaviHost-ed synths ran just fine for quite a while.  No changes to MacAfee for a very long time (other than the auto database refresh).  I'm not saying it's not MacAfee, but MacAfee isn't very high on the likely suspects list.  Thanks for your input, nevertheless, Fred.

fsr76


Yeah, it's most likely not MacAfee, but because you mentioned it was scanning files, I thought maybe it was scanning files in the background during the time you experienced issues.  Just a thought.  Where is the situation at right now?

I ran reg. clean (Clary Utilities ... not a bad little package for the money).  I also disabled the sound drivers that are for the MB (Realtech, I think they'e called).  The only difference is that I can start a SaviHost hosted synth and while it still hangs, Windows will shut down of its own accord and I don't have to manually cut off power to the PC to get it to shut down.
 
Since the SaviHost is the only thing currently causing problems, I'm just going to leave it at that.  Sonar works fine for hosting synths, it just takes longer to start.  I tried another shareware micro-host but it didn't work either (different problem though ... doesn't hang but no sound).
 
Oh yeah ... I'm doing disk image backups a little more frequently these days just in case.  

RogerS


dmbaer - I'm also having problems with SaviHost on my Win7-64 PC. I miss it because it was great for quickly loading instruments from the desktop. But anyway, the vsthost program from the same site seems to be fine (though not as elegant).

http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm

Hey thanks, Roger.  I wasn't aware of vsthost.  Come the 4 day Thanksgiving weekend, I'll definitely give it a try.