XP freezes momentarily

[sdlehman]

I have a home built system with a Gigabyte GA-EP35DS3P MoBo, 2 GB ram, ATI Radeon HD 2600XT video card with 512MB ram, running XP Pro, 150GB main HD, 150GB raid capture drive, 150GB additional drive. After I have been on my system for a few minutes, everything hangs-just freezes for about 10 seconds. The mouse arrow doesn't move, nothing. Then, all is well and this may not happen again until I have been off for an extended period-a few hours or longer. I have scanned for viruses, spy ware, etc and everything is clean. Any idea what may be causing this?

Stace

[yoda313]

Could it be a ram issue?

[sdlehman]

Could it be a ram issue?

Do you think I might need additional ram or are you saying I may have a problem with what I have?

Stace

[yoda313]

Yeah it might be a problem with what you have now. Try searching the net for ram crashes and you might find something similar. All I know for sure is bad ram can create some problems.

[minidv2dvd]

try control/alt/del to bring up the task manager before it happens and see what app is grabbing 100% of your cpu cycles. clicking twice on the processes/cpu tab will bring the highest users to the top. it may be something you can get rid of.

[Nelson37]

This happens reliably, soon after starting the system? Meaning every time, or 90% or so? Then again, after several hours of operation? Again, after several hours, how reliably? What happens if you only run for say a half hour or so? Both that session and the next session? Roughly what percentage of the time do you run for more than a few hours?

What processes are running when it happens, particularly after several hours when it happens the Second time? What about when it does NOT happen, if ever? Any differences? Any similarities?

Bad RAM rarely causes a short pause, this sounds like a process of some sort. Check Task Manager as described.

You do not mention what type of RAID. Mirrored, by any chance? Could be a drive consistency check. Even if not mirrored, could still be a drive check of some sort by the RAID software.

[mpack]

My wild guess would be some app or device driver is checking for updates every few hours, plus it has a screwed up blocking comms read to a dead URL.

As Minidvd2d suggested, I'd try Ctrl+Alt+Del to see if you can catch it in the act.

Or, just Ctrl+Alt_Del regardless and look for anything odd in the process list.

Or, look in startup folders etc for apps that don't need to be there.

[jagabo]

IRQ conflict.

[Po|arbeaR]

Process Explorer is a good program that digs in a little deeper than task manager. Great for troubleshooting issues like this. (e.g. device drivers, dll's, so on.)

http://www.download.com/Process-Explorer/3000-2094_4-10223605.html

Hopefully you find the issue.

Good Luck.

-PB

[Bjs]

When was the last time you perform system maintenance task?

1: Disk cleanup
2: Scandisk
3: Defrag

Recommend before running defrag that you uninstall any software products you no longer require the use of to regain wasted space.

As always good av and antispy type products can only do so much, but you have not provided the names of these products in use.

Try avgfree and superantispyware, update till no updates are available, but before you run them, disable system restore on all hard drives, as problems thought to be gone can still appear later.

Check the os power management settings, only the system bios should control these features.

Try the system with usb connected devices removed, if system has only usb for mouse and keyboard, try using another set, as these devices can develop similar symptoms. Also disconnect all drives except for the one containing the os, it's possible a data cable could need replacing.

Use hard drive manufacturers diagnostic tools or Hd workbench to diagnose for possible issues (hd workbench user name and serial are on the page, up left, and is provided freely by the company) > http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/HD_Workbench.htm

How long has it been since the system was internal inspected for the build up of dust on fans and heatsinks?, check and clean while the system is off and power removed.

Use hijackthis (search google), perform a system scan, and send to me via way of pm for checking for possible issues.

Check for software installed that performs update checking such as those belonging to web cams.

When system pauses as described, press ctrl + alt + del to bring up system task manager and check if defrag was running because of system being idle. Try the following to disable it > http://www.theeldergeek.com/automatic_boot_disk_optimization_%5Bdefrag%5D.htm

[jagabo]

Oh, a bad block in some temp file or swapfile could cause this type of hangup. That tends to be more consistent though. Try a full disk scan with bad sector recovery. That will mark bad sectors so they don't get used anymore.

[sdlehman]

Thanks to all for the replies. I shut off Windows Firewall and that seems to be where the problem was. Since then there have been no instances like before. I also had a Linksys program that was checking status routinely that may have been at fault.

Stace

[mpack]

Thanks to all for the replies. I shut off Windows Firewall and that seems to be where the problem was.

Eeek!

Please bear in mind that doing this may have corrected the hangup problem by giving malware free access to your internet connection. AFAIK Windows Firewall doesn't cause problems on its own and there is no need to shut it down. It would have been better to pinpoint the app that was being blocked and disable that instead of disabling your firewall.

Hopefully you are correct in identifying LinkSys as the culprit - but if so it should be safe to reenable the firewall.