Periods of Hihg Disk Activity in Win XP

[fripper]

I am having a continuing and most irritating problem with my Win XP SP2
system ... the problem also happened before SP2 was installed. Frequently
[i.e. 2-3 times an hour when I am using the system] and even occasionally
when the machine is in StandBy [!] the disk starts cranking away full bore
[i.e. the disk light is on almost constantly and it sounds really REALLY
busy] for 2-3 minutes ... then it seems to start slowing down and eventually
becomes quiet. I don't have a clue what is going on. When I bring up
Windows Task Manager and look at the Processes tab I see a couple of entries
whose I/O counts are changing a little bit [maybe 3-4 reads and/or writes a
second] but nothing shows the huge counts that I think are going on based on
the noise I hear from the drive. When it is in this frantic disk mode just
about anything else that I might be trying to do comes to a standstill
....eg. reading mail or coming back to life after being in StandBy ... the
machine is essentially frozen. The Task Manager is showing several
instances of svchost (with username Network Service and System) and lsass
and csrss ... they sometimes have low I/O counts going on when this happens
but I don't think they are the culprits [although I am at a loss to find out
what in Sam Hill these processes really do]. I am diligent about running
virus and spyware scans ... they show nothing wrong. If this is an artifact
of Windows XP then I would dearly love to know what in the world it is doing
when the system enters this state. I am running a system with 384MB ... the
30GB disk is quite full but this is not the problem because this was
happening back when the disk was much less populated than it is now. While
I cannot base it on anything I do not think that this is being caused by
some outside agent (eg. a virus) ... my suspicion is that Windows is doing
SOMETHING to cause this but I sure wish they would tell me what that
something is. It's driving me batty.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Malke]

I am having a continuing and most irritating problem with my Win XP
SP2
system ... the problem also happened before SP2 was installed.
Frequently
[i.e. 2-3 times an hour when I am using the system] and even
[occasionally
when the machine is in StandBy [!] the disk starts cranking away full
bore
[i.e. the disk light is on almost constantly and it sounds really
[REALLY
busy] for 2-3 minutes ... then it seems to start slowing down and
eventually
becomes quiet. I don't have a clue what is going on. When I bring up
Windows Task Manager and look at the Processes tab I see a couple of
entries whose I/O counts are changing a little bit [maybe 3-4 reads
and/or writes a second] but nothing shows the huge counts that I think
are going on based on
the noise I hear from the drive. When it is in this frantic disk mode
just about anything else that I might be trying to do comes to a
standstill ...eg. reading mail or coming back to life after being in
StandBy ... the
machine is essentially frozen. The Task Manager is showing several
instances of svchost (with username Network Service and System) and
lsass and csrss ... they sometimes have low I/O counts going on when
this happens but I don't think they are the culprits [although I am at
a loss to find out
what in Sam Hill these processes really do]. I am diligent about
running
virus and spyware scans ... they show nothing wrong. If this is an
artifact of Windows XP then I would dearly love to know what in the
world it is doing
when the system enters this state. I am running a system with 384MB
... the 30GB disk is quite full but this is not the problem because
this was
happening back when the disk was much less populated than it is now.
While I cannot base it on anything I do not think that this is being
caused by some outside agent (eg. a virus) ... my suspicion is that
Windows is doing SOMETHING to cause this but I sure wish they would
tell me what that
something is. It's driving me batty.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Try turning off the Indexing Service and see if that fixes it.

Start>Run>services.msc [enter]
Scroll down to the Indexing Service, stop it, and set to Disabled.

Malke

 

[fripper]

Malke:

Indexing Service was already disabled!

I am having a continuing and most irritating problem with my Win XP
SP2
system ... the problem also happened before SP2 was installed.
Frequently
[i.e. 2-3 times an hour when I am using the system] and even
[occasionally
when the machine is in StandBy [!] the disk starts cranking away full
bore
[i.e. the disk light is on almost constantly and it sounds really
[REALLY
busy] for 2-3 minutes ... then it seems to start slowing down and
eventually
becomes quiet. I don't have a clue what is going on. When I bring up
Windows Task Manager and look at the Processes tab I see a couple of
entries whose I/O counts are changing a little bit [maybe 3-4 reads
and/or writes a second] but nothing shows the huge counts that I think
are going on based on
the noise I hear from the drive. When it is in this frantic disk mode
just about anything else that I might be trying to do comes to a
standstill ...eg. reading mail or coming back to life after being in
StandBy ... the
machine is essentially frozen. The Task Manager is showing several
instances of svchost (with username Network Service and System) and
lsass and csrss ... they sometimes have low I/O counts going on when
this happens but I don't think they are the culprits [although I am at
a loss to find out
what in Sam Hill these processes really do]. I am diligent about
running
virus and spyware scans ... they show nothing wrong. If this is an
artifact of Windows XP then I would dearly love to know what in the
world it is doing
when the system enters this state. I am running a system with 384MB
... the 30GB disk is quite full but this is not the problem because
this was
happening back when the disk was much less populated than it is now.
While I cannot base it on anything I do not think that this is being
caused by some outside agent (eg. a virus) ... my suspicion is that
Windows is doing SOMETHING to cause this but I sure wish they would
tell me what that
something is. It's driving me batty.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Try turning off the Indexing Service and see if that fixes it.

Start>Run>services.msc [enter]
Scroll down to the Indexing Service, stop it, and set to Disabled.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

 

[Malke]

Malke:

Indexing Service was already disabled!

Well, since you didn't tell us that, there was no way of me knowing.

You mention that your hard drive is "quite full" although it did this
before. How full is "quite full"? Windows needs at least 1.5 or 2GB of
moving-around space. Your system may be frantically swapping. Try
getting data off the disk, uninstalling programs, etc. Do all necessary
cleanup. On a 30GB drive, I'd want at least 5GB free and even then I'd
feel it was a bit cramped.

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/slowcom.htm
http://aumha.org/a/health.htm - Take Out the Trash (section 4)

This behavior has nothing to do with the way the operating system is
structured. It has to do with something you've done or something you're
running. XP isn't "just like that".

Malke

 

[DL]

Might want to try msconfig, disable all none MS items, check if it still
occurs

Malke:

Indexing Service was already disabled!

I am having a continuing and most irritating problem with my Win XP
SP2
system ... the problem also happened before SP2 was installed.
Frequently
[i.e. 2-3 times an hour when I am using the system] and even
[occasionally
when the machine is in StandBy [!] the disk starts cranking away full
bore
[i.e. the disk light is on almost constantly and it sounds really
[REALLY
busy] for 2-3 minutes ... then it seems to start slowing down and
eventually
becomes quiet. I don't have a clue what is going on. When I bring up
Windows Task Manager and look at the Processes tab I see a couple of
entries whose I/O counts are changing a little bit [maybe 3-4 reads
and/or writes a second] but nothing shows the huge counts that I think
are going on based on
the noise I hear from the drive. When it is in this frantic disk mode
just about anything else that I might be trying to do comes to a
standstill ...eg. reading mail or coming back to life after being in
StandBy ... the
machine is essentially frozen. The Task Manager is showing several
instances of svchost (with username Network Service and System) and
lsass and csrss ... they sometimes have low I/O counts going on when
this happens but I don't think they are the culprits [although I am at
a loss to find out
what in Sam Hill these processes really do]. I am diligent about
running
virus and spyware scans ... they show nothing wrong. If this is an
artifact of Windows XP then I would dearly love to know what in the
world it is doing
when the system enters this state. I am running a system with 384MB
... the 30GB disk is quite full but this is not the problem because
this was
happening back when the disk was much less populated than it is now.
While I cannot base it on anything I do not think that this is being
caused by some outside agent (eg. a virus) ... my suspicion is that
Windows is doing SOMETHING to cause this but I sure wish they would
tell me what that
something is. It's driving me batty.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Try turning off the Indexing Service and see if that fixes it.

Start>Run>services.msc [enter]
Scroll down to the Indexing Service, stop it, and set to Disabled.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

 

[Harry Ohrn]

This can be hard to ferret out without knowing what software you have
installed. Some software likes to create it's own indexes or databases for
fast file searching. Google Desktop or MSN Toolbar with Windows Desktop
Search are a couple of possible culprits as is the Fastfind feature for
Microsoft Word. What do you have launching at start-up?

 

[fripper]

I have a bunch of things loading at startup ... among them, ctfmon,
AGRSMMSG, Ati2mdxx, NTFSCLUP, SCHWIZEX, gcasServ, GoogleDesktop, LTSMMSG,
qtatsk, jusched, mosync,tgcmd, tp4ex, tp4servm WLANSTA, Push Client and a
bunch of IBM ThinkPad-specific programs.

I have rebooted using Diagnostic Startup (load basic devices and services
only) and so far I have not seen the disk go into la-la land, I will use
this for a couple of hours and if everything is OK begin to add more to the
startup procedure and may I will be bale to isolate the culprit.

Thanks for everyone's help. Sooner or later I will isolate (and shoot) the
bad guys.

This can be hard to ferret out without knowing what software you have
installed. Some software likes to create it's own indexes or databases for
fast file searching. Google Desktop or MSN Toolbar with Windows Desktop
Search are a couple of possible culprits as is the Fastfind feature for
Microsoft Word. What do you have launching at start-up?

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

I am having a continuing and most irritating problem with my Win XP SP2
system ... the problem also happened before SP2 was installed.
Frequently
[i.e. 2-3 times an hour when I am using the system] and even occasionally
when the machine is in StandBy [!] the disk starts cranking away full
bore
[i.e. the disk light is on almost constantly and it sounds really REALLY
busy] for 2-3 minutes ... then it seems to start slowing down and eventually
becomes quiet. I don't have a clue what is going on. When I bring up
Windows Task Manager and look at the Processes tab I see a couple of entries
whose I/O counts are changing a little bit [maybe 3-4 reads and/or writes a
second] but nothing shows the huge counts that I think are going on based on
the noise I hear from the drive. When it is in this frantic disk mode just
about anything else that I might be trying to do comes to a standstill
...eg. reading mail or coming back to life after being in StandBy ... the
machine is essentially frozen. The Task Manager is showing several
instances of svchost (with username Network Service and System) and lsass
and csrss ... they sometimes have low I/O counts going on when this happens
but I don't think they are the culprits [although I am at a loss to find out
what in Sam Hill these processes really do]. I am diligent about running
virus and spyware scans ... they show nothing wrong. If this is an artifact
of Windows XP then I would dearly love to know what in the world it is doing
when the system enters this state. I am running a system with 384MB ... the
30GB disk is quite full but this is not the problem because this was
happening back when the disk was much less populated than it is now. While
I cannot base it on anything I do not think that this is being caused by
some outside agent (eg. a virus) ... my suspicion is that Windows is
doing
SOMETHING to cause this but I sure wish they would tell me what that
something is. It's driving me batty.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Harry Ohrn]

Google Desktop will certainly cause the problem you are seeing as it creates
an index of all files on your system for fast searching.
As for the other files take a look here and see what they belong with
http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php
--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

I have a bunch of things loading at startup ... among them, ctfmon,
AGRSMMSG, Ati2mdxx, NTFSCLUP, SCHWIZEX, gcasServ, GoogleDesktop, LTSMMSG,
qtatsk, jusched, mosync,tgcmd, tp4ex, tp4servm WLANSTA, Push Client and a
bunch of IBM ThinkPad-specific programs.

I have rebooted using Diagnostic Startup (load basic devices and services
only) and so far I have not seen the disk go into la-la land, I will use
this for a couple of hours and if everything is OK begin to add more to
the startup procedure and may I will be bale to isolate the culprit.

Thanks for everyone's help. Sooner or later I will isolate (and shoot)
the bad guys.

This can be hard to ferret out without knowing what software you have
installed. Some software likes to create it's own indexes or databases
for
fast file searching. Google Desktop or MSN Toolbar with Windows Desktop
Search are a couple of possible culprits as is the Fastfind feature for
Microsoft Word. What do you have launching at start-up?

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

I am having a continuing and most irritating problem with my Win XP SP2
system ... the problem also happened before SP2 was installed.
Frequently
[i.e. 2-3 times an hour when I am using the system] and even
occasionally
when the machine is in StandBy [!] the disk starts cranking away full
bore
[i.e. the disk light is on almost constantly and it sounds really REALLY
busy] for 2-3 minutes ... then it seems to start slowing down and eventually
becomes quiet. I don't have a clue what is going on. When I bring up
Windows Task Manager and look at the Processes tab I see a couple of entries
whose I/O counts are changing a little bit [maybe 3-4 reads and/or
writes a
second] but nothing shows the huge counts that I think are going on
based on
the noise I hear from the drive. When it is in this frantic disk mode just
about anything else that I might be trying to do comes to a standstill
...eg. reading mail or coming back to life after being in StandBy ...
the
machine is essentially frozen. The Task Manager is showing several
instances of svchost (with username Network Service and System) and
lsass
and csrss ... they sometimes have low I/O counts going on when this happens
but I don't think they are the culprits [although I am at a loss to find out
what in Sam Hill these processes really do]. I am diligent about
running
virus and spyware scans ... they show nothing wrong. If this is an artifact
of Windows XP then I would dearly love to know what in the world it is doing
when the system enters this state. I am running a system with 384MB ... the
30GB disk is quite full but this is not the problem because this was
happening back when the disk was much less populated than it is now. While
I cannot base it on anything I do not think that this is being caused by
some outside agent (eg. a virus) ... my suspicion is that Windows is
doing
SOMETHING to cause this but I sure wish they would tell me what that
something is. It's driving me batty.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[fripper]

Harry Ohrn:

Thanks a lot for the web reference ... it will help be a lot as I begin
adding things back to my startup list. I have been running with the
Diagnostic Startup setting for a few days and everything seems to be fine.
Maybe I should leave the system this way! The site you sent me will help as
I selectively add stuff back in. I am determined to find the culprit ...
Google Desktop will be my first try.

Thanks again.

Google Desktop will certainly cause the problem you are seeing as it
creates an index of all files on your system for fast searching.
As for the other files take a look here and see what they belong with
http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php
--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

I have a bunch of things loading at startup ... among them, ctfmon,
AGRSMMSG, Ati2mdxx, NTFSCLUP, SCHWIZEX, gcasServ, GoogleDesktop, LTSMMSG,
qtatsk, jusched, mosync,tgcmd, tp4ex, tp4servm WLANSTA, Push Client and a
bunch of IBM ThinkPad-specific programs.

I have rebooted using Diagnostic Startup (load basic devices and services
only) and so far I have not seen the disk go into la-la land, I will use
this for a couple of hours and if everything is OK begin to add more to
the startup procedure and may I will be bale to isolate the culprit.

Thanks for everyone's help. Sooner or later I will isolate (and shoot)
the bad guys.

This can be hard to ferret out without knowing what software you have
installed. Some software likes to create it's own indexes or databases
for
fast file searching. Google Desktop or MSN Toolbar with Windows Desktop
Search are a couple of possible culprits as is the Fastfind feature for
Microsoft Word. What do you have launching at start-up?

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp


I am having a continuing and most irritating problem with my Win XP SP2
system ... the problem also happened before SP2 was installed.
Frequently
[i.e. 2-3 times an hour when I am using the system] and even
occasionally
when the machine is in StandBy [!] the disk starts cranking away full
bore
[i.e. the disk light is on almost constantly and it sounds really
REALLY
busy] for 2-3 minutes ... then it seems to start slowing down and
eventually
becomes quiet. I don't have a clue what is going on. When I bring up
Windows Task Manager and look at the Processes tab I see a couple of
entries
whose I/O counts are changing a little bit [maybe 3-4 reads and/or
writes
a
second] but nothing shows the huge counts that I think are going on
based
on
the noise I hear from the drive. When it is in this frantic disk mode
just
about anything else that I might be trying to do comes to a standstill
...eg. reading mail or coming back to life after being in StandBy ...
the
machine is essentially frozen. The Task Manager is showing several
instances of svchost (with username Network Service and System) and
lsass
and csrss ... they sometimes have low I/O counts going on when this
happens
but I don't think they are the culprits [although I am at a loss to
find
out
what in Sam Hill these processes really do]. I am diligent about
running
virus and spyware scans ... they show nothing wrong. If this is an
artifact
of Windows XP then I would dearly love to know what in the world it is
doing
when the system enters this state. I am running a system with 384MB
...
the
30GB disk is quite full but this is not the problem because this was
happening back when the disk was much less populated than it is now.
While
I cannot base it on anything I do not think that this is being caused
by
some outside agent (eg. a virus) ... my suspicion is that Windows is
doing
SOMETHING to cause this but I sure wish they would tell me what that
something is. It's driving me batty.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.