Intermittent lockups after SP3

[gsayers9686]

Since installing SP3, I've noticed that my computer will freeze for 7 seconds
every few minutes or so. Rebooted in safe mode but no change. Checking for
processes in Task Manager but nothing that spikes during the activity. The
hard drive light goes practically solid during that time. Any thoughts?

AMD Duron Processor 1.3 GHZ w/1.5G of RAM

Thanks.

 

[JS]

Try Process Monitor:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

JS
www.pagestart.com

 

[gsayers9686]

OK, I ran the process monitor. Explorer is causing the problem. When I end
the task in Task Manager, the hard drive writes stop. These seem to be the
operations that are causing the issue:

IRP_MJ_CREATE
IRP_MJ_QUERY_VOLUME_INFORMATION
IRP_MJ_CLEANUP
IRP_MJ_CLOSE

Does some Process Profiling then

IRP_MJ_WRITE to hidden files @ C:\

Is there a way to stop this from happening?

Thanks...

 

[JS]

It could be a Windows 'Explorer' sub-process or application that's running
in the background, writing to the disk drive and causing your PC to freeze.

You need to dig deeper, find and display what could
be the problem use Process Explorer:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/ProcessExplorer.mspx

Once you have Process Explorer installed and running:
In the taskbar select View and check 'Show Process Tree' and the
'Show Lower Pane' options.
Then expand the process named 'Explorer' (click on the + sign)
In the column on the left named 'CPU', look for any high CPU usage.
Next click on the CPU column to sort the processes by %CPU usage
(Highest to Lowest).

Move the mouse cursor over any process, you should see a popup with some
detailed info.
Then mouse over the process that's using most or all the CPU %.
Then click on that process to highlight it,
Now that it's highlighted, right click and from the options listed select:
Search Online
This should display what out there on the web about that process.
You can also double click on any process to open up a more detailed
'Properties' window.
Note: some entries like Explorer, System/Services, and
Svchost entries may need to be expanded to show the detail (sub processes),
in this case click on the + located to the left of the entry.

An alternate method when using Process Explorer is to double click on the
Graph just below the Menu bar.
This will open the 'System Information' window, which has a larger display
of all three graphs.
Move your mouse over any spike in the CPU Usage graph to see what
process/application or service was the cause of the spike.

JS
www.pagestart.com

 

[gsayers9686]

OK, Maybe I wasn't specific enough when I used the term "locked up". I can
move the mouse around and can still type (just buffers the keystrokes). The
screen freezes, so Process Explorer can't show me what's happening during the
time the HD is writing. The only thing I can check is the CSwitch Delta when
viewing the explorer.exe threads. Only thread "SHLWAPI.dll!Ordinal505+0x3e9"
shows a Delta, and it tops out @ 84 from a nominal 16.

Here are the symptoms...

Happens every 60 seconds.
Depending on apps running, IRP_MJ_WRITE writes to different files in c:\
(i.e. $LogFile)
Always writes to c:\pagefile.sys

pagefile.sys shows as 1 fragment in Disk Defrag

When explorer.exe is killed, the symptoms disappear.

Restarting explorer.exe brings back the symptoms.

GSA

p.s. thanks for the help.

 

[JS]

Indexing service, is it running?

JS

OK, Maybe I wasn't specific enough when I used the term "locked up". I can
move the mouse around and can still type (just buffers the keystrokes).
The
screen freezes, so Process Explorer can't show me what's happening during
the
time the HD is writing. The only thing I can check is the CSwitch Delta
when
viewing the explorer.exe threads. Only thread
"SHLWAPI.dll!Ordinal505+0x3e9"
shows a Delta, and it tops out @ 84 from a nominal 16.

Here are the symptoms...

Happens every 60 seconds.
Depending on apps running, IRP_MJ_WRITE writes to different files in c:\
(i.e. $LogFile)
Always writes to c:\pagefile.sys

pagefile.sys shows as 1 fragment in Disk Defrag

When explorer.exe is killed, the symptoms disappear.

Restarting explorer.exe brings back the symptoms.

GSA

p.s. thanks for the help.

 

[gsayers9686]

Indexing service is not running.

Indexing service, is it running?

JS

 

[JS]

I know you said that Process Explorer also froze, but after the PC unfreezes
look at the CPU graph in Process Explorer, it's possible it may have the
beginnings of a small/large spike at the start of the freeze, you may even
see a small spike spaced every sever seconds or so. If the spike is present,
then move your mouse cursor directly over the spike and you should see a pop
up with what cause the spike.

If the above is of no help then I think you need to do a brute force
approach and one at a time disable an item in the Startup list.
Use msconfig for this, (Start/run/msconfig) and in the 'Startup' tab look at
the list of items, you could uncheck them all and reboot, see if the problem
is gone. If the problem/freeze has stopped then it's one of the items in the
startup list.

JS

 

[JS]

Safe Mode Description: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315222

I'd use msconfig's 'Selective' startup and removing the check marks for:
'Process SYSTEM.INI File', 'Process WIN.INI File', 'Load System Services'
and 'Load Startup Items'. Then in the 'Services' Tab placing a checkmark in
the 'Hide All Microsoft Services' box, and then click the 'Disable All'
button. This effectively stops any "non" Microsoft services and "startup
items" from loading or starting the next time you boot the PC.

This means the next time you boot the PC it will be as close to a bare bones
OS as possible.

JS

 

[gsayers9686]

Well, I found the problem and it was not anything I expected.

My D: drive was starting to fail about the same time I upgraded to SP3. I
didn't know it until yesterday. Booted the PC and Windows is telling we
there's a problem with the D: drive. I powered down the PC, disconnected the
hard drive and powered it back up.

Problem gone.

Thanks for all the help. If nothing else, I've learned a bit more about how
the OS works

 

[JS]

Thanks for the feedback.

JS

Well, I found the problem and it was not anything I expected.

My D: drive was starting to fail about the same time I upgraded to SP3. I
didn't know it until yesterday. Booted the PC and Windows is telling we
there's a problem with the D: drive. I powered down the PC, disconnected
the
hard drive and powered it back up.

Problem gone.

Thanks for all the help. If nothing else, I've learned a bit more about
how
the OS works