System freezes

[JoeT4449]

I've been running XP for several years with few problems. Late last week the
system has started to freeze, usually when the system was unattended several
hours after work. Lately, it has now started to freeze (did it twice today)
in the middle of working where there is no response from the keyboard or
mouse.

I have the power saving set where the hard disk drive never shuts down.

I have not added any new software last week (that I'm aware of) nor
downloaded any new programs.

Thanks.
Joe

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf]

I've been running XP for several years with few problems. Late last week the

system has started to freeze, usually when the system was unattended several
hours after work. Lately, it has now started to freeze (did it twice today)
in the middle of working where there is no response from the keyboard or
mouse.

I have the power saving set where the hard disk drive never shuts down.

I have not added any new software last week (that I'm aware of) nor
downloaded any new programs.

Check in the Event Viewer for any yellow or red flags in the past
couple of days: Control Panel > Admin. Tools > Event Viewer.

- Thee Chicago Wolf

 

[Gerry]

Joe

How much RAM

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

Open Disk Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report and
click on Save As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents
Folder and post a copy. Do this before running Disk Defragmenter as it
is more informative.

Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in
the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for the last boot. No
Information Reports or Duplicates please. Indicate which also appear in
a previous boot.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer.

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[JoeT4449]

I've collected the following requested info:
Defrag is currently running.

Thanks,

joe

Commit Charge
Tot: 599880
Limit: 2521276
Peak: 1045592

Vol C.txt:
Volume (C
Volume size = 74.53 GB
Cluster size = 4 KB
Used space = 24.02 GB
Free space = 50.51 GB
Percent free space = 67 %

Volume fragmentation
Total fragmentation = 22 %
File fragmentation = 44 %
Free space fragmentation = 1 %

File fragmentation
Total files = 103,617
Average file size = 398 KB
Total fragmented files = 13,362
Total excess fragments = 133,198
Average fragments per file = 2.28

Pagefile fragmentation
Pagefile size = 1.50 GB
Total fragments = 5

Folder fragmentation
Total folders = 7,556
Fragmented folders = 245
Excess folder fragments = 906

Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation
Total MFT size = 179 MB
MFT record count = 112,427
Percent MFT in use = 61 %
Total MFT fragments = 55

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fragments File Size Most fragmented files
2,037 486 MB \OE Mail Backup\Sent Items.dbx
1,330 88 MB \Documents and Settings\Joe\Local
Settings\Temp\Adobe Reader 8\Data1.cab
966 60 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1169\A0088292.sg
964 60 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1169\A0086301.sg
961 60 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1168\A0085384.sg
958 60 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1167\A0085266.sg
950 59 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1163\A0085116.sg
948 59 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1161\A0084968.sg
948 59 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1161\A0084013.sg
943 59 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1160\A0083986.sg
942 59 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1153\A0083832.sg
941 59 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1140\A0083426.sg
940 59 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1137\A0083319.sg
929 58 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1136\A0083282.sg
925 58 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1133\A0083059.sg
925 58 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1135\A0083217.sg
922 58 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1132\A0082988.sg
909 57 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1129\A0082884.sg
909 57 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1128\A0082821.sg
906 57 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1128\A0082768.sg
905 57 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1127\A0082722.sg
882 55 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1126\A0082630.sg
880 55 MB \Documents and Settings\Joe\My
Documents\XSitePro Backups\XSiteBackup_2007-Nov-23_1242\SiteGenerator.sg
880 55 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1123\A0082487.sg
878 55 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1114\A0082098.sg
877 55 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1113\A0081126.sg
875 55 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1110\A0080985.sg
868 54 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1109\A0080930.sg
866 54 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1108\A0080862.sg
863 54 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{764F7DF3-BA2D-4E8C-9010-BC842DC5B8E2}\RP1107\A0080766.sg

Event Viewer msg:
No error messages w/in the past month noted
This warning msg appeared but was well before system reboots:
Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Userenv
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1517
Date: 1/17/2008
Time: 1:45:35 AM
User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer: PERSONAL-LFOV0V
Description:
Windows saved user PERSONAL-LFOV0V\Joe registry while an application or
service was still using the registry during log off. The memory used by the
user's registry has not been freed. The registry will be unloaded when it is
no longer in use.

This is often caused by services running as a user account, try configuring
the services to run in either the LocalService or NetworkService account.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

 

[Gerry]

Joe

You have overlooked giving details of the installed RAM.

You should be able to gather more information from Task Manager. With
the Processes tab open select View, Select, Columns and check the boxes
before Peak Memory Usage and Virtual Memory size. What are the figures
for the 6 processes using the largest amounts?

Your files are badly fragmented.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp to
Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore point.

It is likely that an allocation of 12% has been made to System Restore
on your C partition which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700
mb. Right click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and select System
Restore. Place the cursor on your C drive select Settings but this
time find the slider and drag it to the left until it reads 700 mb and
exit. When you get to the Settings screen click on Apply and OK and
exit.

What are your pagefile settings?

What are your anti-virus and anti-spyware arrangements?


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[JoeT4449]

RAM:

You should be able to gather more information from Task Manager. With
the Processes tab open select View, Select, Columns and check the boxes
before Peak Memory Usage and Virtual Memory size. What are the figures
for the 6 processes using the largest amounts?
Mem Pk Mem
120K 121K
10K 10K
31K 43K
7K 49K
1K 51K
14K 35K


Your files are badly fragmented.
I defragged yesterday.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp to
Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files.
Done.


Also select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore point.
Done.

It is likely that an allocation of 12% has been made to System Restore
on your C partition which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700
mb. Right click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and select System
Restore. Place the cursor on your C drive select Settings but this
time find the slider and drag it to the left until it reads 700 mb and
exit. When you get to the Settings screen click on Apply and OK and
exit.
I don't have a My Computer icon on my desktop. When I access My Computer
through the Start menu, all I have is a description of files but no menu and
nothing about System Restore or Settings. Is there another way to access
this?


What are your pagefile settings?
Where do I find this?

What are your anti-virus and anti-spyware arrangements? Using Norton
Antivirus and no anti-spyware.

 

[Gerry]

Joe

How much RAM memory? Start, Control Panel, System, General tab.

Please name the 6 processes using the largest amounts

Start, Control Panel, System, System Restore

Start, Control Panel, System, Advanced, Performance Settings, Advanced
for pagefile information.

I suggest you remedy the lack of anti-spyware programmes immediately.

Download and install Windows Defender:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Download, install and scan using Spybot S & D:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html

Both are freeware. Further reading:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware



--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~