Troubleshooting Stall - Where to Start?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

Hello all,

I have a Dell XPS Gen 5 with Pentium 4 3.20; 1GB RAM and NVIDIA GeoForce
6800. I am running XP Pro with SP2 and all the recommended updates from
Windows Update.

I have Avast antivirus, Win Defender, True Sword, Spybot Search and Destroy,
and Hijack. I use them to scrum the system regularly.

My problem is that periodically, (enough to be very annoying), applications
will take approximately 5 minutes to launch. I don't get an hour glass. I
just double click an icon and nothing happens for minutes. CTRL ALT DEL to
pull up task manager will have this same delay. Right clicking a file and
selecting properties will have this delay also. Only Explorer type tasks
like opening My Computer and browsing files still work. If an application is
already open, like Internet Explorer, it still operates normally.

I THINK I have this system clean from infection. However we all know how
that goes.

I am stumped where to beging troubleshooting this annoyance.

Please send some suggestions!


Best regards,


dbevins
 
David said:
Hello all,

I have a Dell XPS Gen 5 with Pentium 4 3.20; 1GB RAM and NVIDIA GeoForce
6800. I am running XP Pro with SP2 and all the recommended updates from
Windows Update.

I have Avast antivirus, Win Defender, True Sword, Spybot Search and
Destroy,
and Hijack. I use them to scrum the system regularly.

My problem is that periodically, (enough to be very annoying),
applications
will take approximately 5 minutes to launch. I don't get an hour glass.
I
just double click an icon and nothing happens for minutes. CTRL ALT DEL
to
pull up task manager will have this same delay. Right clicking a file and
selecting properties will have this delay also. Only Explorer type tasks
like opening My Computer and browsing files still work. If an application
is
already open, like Internet Explorer, it still operates normally.

I THINK I have this system clean from infection. However we all know how
that goes.

I am stumped where to beging troubleshooting this annoyance.

Please send some suggestions!


Best regards,


dbevins
Click to expand...

Pull up Task Manager. Under Processed what items are eating up CPU time?
 
ironic.

does it work faster
via safemode?
Hello all,

I have a Dell XPS Gen 5 with Pentium 4 3.20; 1GB RAM and NVIDIA GeoForce
6800. I am running XP Pro with SP2 and all the recommended updates from
Windows Update.

I have Avast antivirus, Win Defender, True Sword, Spybot Search and Destroy,
and Hijack. I use them to scrum the system regularly.

My problem is that periodically, (enough to be very annoying), applications
will take approximately 5 minutes to launch. I don't get an hour glass. I
just double click an icon and nothing happens for minutes. CTRL ALT DEL to
pull up task manager will have this same delay. Right clicking a file and
selecting properties will have this delay also. Only Explorer type tasks
like opening My Computer and browsing files still work. If an application is
already open, like Internet Explorer, it still operates normally.

I THINK I have this system clean from infection. However we all know how
that goes.

I am stumped where to beging troubleshooting this annoyance.

Please send some suggestions!


Best regards,


dbevins
 
chusome,

I downloaded the Western Digital bootable utilities and ran the quick test,
which it passed.

I also downloaded the Win utilities. It prompted with a message saying the
system wasn't configured properly for drives larger than 137 GB (or was it
139?) However the WD drive is a WESTERN DIGITAL 74GB SATA150 10K RPM HDD
WD740GD which I believe is called Raptor. The second Seagate drive is the
160GB one. The WD utility did some registry changes for that drive
apparently.

As the system is less than two years old and hasn’t seen heavy use. I would
hope I wouldn’t be getting driver errors so soon. The 10,000 rpm model was
one of the fastest drives available at the time. So I hope it is not a drive
performance problem.

I also got the Seatools Seagate boot utilities and it passed the short test.

I will try the long test when I have the time, each drive would take several
hours. If it’s bad sectors I’ll be disappointed in the drives durability.

It's too soon to see if the registry change had any effect as it is an
intermittent problem.

Thanks,


dbevins
 
Mr Saunders,

When the problem occurs, I cannot launch task manager. It too is affected.
Instead of leaving it running, I did leave another app, "Process Explorer"
running, which is like a beefed up task manager.

When the problem last occurred, System Idle Processes where using around 92%
of the CPU.

It showed two threads each using around 43%. Their addresses show 0x0.

System Idle Processes showed TCP activity on several ports. I think this is
some type of port forwarding going on Avast anti-virus. Also some adds from
Yahoo as my browser was open. Several ports in the 4000+ range tcp port
12080.

I am not sure what this traffic represents. I am on a dial up modem, but
this pc has been a wireless router connected I am not using at the moment,
(setting up other pc later), and has also been connected via a LAN. Maybe
some holds over settings are doing strange things.

One troubling thing is that rarely Avast will put an icon in the system
tray. A however says it is a mail scanner. I use web based email and not
any on this system. I wonder if some maleware might be sneaking around
trying to use my mail server. The icon hover shows IP addresses like Google
being accessed. I have enabled more logging in IIS and maybe I can find out
more about this traffic.

Thanks,


dbevins
 
db,

I have not noticed the problem in safe mode. But the intermittent nature
of the problem might not have surfaced. I may not have operated in safe mode
for long enough periods of time to see the problem surface.

Gut reaction is it probably won't surface in safe mode, but I'll pay more
attention.


Thanks,


dbevins
 
safemode with networking
basically gives you a virgin
operating system with internet
capabilities.

if safemode produces no errors
then clearly there is a problem
loading up via normal mode like
a third party driver.

another place to look a bit
further is to run msinfo32.

in addition to the side bar
results, there are some testing
features inside the menu bar.


db,

I have not noticed the problem in safe mode. But the intermittent nature
of the problem might not have surfaced. I may not have operated in safe mode
for long enough periods of time to see the problem surface.

Gut reaction is it probably won't surface in safe mode, but I'll pay more
attention.


Thanks,


dbevins
 
David said:
Mr Saunders,

When the problem occurs, I cannot launch task manager. It too is
affected.
Instead of leaving it running, I did leave another app, "Process Explorer"
running, which is like a beefed up task manager.

When the problem last occurred, System Idle Processes where using around
92%
of the CPU.

It showed two threads each using around 43%. Their addresses show 0x0.

System Idle Processes showed TCP activity on several ports. I think this
is
some type of port forwarding going on Avast anti-virus. Also some adds
from
Yahoo as my browser was open. Several ports in the 4000+ range tcp port
12080.

I am not sure what this traffic represents. I am on a dial up modem, but
this pc has been a wireless router connected I am not using at the moment,
(setting up other pc later), and has also been connected via a LAN. Maybe
some holds over settings are doing strange things.

One troubling thing is that rarely Avast will put an icon in the system
tray. A however says it is a mail scanner. I use web based email and not
any on this system. I wonder if some maleware might be sneaking around
trying to use my mail server. The icon hover shows IP addresses like
Google
being accessed. I have enabled more logging in IIS and maybe I can find
out
more about this traffic.

Thanks,


dbevins
Click to expand...

This means that 92% of the time the cpu isn't doing anything.
I've never seen Avast taking up any appreciable time.
Unless you can identify what's going on I can't suggest anything but
malware.
Do a thorough check for malware, following all of the steps at one of these
Web pages.
Help with malware:
All MS-MVP Sites.
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
http://aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/darnit.html
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/Malware_Defence.htm

Unexplained computer behavior may be caused by deceptive software.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/827315

So How Did I Get Infected Anyway?
For quite a few people it's by installing Messenger Plus, whose ads for
malware don't identify the malware as such and try to convince you that you
owe it to the author. See also:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=27971
Don't ever do a "default" install of anything. Always choose Custom and see
what else is being carried along. Don't install any extras you're not sure
of.
 
Back
Top