XP Frequent Hang-Ups With Any Program

I'm not sure where to start with this...

I run Win XP in a 3.1GHZ / 1GB RAM

XP is updated and patched to current

Earthlink DSL

LinkSys WRT54G router. Single computer, however.

No software firewall.

Anti-virus currently uninstalled (to check performance).

I run a pretty light system. My start up programs appear to be clean. A registered version of Ewedio shows no trojans or spyware. Newest update of Adware reports no spyware. Most recent MS Spyware Cleaner reports no spyware. AVG and Avast and online Panda scans report no security issues, viruses, trojans or spyware. Registry is 'cleaned' and 'correct' per Easycleaner, RegClean, and TweakNow.

HijackThis log appears clean Check It Here

PCBugDoctor fixed a few CLID errors and a corrupt shared file (I just finished that. Results of post fix yet to be determined).

In short, I have ran every program that I can think of trying to track down the reason that my computer is experiencing frequent hang-ups. The hangs can last from 1-7 seconds and appear to happen randomly. It can affect a web page loading: the page begins to load, then hangs for a second, then finishes loading. This can happen on feature heavy pages or on something simple like Google. It does appears to be pics or flash movies that are loaded last - after the hang - but I am not sure if this is part of the issues or not.

The hang can also happen while accessing any program or explorer window. It can happen while waiting for a menu tree to expand; while waiting for the folders in a window to populate; in the middle of a song in MusicMatch (song stops for a second, then starts back up. No pop or crackle. DMA is working fine).

It seems like something accessing files during access - like a virus checker or something similar. That it why I have tired uninstalling my virus software. That did not seem to have an effect. It is similar to a problem that I once had with Prevex, but the solution does not seem as easy this time (Prevex chews resources while every processed file is scanned.). Also there does not appear to be any harddrive accessing during the time of the hangs.

I am at my wits end as to what might be the problem. Any suggestion or troubleshooting ideas that I can take? I really do not want to do a clean install of this computer. I have gigs and gigs of DV data that I would have to back up first - a slow process.

 

PCBugDr fixes were no help...

It can also be said that the hang occurs during scans as well... like during a virus, registry, or 'find' scan. Several files will scan (you know, like on a virus protector show number of files scanned?), then the whole system will pause, then the scan will pick back up.

These are all the symptoms of the hang-ups.

 

It appears we have a simular problem. While my hangs are not as long as
yours.
Try to see if moving or clicking the mouse will make the system start responding again.
This action seems to break it free to do whatever it was doing. I'm trying to
track it down also and will watch this thread closely.
Only thing i can see in the event log is a random hang in firefox but the hang
happens in other programs when firefox is not running.

Almost like the system (or program) hits a barrier and loses track of what to do
next until something jars it loose, like a mouse click.

savagcl

 

No luck.

One additional symptom is that the hang seems to occur more frequently the longer the computer is on. Sometimes, when I initially boot up, the problem seems to go away. Then I will check back later and it is back. It makes doing anything on the computer unbearable. Stop...go...stop...................go...go...stop..go....stop...............go. It's driving me freaking insane.

Maybe it's related, but mouse movements or keyboard strokes seem to have no effect on my hangs.

 

During the hangs, no action can be taken. There is no hour glass, but the start button will not expand; folders will not open; pages will not load; clicks will not register; menus will not drop down; etc. The last action taken during the hang will sometimes take place as soon as the hang stops - i.e. a click on an item on the menu bar will do nothing during the hang, then sometimes when the hang is over the menu bar menu will drop down.

 

Not anymore. Nor since I bought Ewedio. I have that running.

 

I have tried one thing... I took your initial suggestion with the page file... it seemed to work fine after that -- for a while.

When it started acting up again, I re-read what you said and noticed that you mentioned to have it set to one size (I assume 1500 for both initial and max size). I did NOT do that originally. I had 1500 and 2500 set. So, right now I am running with No Page File and things seems to be running good. I've not had a hang in a while and I am jumping from page to page and have music match going, DV editing software and several fora. So far so good.

If this continues to work, should I reset my page file to 1500 and 1500 and see how that works? If this problem is my page file, then is there some deeper problem that I should worry about?

Thanks again.

 

You might also try disabling XP's indexing service if it isn't already. I myself find it to be of no value to me at all. Click start>run and type services.msc. In the window that opens scroll to Indexing Service. Double click on it and where it says startup type, select disabled. Reboot and see if the problem is any better.

 

My indexing was set to manual and was never initialized. I will try to disable it.

Problem is not solved. Strange. Things seem fine when I reboot... then after a little while the problem starts back up. Could it have something to do with standby options? Beats me. Task Manager shows System idle Process taking up 99% of the CPU. I cannot remember... is that possible? It seems correct that I do not have any other programs running in the background that are taking up CPU.

Task Manager look like this... I do not see any spike during the hangs...

http://hopfrog_productions.mm.st/task.jpg

 

Can't help thinking memory, RAM, could be failing. Suggest testing, possibly by replacement, stick by stick.

 

The system idle process running at 99% is normal. It shows you the percentage of the CPU cycles that aren't being used or the percentage that is "idle ". Put another way, it means that only 1% of the CPU is in use. Nothing wrong with that.

 

Yeah, I know. Just looked strange.

Man, my cpu is less than a year old. I hope nothing is failing.

 

Tool reported one error. It only picked it up on the first of four passes with the basic test - is that unusual for a legit error? In other words the error was reported on the first pass, but on subsequent passes of the same test, the same error did not occur.

The error was on the LRAND test. Cache on. Address 34173620. Expected: 6e0ca42b. Actual: 6c0ca42f.

Can this definitely be the problem?

The error occurred in the DIMM_2 module.

 

Believe any error is abnormal. Suggest substituting known working memory to substantiate the finding.

 

[response deleted cuz i'm an idiot and didn't see the rest of the thread]