Computer hangs on search (Home)

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My dad’s computer with XP home (1.8 GHz 256 MB RAM) hangs when searching the hard disk. The search works but nothing can be done in the meantime.

Can anyone help?

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Start, Run, Search then searching for anything at all with wildcards, filenames etc. It just hangs

He tried turning off auto-indexing, still hung the computer, turned it back on – still hung the computer.

Sorry I can’t give you any more info

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Hi Melissa,
Do you have SP-1 installed? Take a look at the search information here: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_abc.htm%5B/url%5D. Kelly usually has very good information on XP issues.

Joe

--Joe

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Melissa, How was the indexing turned off? Did he disable it by drive? Or did he disable the indexing service? You may want to make sure the service was disabled.

Joe

--Joe

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The two parts of Kelly’s website I think Joe is pointing to are these–but take a look under “S” of Joe’s link for all the search fixes and contexts. I didn’t see this last night, and the Search Freezes combined with (1) may be direct hits on fixing this problem. Thanks Joe.

(1) Search – Doesn’t Work

Open Explorer and go to the WindowsInf folder. Locate the srchasst.inf file. Right click it and select Install. You’ll need your XP CD or the files from the I386 folder. (This fix will require you to have your Win XP CD).

The WindowsInf folder is a hidden folder. You can adjust your Explorer Folder Options (View tab) to Show hidden files and folders. You can also click Start, Run and enter %SystemRoot%Inf to open directly to the Inf folder.
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(2) Search – Freezes

To disable the Indexing service: Go to Start/Administrative Tools/Services. Double click Services and find the Indexing Service. Double click/properties/Stop. From the Status Type Box, select Disabled.

If it switches back at boot:

Disable the Indexing Service (Line 42)
Kelly’s Tweaks

SMBP

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Melissa–

You may need to run SFC to fix and replace IE files or try some of the other fixes offered, but go here, line 24 rt. column, “Clear Search History” and this may help eliminate the hang up on search.

SMBP

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If you call them with your case number or your name, they can retrieve it, email it to you and you can post it. I’d like to see the registry hack that fixes search freezing if you get it. You can use the same number I gave you last week.

SMBP

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