Short system ‘freeze’ up (XP Home)

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Have been noticing lately that at various times and/or in various programs, that my system freezes up for about 5 to 10 seconds; there is a
H/D activity light comes on, and then all comes clear and normal. When this happens, I can’t do anything, the mouse pointer is immobile and
everything stops. I’ve tried to reduce all non essential programs, disabled virus check, etc., but have not been able to find out where this is
coming from. This has only been happening recently, but I have disabled all known new additions to my system. Still no luck.
Help?

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Is the Indexing Service enabled? That, or Office’s “Find Fast” come to mind as likely suspects.

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I thought you hit the nail on the head with Indexing service. I disabled it and for al while everything seemed to behave itself, but then this morning, there it was again. (might not have happened as often, or was that my wishful thinking?) Also. I dont have Office on here any more, or regarding the other post, I don’t use any McAfee stuff. Really thought you had it there! Any other thoughts?

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(I don’t have XP, but based on W2K)
Start up Task Manager, select Processes, and select to sort on CPU (so that the service using the most is at the top).
Minimize it.
Carry on working.
When the big freeze comes, can you Cntrl_Alt_Del and bring up TM to see what is going on?

Otherwise, does this apply?
Computer That Has ASUS P2B Motherboard Stops Responding After Windows XP Installation (Q307145)

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Well, I’m still trying. Tried Leif’s suggestions with task manager…Ctrl Alt del didn’t turn up anything that I could see that was out of the ordinary.( not sure just what I was looking for either) Also , don’t have an ASUS M/B and this didn’t really happen right after installing XP.
I have gone into msconfig and disabled everything that I could except Norton A/V and or Outpost firewall. Still get these seemingly random
freeze ups!!!!!!!!!!
The only POSSIBLE clue I saw was in the event manager, there were errors with VSS (volume shadow copy) After disabling VSS, I still got
the occasional deep freeze.
Checked out Microsoft Knowledge base but didn’t see any clues there either!!

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…and this didn’t really happen right after installing XP.

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[/indent] I know this is probably way out in left field, but your comment above, plus the hard drive churn makes me wonder. You don’t suppose that some evil phone-home thingie has gotten itself into your system, do you? Have you tried AdAware?

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Hi Big Al…Yes I have already tried the latest version of AdAware, NO hits ! I am really getting ticked with this problem/annoyance! I have even tried
reinstalling XP last night and am waiting to see if any change takes place. Meanwhile, keep those cards and letters coming (as they say) I do appreciate
the input from all.

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Still at it ! Re-installed XP as a last gasp resort and STILL getting the freeze ups. I enabled some unique sounds in the windows programs events and have noticed that when the freeze occurs, I get a sound on “device disconnect” and when it clears, I get a sound on “device connect”. So apparently I am losing some device which freezes the system, then getting it back when it comes clear? But what is doing it? That seems to be the mystery.
Any thoughts there????
Bob

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In one of your earlier posts you said this hadn’t happened right after you installed XP, leading me to believe the machine was “OK” for some period of time, then the problem started. NOW, you’ve re-installed XP and the problem is still there! This disconnect-reconnect thing could be a clue. You’ve not specified before, so would you mind giving us a pretty complete rundown on exactly what HARDWARE is in (or on) the machine? With all the Lounge’ers watching this thread, most more experienced than I, maybe you can give us something to “chew on.” Hang in there, Viking!

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That’s right, Al, At first there was no problem with the initial install. I do add and remove and change a lot of things. (tinkerer).
But here goes with the HARDWARE on my machine:
Celeron 700 CPU with 448 MB ram. (soon to be changed to Pentium 4, 2.0GB & new Mobo)
Two HD’s, 10 GB & 20 GB.
Creative 52x CD ROM
Sony CDRW
3/1/2″floppy of course
19″ Sony FS Monitor
Umax 3400 scanner
HP 920c printer
Creative sound with bass box & 2 aux speakers
DSL modem & NIC card
APC power UPS
MS optical wheel mouse

I thinks that’s about it off the top of my head anyway.

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I hope my Lounge comrades will jump in here too, Viking. Let’s see, I’m focusing on the disconnect-reconnect messages you’re getting, so…..

How is the Umax scanner attached? Is it by USB? I too have one, connected by USB but it’s on a Win98 machine and has never given me a problem. How about the UPS? Do you have its software running to “gently” shut down the system in the event of a power loss? I have no idea how that process interfaces with XP. I know I’m on a fishing expedition here, but I can’t think of anything to do except maybe disable or uninstall a couple of devices and see if the problem continues.

Of course, what Leif suggested about the Task Manager minimizing is worth another look-see. If you were to repeat his suggestion, and when the freeze happens, look in Task Manager and see if there’s a clue. Otherwise, I’m out of ideas….. Let’s keep trying though…..

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Do appreciate you sticking with this with me.
The scanner is USB and I have “pulled the plug” on this & disabled it temporarily.
The UPS is an older model “Back Ups Office” by APC and it is strictly a passive battery back up, with a certain amount of reserve time to back out and there are no optional software settings with it.
Minimizing the Task Manager didn’t help because I couldn’t get to it during the freeze to see what might be happening.
I do definitely think the device disconnect-reconnect messages are the clue but how to pin them down might be the hard thing to do.
This sure does keep your mind active though…………………..

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If it’s driving you then you should consider a painful, but effective way, of troubleshooting such things. It’s called “Clean boot troubleshooting.” What that means, basically, is to disable EVERYTHING. Reboot. See if the freeze-up still happens. If it doesn’t, then you enable things one at a time until it does, and then you have found your giulty party.

I’ve seen where networking issues can cause this to happen quite a lot. Make sure you have updated drivers for your NIC.

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Having tried just about everything else but Clean Boot. I am going to wait till Monday when I have my new mobo, P4 2.0 gig CPU and H/d scheduled to be delivered. Then install a fresh copy of XP with the new configuration. Try that out for a while, then start adding in my apps one by one to see if I can catch the culprit. Don’t know what else to try in the meantime, but I really do appreciate all of the suggestions given thus far. I will keep you posted, hopefully WHEN, not IF I find the troublemaker.
Best regards
Bob

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Well, if the new board/CPU is faster, maybe it will get through the hang-ups so quickly that it won’t matter? I’d be interested in hearing how you fare – and when you do the fresh install, wait a set period of time between adding new applications. If you install ten things at once it’s going to be impossible to tell where the freeze-ups are coming from. You might also find that your existing motherboard is just a turd, like my old Asus that I love to whine about.

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Well, I just wanted to post the GOOD news re: the “mini freeze ups” I had been having.
I installed the new P4 mobo, with a 2.0 gig CPU, 512 cache; big heatsink and fan, new HD and fresh installed XP. Then gradually reinstalled all of my apps(as I held my breath)
And VIOLA!!!! No more freeze ups! This machine is really SMOKIN’ as they say! I really feels good to not have that annoyance around anymore.
My only regret is that I didn’t find out what actually caused that problem.
At any rate, alls well that ends well! Thanks for all of the input on this from everyone,
Best, Bob

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Congratulations, Bob! This thread has been like watchin’ a soap opera, waiting for the next episode. Glad you got the new Machine built up OK. Just curious, how much RAM did you put in that sucker?

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You are right about the soap opera thing. Relief isn’t spelled R.O.L.L.A.I.D.S., it’s W.H.E.W., no more freeeze ups !!!!!!!!!
I had 3 sticks of compatible RAM that totaled 448 MB. Seems to be more than adequate.
Again, Thanks for all the advise and suggestions. I’ll keep checking in here to see what’s doing. ( hopefully without any other headaches)
Bob

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Viking33,

This is so simple I

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Sorry for the misleading grammar, Viking. I wasn’t trying to lead you towards McAfee. It’s just that that’s what it was in my case. I was using that as an example, to suggest that you run MSCONFIG and look in startup for something YOU may have installed. Like, you know, you could have installed some graphics program, or whatever, that’s in MSCONFIG Startup.

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Check Mark’s two things first, but, if you come up empty…..

Sounds exactly like what McAfee used to do to me, even if I thought I was disabling it to check out the problem. If your virus checker happens to be of the McAfee flavor, try running MSCONFIG, go to STARTUP tab and see if something called “ALOGSERV” is running. It’ll be in lower case of course. If you find it, kill it. It’s what was causing my problem and McAfee tech support says it isn’t a required program. (I think it’s what “logs” virus attacks)

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Some random freezes in XP are due to the Welcome Screen. If you disable this feature and go back to the alternate Win2K style logon dialog box many report positive results. Also, during a freeze with the Welcome Screen enabled Ctrl-Alt-Delete does not function. Hopefully this and many other problems will be fixed when SP1 arrives later in the year.

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I guess SP1 didn’t take care of this problem. How do you remove the welcome screen? I also get the occasional short system freeze and when I recently got my first XP blue screen saying restart your computer, ctrl-alt-delete didn’t work.

Thanks,
Brent

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To remove the Welcome screen:

Start – Control Panel – User Accounts – Change the way users log on or off and clear the tick in the checkbox next to “Use the Welcome Screen.” I’d also get rid of Fast User Switching too, just a personal preference.

Now, that blue screen. Without knowing the error that was displayed on the screen it’s near impossible to troubleshoot, but I can tell you that seeing a blue screen is Not Good. Check the Event Viewer and see if it has any details from the time of the crash that will help narrow it down. Just so’s ya know, 95% of all blue screens are driver problems, which is one of the main reasons Microsoft implemented driver signing in Windows XP – resulting in a nag box every time you update your drivers to a newer version.

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Thanks very much. The blue screen was something that happened when I was syncing my Visor. I’ve synced with the newer software everyday without trouble since I got the new computer about 2 months ago, so I’ll wait and see if it happens again before contacting Handspring. The message specifically said to check the driver for the visor, so I know what’s going on with that (well as much as I can….).

Thanks again,
Brent

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