Programs randomly lock up

salome · 19 Jul 2012

Hello all. Longtime visitor - this forum has helped me so much - first time posting.

I'm not the most technologically minded person, so please bear with me. My specs (that I know): Toshiba Satellite L745 / Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit / 4GB RAM. If more are needed, please let me know and point me in the direction to find them.

My problem:

I rarely run more than two or three programs at a time. At the moment, I have only Chrome and AOL Instant Messenger. If I send/receive an IM, the window freezes for a few seconds. If I leave it alone it gets to working normally, but in the meantime the window is whited out. Same thing with Chrome. If I open a new tab - and I rarely have more than two tabs open at the same time - it freezes temporarily.

Any program that I run does this. If I'm working on a document and save it after typing a paragraph the program (OpenOffice) locks up for a moment or two. If I have iTunes running and want to switch songs, it freezes for a moment before switching. If I'm watching a video in Media Player, it takes a long time for it to load the video. The audio will work fine but the video will slow down then speed to catch up to the audio, or vice verse.

When I press the Win logo to bring up the start menu, that also freezes. I have to click it again to bring it up after about 30 seconds, and if I click a submenu (recent items, all programs) it freezes again. This usually only happens the first time I click it after starting up, and it runs normally afterwards.

All the programs do (usually) go on to run normally, but there are times I have to go into task manager to end the program (via the Processes tab).

Because my boot and shut down time is slow (in excess of five minutes at times) I have the laptop set to Hibernate. I hardly ever shut down/reboot unless recommended by uninstalling a program or a recent Windows Update.

What I've done so far:

Microsoft Security Essentials - Up to date, run once a week. About a month ago a trojan "win32/Jpgiframe" was found, and removed. Other than that, no problems detected.

Malwarebytes - up to date and run once a week. Aside from tracking cookies, no problems have been found.

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That's pretty much it. It's a small nuisance (no BSOD or failure to boot at all, knock wood), but it drives me crazy.

If anyone can help me, I bake a mean chocolate chip cookie. :)

Thanks in advance,
Josie

Ztruker · 19 Jul 2012

Hi Josie. Try this:

How does it behave if you boot to Safe Mode with Networking? If better then something is starting at boot that is causing the problem.

Advanced startup options - XP
Advanced startup options - Vista
Advanced startup options - Windows 7

Use msconfig to determine what is causing the problem

These are good tutorials on using msconfig in XP, Vista or Windows 7:
How to use msconfig in Windows XP
How to use msconfig in Windows Vista
How to use msconfig in Windows 7

Click on Start then Run, type msconfig and press Enter.
Click on the Startup tab, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Reboot and see if it runs better.
If yes then use msconfig to enable several items at a time till you find the culprit.

If no, start msconfig and click on the Services tab.
Check the Hide All Microsoft Services box, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Again, do a regular boot, see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable services till you find the culprit.

Once you've found the culprit, uninstall it or find out how to eliminate it from your system. Simply disabling it in msconfig is a temporary fix at best.
Enable everything else you disabled.

salome · 20 Jul 2012

Rich,

Thank you! I had no problems at all while in Safe Mode with Networking. I disabled all startup tasks, rebooted, and it was still problem-free. Enabled a few and rebooted again.

When it rebooted, a screen came up and I let it run. It said it was "deleting corrupt attribute record" several times - I didn't count how many - during stage 1. During stage 2, it was "deleting index entry" again several times. Should I be worried about either of these? I'll admit I've never run CHKDSK before.

It's still doing the CHKDSK now, so when it's restarted I'll go back to singling out the culprit.

Should I run CHKDSK again once I've found and removed the culprit?

Thanks again

Josie

Update - I've narrowed it down to these three:

hkcmd.exe
igfxtray.exe
igfxpers.exe

They're all Intel Common User Interface.

I also cleaned up some Toshiba bloatware that I don't use and was starting up automatically. With the selective starup (only MSE and my touchpad driver are enabled) everything is running smooth right now.

Ztruker · 20 Jul 2012

None of those are required so leave them disabled.

salome · 20 Jul 2012

Thanks again, Rich. :)

Ztruker · 20 Jul 2012

You're welcome, good luck.