Windows 7 Hang

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  1. Posts : 1,377
    Win7x64
       #41

    AngryJedi said:
    ...
    The freeze just occurred right now but once again no error was logged....any way to debug this sort of error without xperf or anywhere where i can get xperf?
    I think the WPT - and the Xperf installation MSIs - are buried somewhere in that SDK, but if you haven't been able to find it then I don't know. I suspect there'll be an uproar and the WPT will be made available as a separate download again, but you probably don't want to wait that long.

    Xperf is excellent for two main reasons:
    a) It "sees" deep into the action. In other words, it collects a massive amount of detailed data.
    b) It is a relatively lightweight logging mechanism. You could configure it to run all day without greatly impacting your machine's performance or resulting in a 4TB logfile!

    Still, no point crying over spilt milk.

    There's an in-built mechanism which can also produce a useful log, though I fear it may not be enough in your case. Only one way to find out...

    1) Create a counters.txt file somewhere on your machine with the following contents:

    Code:
    \process(*)\*
    \processor(*)\*
    \memory\*
    \PhysicalDisk(*)\*
    \system\*

    2) On an elevated (run as admin) CMD prompt (change <path> to location of counters.txt): logman create counter hangLog -cf c:\<path>\counters.txt -si 1 -max 10 -cnf 10:00

    3) Then this (on the same CMD prompt): logman start hangLog

    4) Wait for the hang to happen again.... then wait say 2 minutes more.

    5) On an elevated CMD prompt again: logman stop hangLog


    In the \Perflogs\Admin folder there should be a whole bunch of BLG files by then. They're Binary LoG files containing some info about what your machine was doing at the time, broken up into smaller chunks for easier handling.

    If you zip up and upload say the last 5 somewhere, it may be possible to tell you what the box is doing during the "freeze". Or not :)
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 51
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #42

    Hi H2SO4,
    I may be leading to something here. Curious about how everything would just start lagging I thought that maybe it might be a RAM issue. So I downloaded the latest version of Memtest86+ and ran the complete test. Surely enough at Test 6 I had errors show up. I had upgraded my computer with OCZ2MV6672G 2GB RAM a while back and it worked just fine. So trying to narrow down the issue, I removed the 2GB stick so I had only the 1GB stick (soldered RAM) on my laptop and ran the same test that failed again. This time it passed! I inserted a 512MB RAM that came originally with my laptop so I would get a total of 1.5GB and ran Test 6 again. It passed again! Then I removed the stick and added my 2GB one back to get a total of 3GB back. When I ran Test 6 again I came across the same errors at a specific block in the memory (same block always).
    Could this be the cause of the freezing? I have limited lifetime warranty on the OCZ 2GB RAM, should I get it repaired or could something else be causing the error and the freezing?

    Here is a picture of the error:
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Windows 7 Hang-ram-error.jpg  
    Last edited by AngryJedi; 17 Oct 2009 at 17:35.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 51
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #43

    So H2SO4,
    I was able to get the log during the crash using the method you suggested above.
    Let me describe to you what exactly I did before and after the crash happened:
    The first thing I did was uninstall the SDK, the Debugger Tools, and some Application Verification Program (these are all things installed by the SDK installer). I turned on iTunes and started playing a song because its easiest for me to determine the hang because the song also stops playing. I opened up google chrome and started browsing for my daily fix on IGN and Gamespot. Surely enough, after a few minutes of browsing the song stopped playing midway and the hard drive light remained on without any sounds as usual. To verify this was the crash I started randomly opening up programs and windows. Everything that was in RAM would open, but anything that seemed to require hard drive access such as opening a new program would not happen. 10-15 seconds after the hang subsided and all the windows and programs that I opened suddenly loaded and popped up with my hard drive returning to normal.
    Here is the log file and I hope that it gives us a more definite answer

    PS: I can confidently say that the SDK somehow makes the computer a LOT LESS crash prone for some reason. Either that or a crash always occurs within 5 minutes of uninstalling the SDK lol.
    Windows 7 Hang Attached Files
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 51
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #44

    Hey H2SO4,
    I was also able to find the xperf files. All they did was rename it! Once you install the SDK if you go into the bin directory of the installed files you will see a file called wpt_x64.msi which was previously called xperf_x64.msi!
    So anyways I was able to install and run the xperf log using the circular method. I was also able to get my computer to hang but it was a fairly short one which lasted about 4-5 seconds probably.
    The file was too big to attach so I have uploaded it to my skydrive, here's the link:
    xperf HangLog.zip
    Last edited by AngryJedi; 17 Oct 2009 at 22:38.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 51
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #45

    Another update,
    I uninstalled the SDK again so that I could get the longer hang which lasts for about 10-15 seconds and surely enough it happened a bit after I uninstalled it. I started the xperf log right after uninstalling was finished. Hopefully this is more accurate than the last and gives a better picture as to what is going on. You can see that the hard drive is loaded during the hang to the max. Also you'll see that I tried opening random programs while it was hung just to see if it was hung or not (like WMplayer and IE).

    Heres the log:
    xperf Hanglog 2.zip

    PS: Sorry for the post spam. Just wanted to give you as much information as I can to assess this problem thoroughly :)
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 1,377
    Win7x64
       #46

    AngryJedi said:
    Another update,
    I uninstalled the SDK again so that I could get the longer hang which lasts for about 10-15 seconds and surely enough it happened a bit after I uninstalled it. I started the xperf log right after uninstalling was finished. Hopefully this is more accurate than the last and gives a better picture as to what is going on. You can see that the hard drive is loaded during the hang to the max. Also you'll see that I tried opening random programs while it was hung just to see if it was hung or not (like WMplayer and IE).

    Heres the log:
    xperf Hanglog 2.zip

    PS: Sorry for the post spam. Just wanted to give you as much information as I can to assess this problem thoroughly :)
    Bear with me - this stuff can be tricky to analyse.

    I think I see the effect of the hang in the log, but I want to make sure I'm looking at the right thing before I get too carried away.

    Can you please do another one of those, but this time try to note, as accurately as possible, the time between when the "freeze" appeared to end and the time you stopped the logging. In other words, if it went from say 20:35:17 to 20:35:30, and you stopped the Xperf log at 20:35:45, then I'd want to know that the log was stopped "15 seconds after the event cleared itself up, and roughly 28 seconds after it started".

    As accurate as possible anyway. I know it's fiddly to do, let alone to time.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 51
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #47

    Hi H2S04,
    I've noticed that the hang occurs at evening or mainly night time. I have never really experienced it during the daytime. Also I changed my RAM module to the one that I was given with the laptop (because it had no errors in Memtest86+) and it was running fine until now. I have issued an RMA for the other RAM since it has errors anyway but now I know that the issue isn't with the RAM itself.

    Here are the logs for the latest hang:
    xperf Hanglog 3.zip
    The hang lasted for around 30-40 seconds, I wasn't able to get an extremely accurate result however since it occurred as a suprise. Also I stopped the log roughly 12 seconds after the hang subsided (which I can say fairly accurately). So therefore, the log was stopped "12 seconds after the event cleared itself up, and roughly 42-52 seconds after it started"

    Also the error regarding "The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort1." seems to occur a few minutes or even hours before the hang occurs. What is this error referring to in the event log? Could this be contributing to the hangs?
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 51
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #48

    Ok so this hang definitely is more frequent during the night, it just happened again and now its starting to tick me off!!...I hope this issue can be solved!

    Here is the log once again for the 4th time!
    xperf Hanglog 4.zip
    This one I counted much more precisely. The hang lasted for about 40 seconds and I stopped the log around 15 seconds after the hang subsided. So therefore, the log was stopped "15 seconds after the event cleared itself up, and around 55 seconds after it started"

    I don't understand how I never had any of these problems when I was running Windows 7 Ultimate RC before clean installing to RTM Professional....
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 51
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #49

    Yet again,
    heres another one...:@
    xperf Hanglog 5.zip
    Around 45 seconds hang, and I stopped it about 10 seconds after that.
    Man it renders my computer useless now...
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 1,377
    Win7x64
       #50

    AngryJedi said:
    Yet again,
    heres another one...:@
    xperf Hanglog 5.zip
    Around 45 seconds hang, and I stopped it about 10 seconds after that.
    Man it renders my computer useless now...
    It's like your entire disk is locked up, for reasons I don't understand yet. The controller error is certainly omnious, and it is almost beyond doubt linked to a hardware problem. I'm therefore tempted to tell you to not bother troubleshooting further but to instead treat this as a broken disk/controller issue, but if you're game it would probably be useful to troubleshoot a bit more first.

    The attached images show relevant data from your Xperf logs. The "system" process (PID = 4) appears to monopolise the disk for roughly 50 seconds at a time a few minutes apart. Unfortunately, no info is recorded as to what it's actually doing ("unknown" path). The second plateau is the one which you perceive as the freeze, and apparently the rest of the OS feels neglected too because you can see that massive backlog of I/O activity getting fulfilled (green arrow) once the freeze is over.

    Can you please do another one of those, but use these settings to start the log this time:

    xperf -on PROC_THREAD+LOADER+DISK_IO+HARD_FAULTS+FILE_IO+FILE_IO_INIT+DISK_IO+DISK_IO_INIT+DRIVERS -MaxFile 30 -FileMode circular

    Sorry, it's fiddly to try to understand something like this, especially over a web forum :)
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Windows 7 Hang-plateaus.png   Windows 7 Hang-bypath.png  
      My Computer


 
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