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#1
Excessive Read Write overloading HDD
Hi everyone!
I hesitated to write anything.... but if I don't I'm afraid my almost 8 year old HDD in laptop (see system description below) will run too hard too long and melt down the drive!
Its not a BSOD (thought I've had the "PAGE OVERFLOW" BSOD a few times), but I attributed it to the recent series of bad patches from Windows Updates and my Pale Moon Browser and Malwarebytes Premium all since beginning of April and they have all three already supplied patches to "fix" what they referred to as crashes. (That BSOD says always if this is the "first" time you've seen it ....i.e. after downloading and installing new patch update, etc, just ignore it and restart computer and it goes away, until next time I do "something" and it reappears---but again its stopped doing this for past few days since I got all the latest fixes for the patches that were "bad" I assumed)...
But this problem which I describe below and have been taking notes on for asking "someone" about it...has been occurring on my Windows 7 system (x64 Professional version) since the end of March so it actually predates all the updates which just caused many BSOD's until they were repaired by the addition of new updates.
I check (CTL ALT DEL and Task Manager] to see WHAT IN THE WORLD is running my HDD so much?
Under Performance I see CPU history of all four Quad chips i5 all show 1% to 10 % unless I press a button or move the mouse so they are free and ready to use for CPU computations. The Memory is similarly low function, though it spikes up to 30% for no discernable reason.
One "user" only/
Applications is EMPTY! I don't do anything while waiting for taht HDD light to slow down from 100% on.
I know when I set the Norton AV to run and when the Malwarebytes does its daily scan and of course the light is supposed to be 100% during those times.....but why is ti 100% solid most other times....
I checked Processes and I see 00 for all the CPU use as nothing is being used.
Yes! I found a lot of "services" running in the background Dropbox is one of the worst.....but even though it says 119,000 that does not seem to be what is doing this as it ALWAYS said that amount since I got it on here in 2011 or so...
I have written here about needing a larger HDD as I have too many items and files saved. In preparing for a large save of a new iPad, I've emptied what I can so out of c. 486 GB I now have 80 or so free space so no problem anymore about memory using parts of the HDD as I learned it does to assist its operation. (or whatever that is that it does).
[Oh I don't know if this is relevant but I toss it in..... I've gotten the following messages:
"The restore point could not be created for the following reason: The creation of a shadow copy has timed out. Try this operation again (0x81000101) Please try again. [Note I have had a weird relationship on this Laptop with the VSS services. Old thread here and asked other web help sites before I found this great site and they "gave up" and told me to get a new computer that something was permanently wrong with the VSS which they say is almost impossible to happen--especially if Norton and Malwarebytes both say the computer is clean of viruses and I really never install FREEWARE/SHAREWARE unless directed to do so by the members at this site, etc. sites. and avoid alll PUP's whenever downloading new upgrades to programs I have here.
and
"The writer experienced a non-transient error . If the backup process is retried, the error is likely to reoccur. (0x800423F4) Please try again" [And of course it fails over and over until I close computer and open a whole new session ---not a restart a let the HDD cool down an hour or so before trying again!)
[Hopefully I've attached those two for you to view as screenshots to prove I get these weird messages].
messages...when trying to create restore points before loading in software---- I did a "workaround" which is watch for HOURS (yes I guess I don't watch movies or tv or anything else this past few weeks) the little yellow drive light on the Laptop. When I finally see it flickering and not 100% lit and steady, I attempt to do a fast "create" a restore point and "sometimes" that works so I can download and install the necessary updates to fix things]
I'm sure you will direct me to provide some reports or other things I'm not always famlilar with getting and I'll do my best to get them to you.
Oh I almost forgot!
Deleterious effect of having the HDD running like it does... EVERYTHING else I click on or "do" on here is SLOWED DOWN IMMENSELY!
How slow you ask? [I answer this question in the fifth paragraph below my digressions.....sorry] I did this draft on another older computer and emailed it to myself so that I would NOT have to spend a year or more typing on the laptop to do it for you!
Lets say I was typing the above sentence;
I press the keys in order: "How slow you ask?"
I see on the blank word processing screen (does not matter which one I use, I have WordPad, NotePad, Jarte Plus and a few other regular ones like WordPerfect.)
I hope I write this correctly to describe the problem:
I see on the screen..
H..........ow ...... [space].........
.........(five minutes can pass ).......slow..........
........(another two minutes passes with the HDD light on 100% of the time and I get) y.....ou.....
[space]...... (another two minutes then I see ) .....ask?
Its impossible to type anything and think while typing...... I have to write it down on paper or go to another computer to write it down and print it out and carry it over for the slow entry method.
Also occurrs when posting to sites like yours so I managed to get it on Email (which is ALSO slowed down) but I got it all spell checked and corrected and just had to "copy" once and "paste" once which still took minutes to wait for the "paste" to happen on your site blank page.
[It got a bit better now and I added in the two screenshots....I don't know why it goes from 100% solid to flashing.... I am not using it during any of the scans or other times when the computer or Norton says "scanning in background" so I'm not overloading the HDD purposely.
Thanks for reading this head scratcher of a problem!
XP VM USER.
P.S. As I arrived on your site to post a new thread, I read someone here had a slow computer Sorry this is Vague: Need help with Laptop Please and someone recommended running msconfig to see what is starting up. I entered it in "search" box----is that right? The computer grayed out the screen (of course) said its " not responding" to the search request....until I canceled it and waited a few minutes (4 or so) until it released me so I could post this for you! Sorry, I know you say not to copy other's solutions as they may not apply to me, but I read a few (slowly clicking on them to read of course!) and this sounded sensible to try first, so I thought I'd try something I vaguely remembered being asked to do on earlier posts.