Random 30sec-3min Hanging/Locking up

[Pollux]

Hey

Ive got a strange problem with my x64 ultimate OS.

3-10 times a day my system suddenly becomes slow and does'nt respond very fast, this continues until the system compeltly hangs (in a matter of 1min). Meaning i can move the mouse and see interface animations, but anything action related just hangs/lockes up.
This continues for up to 2-4 mins and then suddenly instantly gets back from the knockdown and proceedes with what i told it to do while locked up.

Another wierd thing about the problem is that it never happens when im running games and such in full screen.
It only happens when im working on the desktop.

Im a newb at troubleshooting windows systems so i actually have no clue what is causing this.
So please any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Pollux

 

[richc46]

Hey

Ive got a strange problem with my x64 ultimate OS.

3-10 times a day my system suddenly becomes slow and does'nt respond very fast, this continues until the system compeltly hangs (in a matter of 1min). Meaning i can move the mouse and see interface animations, but anything action related just hangs/lockes up.
This continues for up to 2-4 mins and then suddenly instantly gets back from the knockdown and proceedes with what i told it to do while locked up.

Another wierd thing about the problem is that it never happens when im running games and such in full screen.
It only happens when im working on the desktop.

Im a newb at troubleshooting windows systems so i actually have no clue what is causing this.
So please any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Pollux

When you have the problem go to task manager (alt+contrl+delete) and in the process tab, see what is using your memory. It sounds like a memory problem. Do you have enough memory. A second thought, which is likely too, could be your A/V those things can be memory gluttons.

 

[Pollux]

When you have the problem go to task manager (alt+contrl+delete) and in the process tab, see what is using your memory. It sounds like a memory problem. Do you have enough memory. A second thought, which is likely too, could be your A/V those things can be memory gluttons.

Hi, thanks for helping me out.

I currently have 4gb, and what i know of never runs low on memory. Imo it could'nt be the problem, cos as i wrote, it never happens when im running memory hungry games and such. Only on the desktop.

As for the antivirus im using Microsofts Security Essentials and ive never seen it use more than 60-70mb :/

About locating which app is using alot of memory while these lock downs happen. Most times i cant even get the task manager up before it itself unlocks after 2-3mins and by then i guess its too late

So, what else could it be ?

Ive looked into the Event viewer and dont see anything out of the usual.
Ive tested RAM with Memtest86+ with no errors.

Anyone got some input, would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[richc46]

When you have the problem go to task manager (alt+contrl+delete) and in the process tab, see what is using your memory. It sounds like a memory problem. Do you have enough memory. A second thought, which is likely too, could be your A/V those things can be memory gluttons.

Hi, thanks for helping me out.

I currently have 4gb, and what i know of never runs low on memory. Imo it could'nt be the problem, cos as i wrote, it never happens when im running memory hungry games and such. Only on the desktop.

As for the antivirus im using Microsofts Security Essentials and ive never seen it use more than 60-70mb :/

About locating which app is using alot of memory while these lock downs happen. Most times i cant even get the task manager up before it itself unlocks after 2-3mins and by then i guess its too late

So, what else could it be ?

Ive looked into the Event viewer and dont see anything out of the usual.
Ive tested RAM with Memtest86+ with no errors.

Anyone got some input, would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Type memory in search. Click on Windows memory diagnosis, tell us what you find.

Do a virus scan.

 

[zigzag3143]

When you have the problem go to task manager (alt+contrl+delete) and in the process tab, see what is using your memory. It sounds like a memory problem. Do you have enough memory. A second thought, which is likely too, could be your A/V those things can be memory gluttons.

Hi, thanks for helping me out.

I currently have 4gb, and what i know of never runs low on memory. Imo it could'nt be the problem, cos as i wrote, it never happens when im running memory hungry games and such. Only on the desktop.

As for the antivirus im using Microsofts Security Essentials and ive never seen it use more than 60-70mb :/

About locating which app is using alot of memory while these lock downs happen. Most times i cant even get the task manager up before it itself unlocks after 2-3mins and by then i guess its too late

So, what else could it be ?

Ive looked into the Event viewer and dont see anything out of the usual.
Ive tested RAM with Memtest86+ with no errors.

Anyone got some input, would be much appreciated.

Thanks

hi P

first can you use these instructions to create a dmp file next time it freezes? http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lo...-nov-generating-memory-dump-hung-process.html

second If it is freezing there are errors message in eventvwr. can you go to the windows log>application tab, and using the built in snipping tool make a screenshot of event viewer and upload it to us using the attachment icon (shaped like a paperclip) in the reply form see pics


Ken J+

 

[Pollux]

Type memory in search. Click on Windows memory diagnosis, tell us what you find.

Do a virus scan.

OK i ran the Memory Diagnostic Tool, came out with no errors at all.
Ran antiviris scan using Microsoft Security Essentials, nothing found.
God dammit this is fustrating, im glad you guys are helping me out.

http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lockup-debug-how/34944-1-nov-generating-memory-dump-hung-process.html[/url]

second If it is freezing there are errors message in eventvwr. can you go to the windows log>application tab, and using the built in snipping tool make a screenshot of event viewer and upload it to us using the attachment icon (shaped like a paperclip) in the reply form see pics
Ken J+

Hi Zigzag

My problem isn't that my applications freeze or become permanently inaccessible and thereby only can be stopped my terminating the process.
The whole system just hangs/locks for a period up to 3-4min and then suddenly goes back to normal instantly.
So i never see a "Application not responding", "what do you wanna do? wait or termiate process".

Regarding the eventviewer ive posted a pic of it when it has done the thing, but nothing out of the usual appears. (what i know of)

Thanks.

 

[zigzag3143]

Pollux


So when it freezes and you have to hard boot, you cant get to task manager. Does it do that in safe mode(F8)?

Ken J+

 

[chev65]

For interrmittent freezing I would tend to suspect the harddrive as the culprit. There are plenty of tests for harddrives that you can download online depending on what brand you have.

 

[richc46]

Go to your c drive properties, tools, then check for errors.

 

[Pollux]

Pollux

So when it freezes and you have to hard boot, you cant get to task manager. Does it do that in safe mode(F8)?
Ken J+

I dont think i understand what you mean completly.
But again it does'nt freeze, so i never do a "hard boot" cos i know it will unhang/unlock after some minutes.
I have'nt tried booting in safe mode and wait for the problem to happen, ill try that next.

 

[Pollux]

chev65 and richc46

Bingo!
The HDD is definitely the source of this problem.
I started the chkdsk sequence and it ran smoothly until some place in part 4/5 then it almost stopped only processing 100 bytes every 5sec.
It has been going on like that the last 4hours and is now in part5/5 of the "Check free space something" with 17% overall done. By then i decided to stop it cos it would take days for it to finish.

So now the problem has been identified, does anyone know if this can be solved by reinstalling the OS or is the HDD ****ed ?

 

[fseal]

There are a couple of issues with HD drivers in W7. First is the default shipping drivers do not work well on some machines. If you have an intel drive controller, there are updated "Matrix storage drivers" on intels website that fixes this problem for some people.

Second, if you have an SSD you can try turning off native command queuing. It's an option on the settings tab for ytour SATA channel "hardware device" so in the hardware manager, go to the SATA channel that has your SSD on it and uncheck the Native Command Queing check box.

If you do not have an SSD, this is an easy thing to try anyway to see if it goes away. You can always turn it back on later. (It is suppoed to add efficiency in throughput when multiple programs want data from the HD at the same time but it ads a bit of complexity and at least on SSDs it can cause the entire system to stall.)

 

[Pollux]

There are a couple of issues with HD drivers in W7. First is the default shipping drivers do not work well on some machines. If you have an intel drive controller, there are updated "Matrix storage drivers" on intels website that fixes this problem for some people.

Second, if you have an SSD you can try turning off native command queuing. It's an option on the settings tab for ytour SATA channel "hardware device" so in the hardware manager, go to the SATA channel that has your SSD on it and uncheck the Native Command Queing check box.

If you do not have an SSD, this is an easy thing to try anyway to see if it goes away. You can always turn it back on later. (It is suppoed to add efficiency in throughput when multiple programs want data from the HD at the same time but it ads a bit of complexity and at least on SSDs it can cause the entire system to stall.)

Ok im gonna find out what disk controller i have.
But another thing that should be mentioned is that ive had this OS working for 2-3 month before this issue came up.
So i dont understand if it should be the drivers ? it has been the same all the time.

 

[zigzag3143]

Pollux

What I was trying to convey is that if we can get you into task manager(just before or during) we can generate a dmp file just as if it had crashed.. that would give us definitive data as to the cause.

Ken J+

 

[fseal]

Ok im gonna find out what disk controller i have.
But another thing that should be mentioned is that ive had this OS working for 2-3 month before this issue came up.
So i dont understand if it should be the drivers ? it has been the same all the time.

Ah ok. Yeah my tips would generally be for cases where this was happening pretty much since install... With the SSD it would prevent W7 from booting one out of every 5 times, not that subtle

Still newer drivers may help.

 

[xGSTQ]

I just registered because im having this exact same problem... randomly freezing

Using Windows 7 x64 Ultimate Edition

I was reading though all the posts and I to have a Solid State Hard drive, 60GB its about 50% full ATM

My computer randomly freezes anything from 30 seconds to 2 minutes, I wouldn't say a lot its rather irregular but annoying ! It mainly does it when I boot or if I have a few programs open (Photoshop/Flash/Bride/Firefox) it will do it.

 

[Tokiopop]

I've got a similar problem, but it happens, every say, 10 seconds?

 

[fseal]

Let us know if turning off NCQ for the SATA bus that your SSD is attached to works out

 

[xGSTQ]

uncheck the Native Command Queing check box

I cant find this from my device manager...

im reading up now, and apparently its not that easy to get to in Windows 7, lol im not that great with computers though so im probably wrong !

 

[fseal]

I'm not at my 7 box but it's a configuration option on the individual sata port. So find the sata controllers in the hardware manager, then there should be 2 sata ports per controller and then on the sata port properties there should be the check box. Uncheck it only for the one port your SSD is connected too, rotating drives still need it for best performance (It's why it was invented).