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WinVista PC locks/freezes periodically - why?
12-31-2012, 09:13 AM
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#1
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: NC
Posts: 21,204
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WinVista PC locks/freezes periodically - why?
All PC's do this at some frequency, but it used to be very rare on every other PC I've used. Now it seems to happen almost every day.
Everything locks up, mouse freezes, can't even ctrl-alt-delete for 5-30 seconds. And then I'm back in business again, seemingly unscathed. A few times I've hard stopped my (Dell) PC with the power switch, but that's a problem on restart of course. The PC run light stays lit, and my CPU %usage meter shows activity (25% or so). I keep worrying that it's a key-logger or other destructive virus/worm. But Norton says I'm OK, and so does malwarebytes.
I've Googled, but every hit seems to yield another answer, and most are pretty complex. If there was any consistency, I'd be game, but not if every one suggests a different answer.
Anyone having/had the same experience - and a successful solution?
__________________
No one agrees with other people's opinions; they merely agree with their own opinions -- expressed by somebody else. Sydney Tremayne
Retired Jun 2011 at age 57
Target AA: 50% equity funds / 45% bonds / 5% cash
Target WR: Approx 1.5% Approx 20% SI (secure income, SS only)
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12-31-2012, 09:24 AM
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#2
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Administrator
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Chicagoland
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Memory overload? What browser do you use and how many applications do you typically have open?
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12-31-2012, 09:33 AM
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#3
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Texas: No Country for Old Men
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelB
Memory overload?
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+1
Open your Task Manager and click on Performance to see how much memory and CPU you are using. Sounds like you are maxing out.
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Numbers is hard
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12-31-2012, 09:35 AM
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#4
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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My older "under powered" laptop started to do this. I changed my browser to google from Internet explorer and it definitely speeded up without the temporary freezes like you have. A few days ago I installed CCleaner a free download from CNET and it went through and cleaned up some of the lurking stuff in the background, and now my explorer is working faster now than it was without any freezes since then.
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12-31-2012, 09:58 AM
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#5
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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The Vista laptop I am on now does this. All the tabs in Firefox will fade out while the freeze is in effect although the mouse still moves the cursor. I assumed as others mention that some process has grabbed all the available memory and I just have to wait it out. This is an old, under-RAMed HP mini that I don't want to bother upgrading. IIRC I have also seen it on my Win 7 desktop but not frequently.
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Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre -- Albert Camus
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12-31-2012, 10:19 AM
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#6
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2008
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Run Firefox in safe mode to see if the problem is an add-in.
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12-31-2012, 10:39 AM
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#7
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: the City of Subdued Excitement
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Whatever possessed you to buy something running Windows Vista ?
__________________
I have outlived most of the people I don't like and I am working on the rest.
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12-31-2012, 10:43 AM
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#8
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Mississippi
Posts: 1,894
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Several things come to mind. Look through the event viewer logs see if it identifies anything.
Could be temporary CPU overload, you can set task manager to watch the CPU load under the performance tab. See if some is spiking the cpu.
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12-31-2012, 10:44 AM
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#9
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Mississippi
Posts: 1,894
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed_The_Gypsy
Whatever possessed you to buy something running Windows Vista ?
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My linux box has been up over six months, only down last time the power went out.
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12-31-2012, 10:45 AM
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#10
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 3,877
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The times I've had the "computer apparently dead for 20 seconds" thing it's been related to an overly-complex PDF file being loaded/parsed.
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12-31-2012, 11:01 AM
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#11
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelB
Memory overload? What browser do you use and how many applications do you typically have open?
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IE9. I usually only have 3-4 apps open at a time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by REWahoo
Open your Task Manager and click on Performance to see how much memory and CPU you are using. Sounds like you are maxing out.
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See below, I visited several website and opened and closed PPT while it was running. And I have a CPU gadget on my desktop, I don't think I've ever seen it reach even 50%.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rbmrtn
Several things come to mind. Look through the event viewer logs see if it identifies anything.
Could be temporary CPU overload, you can set task manager to watch the CPU load under the performance tab. See if some is spiking the cpu.
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Interesting, this is new to me. The four ERRORS that appear today are DHCP Server, WMI, HP CUE device discovery & Dock Login Service. I need to explore them and in general Event Viewer use further.
Thanks all...
__________________
No one agrees with other people's opinions; they merely agree with their own opinions -- expressed by somebody else. Sydney Tremayne
Retired Jun 2011 at age 57
Target AA: 50% equity funds / 45% bonds / 5% cash
Target WR: Approx 1.5% Approx 20% SI (secure income, SS only)
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12-31-2012, 11:31 AM
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#12
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Mississippi
Posts: 1,894
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Midpack
IE9. I usually only have 3-4 apps open at a time.
Thanks all...
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Does it only do this when IE9 is open ?
Is this 32 or 64 bit version ?
Try a different browser, firefox, chrome etc. See if it still happens. Could be a addon in IE.
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12-31-2012, 11:34 AM
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#13
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 1,581
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I used to regularly see a half minute total lock-up whenever my free AVG anti-virus was doing any type of update. Have switched over to AVAST on my XP and Win7 machines but haven't swithced on my laptop Vista system yet.
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12-31-2012, 12:23 PM
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#14
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Midpack
IE9. I usually only have 3-4 apps open at a time.
See below, I visited several website and opened and closed PPT while it was running. And I have a CPU gadget on my desktop, I don't think I've ever seen it reach even 50%.
Interesting, this is new to me. The four ERRORS that appear today are DHCP Server, WMI, HP CUE device discovery & Dock Login Service. I need to explore them and in general Event Viewer use further.
Thanks all...
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HP software is bad karma. I got around to uninstalling a suite of deskjet software, and it took more than 30 minutes to complete that on a PIV and XP.
HP apps are ok, IMO. But those background processes are crap.
AVG is also problematic. I use it on a wide variety of Dell systems. AVG is definitely a problem on older systems.
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12-31-2012, 12:34 PM
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#15
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2008
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Posts: 9,686
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Go into services and disable HP CUE discovery.
That could be part of problem.
Also, why DHCP server error?
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12-31-2012, 12:36 PM
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#16
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 113
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Midpack, your screenshot shows only 59MB of free RAM available. Your computer is probably doing a lot of disk swapping resulting in the slowness that you're experiencing. Click on the "Processes" tab in your task manager and check what is eating up your memory. Also, see if there are any unnecessary programs in your control panel that you can uninstall. Unless the PC was custom built, the manufacturer probably preinstalled a lot of bloat/trial-ware.
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12-31-2012, 02:10 PM
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#17
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Gone but not forgotten
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Peru
Posts: 6,335
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Started having the same problems about a month ago. Vista and using Chrome, and Microsoft Security Essentials, which hogs memory for the first 10 or 15 minutes.
The lock up comes in Chrome, and when checking processes in msconfig, I find chrome running in multiple instances... w/svchost.... even when only one or two tabs are open. Thought it might be in the Chrome extensions, but even eliminating them, still multiple instances. Sometimes 8 or 9.
Chrome "help" ... doesn't. Have uninstalled and reinstalled Chrome.
One of the problems of loading new pages, that comes up often, is... "waiting for Gravatar.com." No satifctory answer I could find.
Have run system mechanic, ccleaner, spybot,malwarebytes, and defraggler.
Event viewer shows nothing.
No programs running in startup.
...........
More annoying... same problem on both Vista computers.... and happening where it never happened before. Not as bad in my XP computer, but still a problem.
The only thing I can think of, is that the browsers... (also tried Firefox) have revised to utilize the newer, faster computers. The explanation of the multiple instances of Chrome... in the processes was cited as a means to load simultaneously, rather than linearly... which explanation sailed over my head.
So, no solutions... just commiseration:
"You are not alone"
BTW... even though I don't have answers, would recommend going to this site, and downloading Process Explorer...
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896653.aspx
Along with "System Information for Windows"... two of the best diagnostic and information systems, IMHO.
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If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
--Dalai Lama XIV
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12-31-2012, 02:16 PM
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#18
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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Posts: 21,204
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Just ran Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool hoping...
...nada.
I may need to increase cache, though it's pretty generous vs the total already.
__________________
No one agrees with other people's opinions; they merely agree with their own opinions -- expressed by somebody else. Sydney Tremayne
Retired Jun 2011 at age 57
Target AA: 50% equity funds / 45% bonds / 5% cash
Target WR: Approx 1.5% Approx 20% SI (secure income, SS only)
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12-31-2012, 02:16 PM
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#19
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Administrator
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Chicagoland
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Midpack
IE9. I usually only have 3-4 apps open at a time.
See below, I visited several website and opened and closed PPT while it was running. And I have a CPU gadget on my desktop, I don't think I've ever seen it reach even 50%.
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You probably have applications that start up when you boot which you are not aware of. This is unavoidable with Windows. You might take a look at the startup menu and see which programs can be disabled.
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