PC freezes for a minute problem

HMHB

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One of my PCs has started to behave strangely ! It will freeze for roughly a minute or sometimes nearly 2 minutes. It will let me click on icons and seems to start to load the program but nothing shows on screen. Task Manager doesn't come up either. Then after the 1 or 2 minutes it will suddenly catch up with itself and show all the programs etc that I've clicked on :confused: I've checked for viruses with AVG and run Spybot and Adaware every other day and none of these have found anything wrong.
Any ideas please ?
 
Funnily I've seen this purely on PC's with AMD processors - is that what you're running? (Not knocking AMD before anyone starts - just stating that I've only seen this on AMD 64 based machines).
 
This one is an old Intel P4 2.54 Ghz, but now you mention it I get a similar (but much shorter stutter) on my AMD PCs. The problem is that when this happens I can't load task manager to try and see whats happening so I fear it will be very difficult to diagnose. On this PC it does seem to happen mostly in the 1st 15 mins of starting up so I don't think it's a heat problem.
When I first installed XP on this machine a few years ago I get the feeling that the driver install put something on for Multi-Threading as in those days some of the Intel chips supported multi-threading, but I know for sure that this motherboard and CPU do not support this. I have never been able to find what was installed or even if that has affected it at all !
 
I suppose I'm looking for a way of putting off the last resort re-install XP scenario :D I've got my iTunes for my iPod on that computer as well as a lot of old games with lots of patches and saves and I'm not sure I want to go through all that hassle unless I really have to.
 
It's not something strange (read - stupid) like the Office indexing system causing it? Would explain the first 15 mins or so.
 
I normally disable that, but it's worth checking as I've known these kind of things suddenly turn themselves on :D
 
Have you tried with a new userprofile?


A new user is always the first place to start troubleshooting, you might get lucky. :smashin:


If not, giving the PC a 'last rites' cleansing using CCleaner and Registry Mechanic might well get you out of jail.

I don't like such utilities normally, but I'm starting to regard Registry Mechanic V6 as an essential Windows XP tool.


Use CCleaner to tidy up add-remove programs, clean up any crap from userprofiles, and run the 'Fix issues' tool.
Use Registry Mechanic to do a deep scan, and fix any issues.

Running through this process half a dozen times, solves the vast majority of XP startup problems. :)
 
OK, thanks, I'll give that a go at some point, anything but reinstalling would be beneficial :thumbsup:
 
I have been getting similar issues recently. There is mouse movement but nothing happens when you click on things.

I tracked my issue down to my firewall. Using MSCONFIG to disable all startup apps then re-enable one at a time on reboots found the problem app. I then uninstalled the current firewall and tried another and things stabilised, although I still sometimes get the odd issue which could be down to some underlying TCP/IP issues as its an old build.
 
I had this problem this morning. When I got task manager on screen I found that svchost running under system was using all the processor. It turned out to be a problem with Windows Installer - Link to Knowledge Base article

I decided to turn off automatic updates and this resolved the issue. I will try to apply the hotfix later in the evening.
 
I'm sure it must be this auto update problem as this morning when there was a windows update it froze for about 5 minutes and then came back to life again after.
 
I'm sure it must be this auto update problem as this morning when there was a windows update it froze for about 5 minutes and then came back to life again after.

Did you try turning off automatic updates temporarily? When I did it I also applied some updates that had been downloaded and then restarted, and the problem was gone.

Unfortunately I have not been able to apply the hotfix yet, but will try and get round to doing that this weekend.
 
I have turned off automatic updates after that long freeze this morning so will see what it's like the next time i turn it on.
 
One of my PCs has started to behave strangely ! It will freeze for roughly a minute or sometimes nearly 2 minutes. It will let me click on icons and seems to start to load the program but nothing shows on screen. Task Manager doesn't come up either. Then after the 1 or 2 minutes it will suddenly catch up with itself and show all the programs etc that I've clicked on :confused: I've checked for viruses with AVG and run Spybot and Adaware every other day and none of these have found anything wrong.
Any ideas please ?

CPU overload. It use to happen to me on my old AMD 64bit 3000+. Now I have a
AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 5200+ and the problem has gone.
 
First bootup after removing the windows auto update facility and all went well with no freezing. Will report back on the next few bootups.
 
First bootup after removing the windows auto update facility and all went well with no freezing. Will report back on the next few bootups.

Hi John

Today I finally got around to applying that hot-fix from the link I posted in a previous post Knowledge Base Article 932494. After I applied this I turned Auto Updates on again and restarted the pc, and I am pleased to say there are no more problems and the cpu usage issue has gone.

I hope that this is the fix you need too, as this is less painfull than a re-install of Windows.
 
I'll give that a go later mate, thanks for the information :thumbsup:
 
I'm not sure if I installed the right hotfix there as it directed me to other pages, but it didn't make any difference :(
It's definately the update that's doing it, as when I turn off auto update it's fine. If I do a manual update, Svchost takes up 99% of the CPU for ages before while it does the update.
The final page I got to following the hotfix links talked about an error, I don't get an error message I only get the freezing problem. Do you have the direct link to the hotfix that worked for you please ?
 
I had a similiar problem and i found that it was the Auto Updates fault as well, it could be a bug of some sort :rotfl:
 
Here is the actual download page for the hotfix - Update for Windows XP (KB927891)

Which is from this page - You receive an access violation when you try to install an update from Windows Update after you apply hotfix package 916089

Let me know if this works, because if you are willing I still have the hotfix I originally downloaded and can send it to you somehow. The name on the file is 'WindowsXP-KB927891-v2-x86-ENU.exe' and it is 1.21 MB (1,272,712 bytes) in size.

Please also accept my apologies for the late reply, but my office broadband (Bulldog) has been down all day.

EDIT - I don't know how relevant this may be, but I have my auto update set to download and notify, and not download and auto install. Good luck and I really hope this works
 
I was wrong, this stupid issue has popped up again, probably because yesterday was patch Tuesday. If I can find a definite fix I will post here. Sorry.

EDIT - There is a new version of the patch I posted some time ago - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927891/

I hope this works, permanently.
 
MS have released a new patch for this problem (ironically I got it through Automatic Update:D) - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927891

For some reason though this is a two part fix with the second part to be released in June, but hopefully we can put this issue to bed once and for all.
 
Thanks, I'll give it a try.
 
Excellent, it looks like this path has fixed the problem that Microsoft caused in the first place ;) :D
Thanks for the heads-up :thumbsup:
 

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