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Random stalls, WinXP w/SP1

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F@TMAN

Registered
Joined
May 19, 2004
Location
Sydney, Australia
I've been having a problem lately where my PC (sig) will stall randomly, it might be for a few seconds, a few minutes, or beyond recovery. All downloads will cease (incl. webpages will not load up), and if I go to open a new program (eg. from the start menu), the start menu becomes stuck in its "pressed in" position, and you cannot access anything in the taskbar (mouse icon moves to the "hour glass" figure). It wouldn't be my o/c because it had happened before at stock (and my o/c is prime stable), but now it's beyond bareable. Has anyone experienced anything like this before, or have suggestions? And pls, nothing like "might be time to reformat", because, in all honesty, that's not helping...thanks in advance
=)
 
Try running the System Monitor snap-in from within the "Performance" MMC...Start | Run | Type...perfmon.msc. By using the System Monitor tool, you can monitor any number of processor 'counters' (click on the + icon to add specific counters, which is eight over toward the right...or Ctrl+I). One of the default counters is "% Processor Time", under the "Processor" Performance object.

You can save performance monitor logs to a log file so you can view them at a later time, by right-clicking the displayed graph-->Save As | In the Save As dialog box, select a path and type the name of the new HTML file | Save as type: Web Page or Report | Pick one, give it a name...and click the Save button. You can apply the counter settings saved as an HTML page by dragging the HTML file from Windows Explorer onto a System Monitor graph. If you open the HTML file in a browser, it will display a static System Monitor graph containing the data at the time the HTML file was saved.

You may also want to check the Event Viewer logs for anything suspicious looking...Start | Run | Type eventvwr.msc and click OK | Highlight "Application" and "System" independently in the LH pane | Right click any error message(s) (critical errors are in Red), and select "Properties" | Write down a couple of the latest critical error messages exactly as they appear (under the "Description" field), and post them in this thread.

Also, open the System Information tool by typing msinfo32 in the Run box | Expand "Components" | Highlight "Problem Devices", and look for any problems that might be listed there.
 
redduc900, having a look at my event viewer, under "system", I've found quite a few critical errors, all with "DCOM" as the source. Here are the details from right-clicking on "properties"

Access denied attempting to launch a DCOM Server using DefaultLaunchPermssion. The server is:
{00020906-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
The user is Unavailable/Unavailable, SID=Unavailable.


Having a look through most of the errors, they all seem to be referring to the same server, that is {00020906-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}.

Following the link from the properties window to MS help website, the only advice I got was:
Explanation
The server process was started, but the server is not responding. A critical .dll or data file might be missing.

User Action
Shut down the server from Task Manager, and then try again. Check that the application was installed properly and that the .dll files are present.


And also that Currently there are no Microsoft Knowledge Base articles available for this specific error or event message. Ideas?

I was advised from another forum that it may be my firewall (Zone Alarm Pro 5). I've since updated to the most up-to-date release (5.1.033.000) and so far, so good, but I'll see how it goes.

Also, following to "Problem Devices" from System Information, I found one problem device, it's a spare ethernet card that I use for connecting my Playstation 2 to my PC (ICS because I'm not using a router with my DSL), but it says as the error code that simply the device is disabled...? Haven't had any problems using my PS2 when sharing my connection, so...
 
One other thing that you could check...open System Properties | "Hardware" tab | Device Manager | View-->Show hidden devices. If you find any devices with a yellow exclamation point in front of them, right click the selected device(s) and choose "Uninstall"...except for your spare ethernet card of course.
 
I've managed to fix the problem by updating my firewall. I was using an outdated version of ZoneAlarm Pro, and from advise on another board, I updated to the latest revision (5.1.033.000), and I have not encountered any stalls or slowdowns in the last 24hrs, and my ping has also improved dramatically. Thanks for your help, though, much appreciated
:)
 
Man this happens to me all the time. I have no idea what it is, I've tried different installs of XP. Almost a totally new pc and I still get it. My friend says hes never even seen this once happen to him.

I dont understand it. It will seem like it hangs, nothing works, but you can still alt-tab to other open stuff but the taskbar doesnt change right?
 
FyreDaug said:
It will seem like it hangs, nothing works, but you can still alt-tab to other open stuff but the taskbar doesnt change right?

That's right, I could alt-tab to any other program open in the taskbar without problems, but once I try to open a new program, the system becomes unstable and hangs, and I can't access anything in either the taskbar or system tray. Ctrl-Alt-Dlt doesn't work straight away either (taskmanager will pop-up once the system becomes usable again)!

Question is, are you using ZAP or any other firewall? I would highly recommend updating to the latest version (or completely removing it), and see if you have any luck. Something to note, a member of another forum advised me that this behaviour is characteristic of a dying HDD...hope you have similar luck to me, mate! Definitely fixed my problem for me...
 
Couldnt be hard drive related because, well I have 3 new drives and it was doing it before and after. I used Norton internet security and Mcafee, no problems
 
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