programs running but not responding

[altepa]

Hi All
Sorry if this gets a bit long winded in explanation of my problem.

System is Asus A8N-SLI (basic) MB, Athlon64 X2 4400, 2 gigs ram, ATI Radeon x1800. System is up to date as are all drivers.

I recently upgraded the bios to the latest from Asus and a couple of weeks later I upgraded my single processor to the x2 4400. When I rebooted the 'puter I got a really fast blue screen about half filled with info a couple of times and it settled down and rebooted properly. XP found 3 'new' hardware devices (2 were already in device manager and working properly-pci to isa bridge and pci to pci bridge) the 3rd was ACPI Uniprocessor pc. I installed the drivers from my cd and all was well. Found multiprocessor pc in device manager ( which I expected).

The problem I have been having since then is this:
Any program I start will hang after a few seconds or a couple of minutes and not respond to any commands and task manager says it is still running. I can (90% of the time) use the task bar to minimize the program and then maximize it and it will start responding normally again for a bit and “hang” again.

Curiously, this does not happen when I am on the web using either Firefox or IE.

I have noticed that when a program hangs like this, there will be just a bit of the magic pink color at the corners of the program's window.

Also, if the program is full screen when this happens and I click the mouse and it just happens to be over an icon on the desktop, it will launch that program. (Hung program still being on screen just not responding and I can not see the desktop)

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

 

[SirBlack]

Greetings!
It almost sounds like a resource problem or conflict. Try downloading Process Explorer. It gives more detail than Task Manager. It's a free download available at:

http://www.download.com/3000-2094_4-10684373.html

After downloading, open & run the App (or simply click Run instead of Save since you have no problem with IE). It will give you a detailed profile of all processes running, CPU usage & comp. name. Click on the View button in the Toolbar & then Select Columns at the bottom of the drop down menu. Put a check mark in Command Line & click OK. This will tell you not only what apps are running & how much resources they're using but where the apps are located. I find it helpful at times to track down malware.

Have you tried booting in Safe Mode or boot in last good configuration? I'm assuming you have updated AntiVirus/Malware programs running? Can you check Device Manager to see if there any conflicts or Event Viewer?

Sorry for asking more ?'s than offering solutions, but not sure what you've tried already.

Bob

Remember, if you can't stand behind our troops, feel free to step in front of them.

 

[linney]

What is showing up in the Event Viewer?

Is there any Bios Update available.

Are you sure that you have the latest available drivers for your hardware?

A scan with

http://www.driveragent.com

may show better drivers may be available. Something like Belarc Advisor (

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html)

will give you details of hardware installed.

Have you tried running the Bios using the Safe Default setting?

 

[Sleepsalot]

Also check your virtual memory settings. The could have got messed up.

Wayne

Life is a big Roleplaying adventure.

 

[altepa]

Thanks for the response all.

SirBlack—Process explorer shows all expected activities with nothing unusual mentioned. I am using Blink from EEYE along with Windows Defender and AdAware. All are up to date. No conflicts noted anywhere that I have checked. And I don't mind the questions as they often lead to more info(for both parties) and a possible solution.

Linney—the only thing in event viewer that might be of concern was that WMI was disabled—I enabled it in manual mode. The bios was updated a few weeks ago with the most current one and all drivers are up to date.

Sleepsalot---I have the virtual memory set to 1000 mb. Haven't noticed any problems with setting so far.

When I first started having this problem I used system restore and restored to before I installed the acpi multiprocessor and system seemed to work just fine. I didn't notice any problems for a couple hours and I then reinstalled the acpi multiprocessor pc files and problem started again.

It looks as if this might be the root of my problem. With the x2 4400 I feel as if I need the multiprocessor files to take advantage of the dual processors (even tho it might be only a slight advantage).

With that “magic pink” thing going on when a program stops responding, it makes me believe that the system has minimized the program but left the graphics on screen for some strange reason. This is going to be hard nut to crack looks like but at the moment I can live with it as this is my home pc and nothing major is going on with it.

I am guessing that a driver or dll somewhere is the culprit and looking like it's going to be like finding a needle in a haystack kind of thing. If I ever locate the problem I will be sure to post the solution I find.

Again thanks for the response from all of you.

 

[linney]

Windows Management Instrumentation on my machine is set as "Automatic". Whether that's of any relevance I don't really know?

HAL Types?
thread779-1296156

 

[altepa]

It seems as if my problem has gone away. For how long I have no idea as these kind of things like to haunt me for a while.

Basically the only thing I did was to put the WMI Performance Adapter into manual mode from disabled.

There are 3 WMI items in services: WMI (windows management instrumentation)--WMI Driver Extension—and WMI Performance Adapter.

WMI was set to Auto (and service is started) the other two are set on manual but each time I check services the two manual settings are not started.

Other than putting the WMI Performance Adapter into manual mode, I have no idea as to why my system started to behave normally and not irritate me with the problem as stated in my first post. I would like to have something more definitive to say about the problem but I can think of nothing at this point in time.

Gremlins maybe and they are taking a vacation

 

[linney]

For posterity sake why don't you make an Image of your System as it is now, then it is only a matter of re-installing the backup image rather than battling gremlins?

 

[altepa]

Believe me linney that is the first thing i did when it appeared that everything was apparently working normally.

I try to keep my backups current. Incrementals at least once a week and a new full backup about every month or so.

Now if I could just train myself to leave well enough alone and not start poking my fingers into places they don't belong, I might fair a bit better. Just can't resist trying to tweak a bit more here and there.

And again a thanks to all for your input.

 

[linney]

I backup full Images weekly too, the problem is that sometimes faults appear that are not discoverable immediately and the backed up images may not be retained long enough to fix the fault. I now also keep a clean and fault free Image made soon after the original install (updated at the time etc.) as a last resort fix rather than re-installing the operating system.