Windows XP Freezes Momentarily 1

[Sharonlover]

I'm running Windows XP Pro SP1 on a 800 MHz PIII and 384 MEGS of RAM. I use IE6, MSN Browser, and Firefox. Symantec for anti-virus and Zonealarm Pro for firewall.

My machine has been working fine for the past six months and then all of a sudden, the computer will freeze for about 4 seconds and then resume what it was doing. This happens almost every 20 seconds and is really annoying.

I've run Ad-Aware SE and Pest Patrol Corp. Edition to clean off any possible spyware or hijacked browsers. This hasn't done anything for it. I've defragged my machine and the processor just shows the system idle running 99% as it should.

I'm out of ideas and hope someone can give me some suggestions.

Thanks in advance

"Why are we necessary?"
"Only to rise up to the challenge"
-Macross Plus-

 

[bcastner]

Turn off disk indexing: To disable the Indexing Service go into "My Computer", right-click on all your hard drive partitions one at a time, left-click "Properties". Uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching". Select "Apply changes to subfolders and files". If any files can not be updated select "Ignore All".

You might benefit from the specific optomization tips discussed in a new find by me:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html

 

[micker377]

bcastner:
Every now-and-then I see a reference on how to turn off indexing. I try to follow directions and find NO reference to indexing in properties! 120 gig drive - 5 partitions. I had to turn off scheduling in control panel.

 

[bcastner]

micker377,

. indexing is not a Schedule Task, but part of the idle time optomization routine. Disabling the scheduler will not disable disk indexing;

. I have no idea why the checkbox does not appear for you. When you right-click on any drive, left-click Properties, it should appear as a checkable box at the bottom below the disk pie chart.

 

[micker377]

Nope, the only thing below the pie chart is a box for "Disk Cleanup". This holds for all 5 partitions on HD0, HD1 (back-up drive), and an external USB drive. Been curious for a long time about this.

 

[linney]

Sharonlover,

How does your machine function in Safe Mode? If it runs normally then that should give you a few clues.




micker377,

Are they FAT32 Partitions, which do not support Indexing, Encryption or Compression etc?

Indexing Service can be stopped and disabled via Services.

 

[micker377]

A star to linney! Yes Fat 32 (due to some old programs I need). And I have turned it off in Services. I was just curious why I could never see the "Index" box in properties.

 

[Sharonlover]

I've done everything suggested her. The indexing service was already turned off. I've run a chkdsk /r on my NTFS partition and came up with no errors. I've attempted to defrag my hard drive but I just noticed that I recieve a warning that "Sim City 4 Program" could not be moved or defragged. Something in that regards, but it finishes defragging just the same.

When I booted into Safe mode, the computer does the same thing!!! Only the basic services are running. This is really about to drive me crazy and I don't want to wipe and reload this machine cuz I've got over 120 GIGs worth of video's from video projects on there.

"Why are we necessary?"
"Only to rise up to the challenge"
-Macross Plus-

 

[BadBigBen]

Hi there,

no one mentioned OFFICE? it has it's own indexing as far as I remember...

AUTOSTARTS: OSA.EXE - or something like that... if you have office installed, you can safely delete this, it will just take a few milliseconds longer for Word and Co. to load...



Ben

If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer...

 

[linney]

You could try Defragging from within Safe Mode just to clean up the Sim City 4 Program.

A second opinion about spyware and virus infection might be worthwhile.

Removing adware & spyware
faq608-4650

Your hard drive manufacturer will have free diagnostic software to check your drive for problems.

You might also see if this free application can do anything for you.

The Intel(R) Application Accelerator is designed to improve
performance of the storage sub-system and overall system
performance. This software delivers improved performance
through several ingredient technologies (components).

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df/Product_Filter.asp?ProductID=663

Some other diagnostic type software to look at.

Check out

http://www.pcpitstop.com

for some tests you can run on your PC.

Everest

http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?lang=en

AMIDiag® for Windows

http://www.ami.com/products/product.cfm?CatID=3&SubID=23&prodid=123

SiSoft Sandra

http://www.download.com/3000-2086-10018691.html

 

[bcastner]

Confession:

I hate SIM City.
I particularly hate SIM City IV.

I have had the strangest, oddest, unresolvable issues when this particular application is installed.

I am by no means alone. Two minutes reading the issues (other than it not running) would suggest you never install this on a business/professional computer:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&q=xp+sim+city+4+problem&btnG=Search

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=xp sim city 4 problem&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&sa=N&tab=wg

If you really need to run this, do so under Virtual PC. Better yet, do what in their arrogance the software authors of this non-comformant program in their complete disregard for industry standards assumed as to how you would use it: dedicate a machine only to this program.

Sadly, SIMS IV is the better behaved of the whole series.

My opinion.
Bill Castner