XP Freezing for a few minutes then works fine

[GuyEllis1988]

We have a number of machines on different sites which are all acting in odd ways.

They appear to be freezing for a few minutes and then acting as normal again.

I cannot open any new programs but can continue to work in the opened ones as if there are no problems.

I cannot open task manager either by start --> run --> taskmgr or ctrl + alt + delete --> task manager

When the machine un-freezes itself any instances of programs (including task manager) that I have tried to open in its locked stat all open at once.

We have had this issue occour at several different sites over the past 2 days. Both on AD domains and smaller offices with just workgroups.

All machines run Sophos Anti Virus and have no obvious abnormal processes running.

Help!

Thanks in advance.

 

[linney]

Resetting the "Telephony" Service, at least did that remove the error from the Event Viewer, even if it has not solved the underlying problem? If not, can you post the full Event ID number and Source identification?

 

[wainwrightwt]

It did remove the error, but I am now noticing a warning (not sure if it was there before). This morning, I had a lot of freezing going on, and there are a lot of these warnings (10 to be exact). All since I logged on this afternoon.

Source: PlugPlayManager
Category: None
Event ID: 256

Timed out sending notification of device interface change to window of "CRTCClient"

For more information, see Help and Support Center at

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

 

[linney]

See if any of these get you thinking?

EventID. Net

http://www.eventid.net/display.asp?eventid=256&eventno=1400&source=PlugPlayManager&phase=1

Timed out sending notification of device interface change to window of "%1"

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/su....2&EvtID=256&EvtSrc=PlugPlayManager&LCID=1033

Event ID 256 Appears in System Event Log

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;262129

 

[wainwrightwt]

Well, I have good news and bad news.

It seems this warning message is definitely related to the problem (i get 1 message anytime an application un-freezes).

Also, The "CRTCClient" supposedly refers to Windows Messenger.

Now the bad news. I found a script to uninstall Windows Messenger, and now can't seem to find any reference to Windows Messenger on my machine, but I'm still getting the problem.

I looked at all the links for the "Event ID 256" warning, and none of them help. They all say that it's just a warning, and should be a problem. And none of them refer to CRTCClient.

So now I have 2 questions left. One, why are these apps trying to notify windows messenger of anything? Also, if messenger is no longer installed, shouldn't they no longer try to notify it.

I am feeling better that I am narrowing the problem down, but still feel at a loss for a solution.

 

[linney]

There are one or two links on Google mentioning CRTCClient with Messenger, but others that link it with other completely different applications. You can Google for "CRTCClient" if you like.

How are you seeing the connection between the two processes on your machine? I have checked a few XP machines and have not had any hits on searching for "*CRTC*".

It might be an apt time to thoroughly check your machine for all types of Malware?

Removing adware & spyware
faq608-4650

Try the free version of "Ewido" now called "AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5"

http://www.ewido.net/en/download/

Windows Defender

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

If you machine comes up clean, it might help if you can give extra details, with error details and any message box window titles.

 

[wainwrightwt]

I appreciate all the help linney (and others). I was going to do a full spyware search (and probably should have), but I went ahead and reformatted. My goal was to have this fixed this weekend, and although I've still got some re-installing of applications to do, the problem did stop.

I wish I could have fixed it, but at least I've really narrowed it down. Thanks again to everybody.