My Programs Hang!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael
  • Start date Start date
M

Michael

While running Windows XP Pro, my programs will hang. I
will click on a program and nothing will happen, so I
click it again with the same result. I click on another
program and it won't work. So I click another and another
and nothing shows up on the monitor. My mouse shows the
hourglass and then goes back to the pointer. Then after
five or so minutes, every program I just clicked on comes
up simultaneously. Why are my programs hanging and how
do I fix it? I have tried msconfig, scandisk, disk
cleanup, defrag, and sfc /scannow. After the programs
come up, computer works fine... HELP!?
 
Paul-
I have 119 Files in that directory. Is that a lot? I am
still having the same problems. Any suggestions?
Michael
 
Its not an excessive amount but deleting them all wont do any harm.
They get out of date over time, and you get duplicates build up for the same
application.
XP uses the prefetch directory to record an applications memory and file
usage profile to enable it to launch quicker, it will rebuild them as you
launch each application
The layout.ini is the only other file in there, you can force this to be
rebuilt

Delete the contents of the directory
Reboot the system 3 times to let xp get a handle on the prefetch files
required for boot, and start you favourite apps aswell to create entries.


then rebuild the layout.ini file using the command

start/run
rundll32 advapi32 ProcessIdleTasks

This also shoves all the required boot files plus other files you've
accessed that it thinks would be beneficial into a contiguous area of disk.
This is windows xp's famous boot optimization which runs in the background
supposedly every 3 days when the system is idle.

You're just forcing it to run straight away.

This will optimize boot time and application launch so its worth doing
anyway.



Your situation sounds like the system is comming up far enough to let you
log in, but certain services haven't completed initializing, and only when
that is complete do your applications start. The above should speed up
service launch.

If it doesn't completely fix the issue you might want to look in service
manager and see if you have any 3rd party services from perhaps firewall or
antivirus software which may be causing the problem.

start/run
services.msc

Also check in the system event log to see if any service errors have been
logged

start/run
eventvwr.msc

Click system in left hand pane

See if any services complain about not being able to initialize or similar

I've also seen several posts where stopping the SSDP Discovery Service
eliminates slow startup.

Try this stuff first and let me know how you get on.

It could be that theres a service not starting because its dependent on
another one starting first. I've seen problems with zone alarm services in
the past for one.

Paul

T
 
Paul-
I tried everything you suggested and in the event viewer
(application) I saw a bunch of Application Errors and
Application Hangs. Under category it said anything from
none to (101) and under event it says anything from 1000
to 1002. I have no clue what this means but there were
58 Application Errors/Hangs since 9/3/03. This can't be
good. I'll keep a close eye on the computer to see if
your suggestions help. Thanks for the help.
Michael
 
Hey Michael,

Is that since the 9th March or 3rd September ?

This link may help you troubleshoot the codes

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr.../prodtechnol/winxppro/support/EE_winxppro.asp

Did you go into the individual entries by double clicking on the entry line
in the right hand pane in event viewer? It should give more info, and
normally a link you can click, which sends the info to microsoft to lookup
and transfers you to a web page with more detailed info and a possible
solution if one is available.

If the Type column shows the keyword "information" then dont worry, its the
yellow warnings and red errors you want to look at in detail.

What is shown in the source column for the ones flagged as warning and
errors particularly in the system log ?

Paul
 
Back
Top