P
PG
PROBLEM: I have been seeing at possibly random moments a "creeping"
system lock/freeze/hang (I have seen it especially just before the clean
install in the original installation). It might start--but not always---
with a mouse click to bring focus to an UltraEdit document. I get a "Not
Responding", wait for the disk drive light to stop its continuous
illumination. And when it does stop illuminating, I still see "Not
Responding" and know I am in trouble.
I then start activating other windows, and they start showing "Not
Responding". I know I am in real trouble when I do Ctrl+Shift+Esc to get
the Task Manager and it never appears; I do this to try to track the
nature of the creeping system hang...no luck. The Start menu will open on
a click, but nothing else happens. The mouse pointer is still moving
around, but nothing is responding to click.
QUESTION: What could be at work here? How can I track the cause of the
creeping hang?
OTHER INFORMATION:
1. Vista Installation/Reinstallation: I did a clean install of Vista
HomePrem (32-bit) about 5 months ago. The original install lasted 28
months [amazing for Windows!]. The clean install was done only because of
a justified fear that keylogger software had been installed, but the
original installation of Vista was "limping along" and had failed the
System File Check, with several unrepairable "member" files (although it
still ran).
2. Notebook Age/Usage: The notebook is about 2.5 years old now, and has
been used about 13,000 +/- 1500 hours out of a possible 23,000 hours (if
used 24/7). That's a range of 14-18 hours of use maybe 6-7 days a week
for 2.5 years. The notebook is a notorious overheater too, and software
to monitor CPU and hard drive temperature has been in place since for the
last 6-7 months.
3. Hardware Resource Configuration: The notebook has two physical drives,
each one logical partition, a 100 GB "C:" (label:OS) and a 100 GB "D:"
(labelATA) drive. While Windows is on the C: drive, the virtual RAM
(pagefile) is on the D: drive to balance the use of the drives.
4. System Config: I have used 'chkdsk /r' several times and also the
manufacturer's drive test tools. The SysFileCheck shows an unrepairable
state, but the file is 'azroleui.dll.mui', which I believe is a component
to the Computer Management module, and is inconsequential; I have tried to
replace it with disk copy, but always get 'access is denied' after taking
ownership and this happens in safe mode too. We are way past doing System
Restore, as this has been ongoing for a month or more and I don't have
restore point to an earlier time.
5. Hardware Operation/Function and one Blue Screen Problem: Despite the
hours of usage and age of notebook, I have used a Seagate disk test tool
to analyze disk function, and it passed all the tests on the system drive
after some corrections. It still does. I have re-installed or even
upgraded to latest device drivers (sound, 5-card adapter, video, wireless,
ethernet, whether relevant or not). I did this because there is another
problem: a processor-halt blue screen (PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGE_AREA, no
..sys file identifed) that only appears when I am using P2P (bittorrent
client) running full throttle on the wireless adapter, not the ethernet
adapter.
6. State of System At The Time of Hanging:
I don't have many apps open at the time the system likes to hang:
a. IE8 with only one "tab" open to a video stream (MSNBC at TVPC.com)
debugging and error notification active for when JScript debugging
done
b. UltraEdit for doing web page development
c. FF3.6 with mainly 6-10 tabs open, some to http://localhost pages for
checking web page development; Firebug for Javascript is an add-on, among
several others.
d. Background apps/services (system tray stuff) [visible list]
(i) Apache 2.x for Win32
(ii) MySQL 5.x [not visible in system tray]
(iii) Kaspersky Internet Security 2010
(iv) Everest Ultimate for watching HP notebook overheating
(v) Skype and WLM
(vi) Bandwidth Meter Pro
system lock/freeze/hang (I have seen it especially just before the clean
install in the original installation). It might start--but not always---
with a mouse click to bring focus to an UltraEdit document. I get a "Not
Responding", wait for the disk drive light to stop its continuous
illumination. And when it does stop illuminating, I still see "Not
Responding" and know I am in trouble.
I then start activating other windows, and they start showing "Not
Responding". I know I am in real trouble when I do Ctrl+Shift+Esc to get
the Task Manager and it never appears; I do this to try to track the
nature of the creeping system hang...no luck. The Start menu will open on
a click, but nothing else happens. The mouse pointer is still moving
around, but nothing is responding to click.
QUESTION: What could be at work here? How can I track the cause of the
creeping hang?
OTHER INFORMATION:
1. Vista Installation/Reinstallation: I did a clean install of Vista
HomePrem (32-bit) about 5 months ago. The original install lasted 28
months [amazing for Windows!]. The clean install was done only because of
a justified fear that keylogger software had been installed, but the
original installation of Vista was "limping along" and had failed the
System File Check, with several unrepairable "member" files (although it
still ran).
2. Notebook Age/Usage: The notebook is about 2.5 years old now, and has
been used about 13,000 +/- 1500 hours out of a possible 23,000 hours (if
used 24/7). That's a range of 14-18 hours of use maybe 6-7 days a week
for 2.5 years. The notebook is a notorious overheater too, and software
to monitor CPU and hard drive temperature has been in place since for the
last 6-7 months.
3. Hardware Resource Configuration: The notebook has two physical drives,
each one logical partition, a 100 GB "C:" (label:OS) and a 100 GB "D:"
(labelATA) drive. While Windows is on the C: drive, the virtual RAM
(pagefile) is on the D: drive to balance the use of the drives.
4. System Config: I have used 'chkdsk /r' several times and also the
manufacturer's drive test tools. The SysFileCheck shows an unrepairable
state, but the file is 'azroleui.dll.mui', which I believe is a component
to the Computer Management module, and is inconsequential; I have tried to
replace it with disk copy, but always get 'access is denied' after taking
ownership and this happens in safe mode too. We are way past doing System
Restore, as this has been ongoing for a month or more and I don't have
restore point to an earlier time.
5. Hardware Operation/Function and one Blue Screen Problem: Despite the
hours of usage and age of notebook, I have used a Seagate disk test tool
to analyze disk function, and it passed all the tests on the system drive
after some corrections. It still does. I have re-installed or even
upgraded to latest device drivers (sound, 5-card adapter, video, wireless,
ethernet, whether relevant or not). I did this because there is another
problem: a processor-halt blue screen (PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGE_AREA, no
..sys file identifed) that only appears when I am using P2P (bittorrent
client) running full throttle on the wireless adapter, not the ethernet
adapter.
6. State of System At The Time of Hanging:
I don't have many apps open at the time the system likes to hang:
a. IE8 with only one "tab" open to a video stream (MSNBC at TVPC.com)
debugging and error notification active for when JScript debugging
done
b. UltraEdit for doing web page development
c. FF3.6 with mainly 6-10 tabs open, some to http://localhost pages for
checking web page development; Firebug for Javascript is an add-on, among
several others.
d. Background apps/services (system tray stuff) [visible list]
(i) Apache 2.x for Win32
(ii) MySQL 5.x [not visible in system tray]
(iii) Kaspersky Internet Security 2010
(iv) Everest Ultimate for watching HP notebook overheating
(v) Skype and WLM
(vi) Bandwidth Meter Pro