Intermittent Laptop Freezing

[TheWalkingMan]

Hi,

I have a laptop problem and I am hoping for some guidance.

After using the laptop for about 2 hours the light showing activity on the hard drive stays on and everything slows to a crawl or freezes. After 2~5 minutes it returns to normal operation. Then every 10 minutes or so the freezing process starts again. Once I restart, the machine acts normal for the next hour or 2 then repeats.

About 10 days or so ago, my anti-virus was about to expire when this started. I use BitDefender. Anyway, I renewed BitDefender and this problem has continued.

Also, shutting down can take 3~5 minutes.

I am using XP Professional

Thanks,

TheWalkingMan

[Who, me ?]

Almost same here !

[MarkBKK]

Hi,

I have a laptop problem and I am hoping for some guidance.

After using the laptop for about 2 hours the light showing activity on the hard drive stays on and everything slows to a crawl or freezes. After 2~5 minutes it returns to normal operation. Then every 10 minutes or so the freezing process starts again. Once I restart, the machine acts normal for the next hour or 2 then repeats.

About 10 days or so ago, my anti-virus was about to expire when this started. I use BitDefender. Anyway, I renewed BitDefender and this problem has continued.

Also, shutting down can take 3~5 minutes.

I am using XP Professional

Thanks,

TheWalkingMan

Google ''disk thrashing windows xp'' or similar.

[Cuban]

One of those problems that could have various causes, I'll start the responses with a few things to consider.

Is the laptop running on batteries at the time? If so or even if on mains PSU is the power saver settings on the computer kicking in and turning the HDD off after X minutes of non use - then taking time to spin back up? (5 minutes is a long time to return to normal opperation.)

You mention AV software - is it doing a scan at this interval ? Is it trying to access "it's" web site to register or carry out some update function? The web site might not be availible - the Taiwanese fibre link strikes again.

Pop open Task Manager - then see what processes are running / taking up most CPU time.

With laptops it wise to keep a back up of the HDD as by their portable nature laptops suffer more problems than stationary desktops.

Have you defragged your HDD ?

Take a back up - on to a portable USB drive.

Then carry out a disk integrity check to look for surface errors.

Is the HDD noisy - a sign that it's life is drawing to a close.

Try this link: http://bucarotechelp.com/computers/windows...mp;x=48&y=9

Edited February 4, 2008 by Cuban

[TheWalkingMan]

One of those problems that could have various causes, I'll start the responses with a few things to consider.

Is the laptop running on batteries at the time? If so or even if on mains PSU is the power saver settings on the computer kicking in and turning the HDD off after X minutes of non use - then taking time to spin back up? (5 minutes is a long time to return to normal opperation.)

The laptop is not running on batteries and the power settings seem to be ok as I have not changed anything and this problem started recently.

You mention AV software - is it doing a scan at this interval ? Is it trying to access "it's" web site to register or carry out some update function? The web site might not be availible - the Taiwanese fibre link strikes again.

After reading this, I turned off the AV auto-update function and the problem still occurs. I am not sure if it is related to the fiber link.

Pop open Task Manager - then see what processes are running / taking up most CPU time.

Checking Task Manager shows Firefox as the application running and FireFox seems to be taking up a lot of CPU time.

With laptops it wise to keep a back up of the HDD as by their portable nature laptops suffer more problems than stationary desktops.

Have you defragged your HDD ?

Hmmm... I haven't defragged for ages... Took a look and the system said that it was not necessary, but I will run the defragg later today.

Take a back up - on to a portable USB drive.

Then carry out a disk integrity check to look for surface errors.

Good idea!

Is the HDD noisy - a sign that it's life is drawing to a close.

Not noisy. A previous HDD started making noise and I had it replaced. This disk does not make any unusual sounds.

Try this link: http://bucarotechelp.com/computers/windows...mp;x=48&y=9

Thanks for the suggestions!

TheWalkingMan

[nikster]

Since the HD light is solid, it's either the HD having errors, or some program thrashing. Could also be some program taking all available memory and the virtual memory hogging the HD.

Next time it happens, start the task manager, then:

- See if any single program uses a suspicious amount of memory

- Force-end Firefox and see if the problem goes away

- Force quit other programs and see if the problem goes away. AV program, Google Desktop, Yahoo Desktop...

- Look at the memory usage and report what you see.

[Guest Reimar]

Since the HD light is solid, it's either the HD having errors, or some program thrashing. Could also be some program taking all available memory and the virtual memory hogging the HD.

Next time it happens, start the task manager, then:

- See if any single program uses a suspicious amount of memory

- Force-end Firefox and see if the problem goes away

- Force quit other programs and see if the problem goes away. AV program, Google Desktop, Yahoo Desktop...

- Look at the memory usage and report what you see.

It could even be an overheating of the CPU!

Try an simple test: lift up the Laptop a bit and place an fan beside that the airflow is reaching top and buttom of the laptop for cooling. If still the same problem, than you need may to check the HDD!

I would suggest to use Whatsrunning, a freeware could downloaded from HERE instead of Windows Taskmanager. You get much more infos much more detailed.

Cheers.