[Walrus5241]

On a semi-frequent basis--not constant, but consistent enough to be a bother--my computer freezes up, and I can move only my mouse. This lasts about 5-10 seconds, and then everything returns to normal. It doesn't matter whether I'm browsing the internet, watching a video, or playing a game, this happens, and there appears to be nothing I can do about it. My computer never used to do this, it's only begun within the last month or two. This is particularly annoying when it occurs during games...it's not limited to just the high-resource, more recent games either; it occurs during the extremely easy-to-run, low-maintenance 2000 game Deus Ex. But, I stress, it doesn't occur exclusively during games, and it is not ameliorated by changing any settings within the game itself. Furthermore, this never used to happen.

Things I have tried:
Updating my video drivers
Updating my sound drivers
Running Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware scans
Defragmenting
Doing a disk cleanup
Changing all relevant settings within games (it occurs outside of games though too, I have to stress this)
Checking processor temperature (it happens when the comp is cool as well as when it's hot; usually, it's in between 40 C and 60 C)

Any help would be enormously appreciated.

My computer is a custom-designed laptop
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40 GHz
1.99 GB of RAM
Windows XP Home Edition, Version 2002, Service Pack 3

[Advertisements]

Sounds like a background running program causing the freezing. Please do the following and post the requested log.

Download Autoruns from the link in my signature below:

1: Extract the Autoruns Zip file contents to a folder.
2: Double-click the "Autoruns.exe".
3: Click on the "Everything" tab
4: Remove any entries that mention "File Not Found" by right-clicking the entry and select Delete.
5: Go to File then to Export As or Save in some versions.
6: Save AutoRuns.txt file to known location like your Desktop.
7: Attach to your next reply.




Download and install Free Everest Home Edition
Open it.
1: In left pane expand Computer folder.
2: Click once on Summary
3: In upper menu, go Report
4: And then to Quick Report-Summary
5: Save it in text file, and paste it in your next post.
Click the + by computer, click on Sensor. Get a screenshot and post it so I can check your temps and voltages...


DO NOT INCLUDE ANYTHING UNDER THE LINE THAT SAYS "DEBUG- PCI"

[rshaffer61]

Sounds like a background running program causing the freezing. Please do the following and post the requested log.

Download Autoruns from the link in my signature below:

1: Extract the Autoruns Zip file contents to a folder.
2: Double-click the "Autoruns.exe".
3: Click on the "Everything" tab
4: Remove any entries that mention "File Not Found" by right-clicking the entry and select Delete.
5: Go to File then to Export As or Save in some versions.
6: Save AutoRuns.txt file to known location like your Desktop.
7: Attach to your next reply.




Download and install Free Everest Home Edition
Open it.
1: In left pane expand Computer folder.
2: Click once on Summary
3: In upper menu, go Report
4: And then to Quick Report-Summary
5: Save it in text file, and paste it in your next post.
Click the + by computer, click on Sensor. Get a screenshot and post it so I can check your temps and voltages...


DO NOT INCLUDE ANYTHING UNDER THE LINE THAT SAYS "DEBUG- PCI"

[Walrus5241]

Sorry for not replying sooner. It's been a busy past two days!

Anyway, here's the info you requested. Unfortunately, I was unable to upload the picture; whenever I made the attempt, my browser crashed (and I tried on both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox). I can tell you that on average, my cores range between 42-55 C. When playing a game, it can get up to the mid-to-upper 80s. This problem of everything freezing for a few moments has occurred both when the computer is cool and when it's hot...it's happened quite often when the core temps were in the 40s.

Thanks for responding and helping!

Sounds like a background running program causing the freezing. Please do the following and post the requested log.

Download Autoruns from the link in my signature below:

1: Extract the Autoruns Zip file contents to a folder.
2: Double-click the "Autoruns.exe".
3: Click on the "Everything" tab
4: Remove any entries that mention "File Not Found" by right-clicking the entry and select Delete.
5: Go to File then to Export As or Save in some versions.
6: Save AutoRuns.txt file to known location like your Desktop.
7: Attach to your next reply.




Download and install Free Everest Home Edition
Open it.
1: In left pane expand Computer folder.
2: Click once on Summary
3: In upper menu, go Report
4: And then to Quick Report-Summary
5: Save it in text file, and paste it in your next post.
Click the + by computer, click on Sensor. Get a screenshot and post it so I can check your temps and voltages...


DO NOT INCLUDE ANYTHING UNDER THE LINE THAT SAYS "DEBUG- PCI"

Attached Files

•  AutoRuns.txt   49.57KB   131 downloads
•  Report.txt   44.16KB   131 downloads

[rshaffer61]

Problem one and most likely the root of all the issues right now.

C: (NTFS) 152617 MB (5898 MB free)

You have a 160 gig drive with only 6 gigs free?
Thats 4% of free space. At 10% the MFT will become corrupted and the system will start to have issues.
You need to free up some space on your main drive. I suggest uninstalling unused or un needed programs using Add]Remove programs.
IN my next post i will include the Autoruns instructions.

[rshaffer61]

Open Autoruns, click on "Logon" tab, and UN-check:

+ "Adobe Reader Speed Launcher"
+ "HP Software Update"
+ "iTunesHelper"
+ "NvCplDaemon"
+ "QuickTime Task"
+ "SunJavaUpdateSched"
+ "TkBellExe"
+ "WinampAgent"
+ "MagicDisc.lnk"
+ "AIM" "AOL Instant Messenger"
+ "Google Update"




When done restart computer and then:



Download TFC by OldTimer to your desktop

• Please double-click TFC.exe to run it. (Note: If you are running on Vista, right-click on the file and choose Run As Administrator).
• It will close all programs when run, so make sure you have saved all your work before you begin.
• Click the Start button to begin the process. Depending on how often you clean temp files, execution time should be anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or two. Let it run uninterrupted to completion.
• Once it's finished it should reboot your machine. If it does not, please manually reboot the machine yourself to ensure a complete clean.

Download Auslogics Defrag from the link in my signature below. Auslogics Defrag in my opinion is better because:

It does a more comprehensive job at Defragging
It will actually show you what it is doing
At the end of working it will show you how much speed you picked up
You can view a online log of the files that Auslogics defragged

As a side note I see you have + "BitTorrent DNA" installed.
Although using P2P programs like "BitTorrent DNA" are not illegal, the files downloaded could contain potential infections. By continuing to use these programs will put you at a higher risk for infection. If you continue to use these programs GTG may not be able to provide assistance in the future.

Edited by rshaffer61, 20 August 2010 - 08:25 PM.

[Walrus5241]

It appears I may have stemmed the problem. I freed up some space on my hard drive (have about 8-9 % free now) and reinstalled a few programs, the main one being Steam. I noticed that most of these problems occurred when Steam was open, and it appears they don't anymore. So, I'm guessing the problem's solved, but if I encounter anything else, I'll let you guys know. Should I do it here, or start a new thread?

In any case, thank you very much for your assistance. It's much appreciated, and I always respect and admire folks like you who offer their time and services to folks like me for free.

[rshaffer61]

If it is the same issue then post here otherwise start a new topic.
8-9 percent is well below the 15% the MFT requires. Keep a eye on it and if the system starts to have booting issues then you will need to clear out more to get closer to the 15% free space mark.
Congrats on getting things working again and I will reiterate you should really think about a larger capacity drive for your OS