Multiple things freeze computer for some time

[hegemege]

Hi!

First of all, here's my computer specs:

OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit

Processor: AMD Phenom 8650 Triple-Core 2.30 GHz

RAM: 8 GB

Graphics card: nVidia GeForce GT130

Motherboard: M2N78-LA(Violet)

Sounds like things should be running very nice and smooth. This is not the case.

1) Not sure if you know of a game called Minecraft(uses Java). Almost every time I launch or quit a java application, my computer hangs for some good 30-40 secs, mouse doesn't respond and a time display on my logitech G15 keyboard LCD display stops(I use this a lot to determine if my computer has froze). I have uninstalled all my Java RTE, rebooted and reinstalled them. No luck. I have run CCleaner to clean the registry(it fixed 580 entries) and temporary files, caches etc.(1,3 GB) Furthermore, there is nothing in Eventviewer about Java crashing or freezing. Runnign it as Admin didn't fix the problem. This same game can be ran in browser but it still freezes, I use the .exe client version of it.

I run the game client on my laptop very well and it launches in a few seconds, so the problem must be in my PC. I would appreciate any help I could get here, as it gets very frustraing to launch any Java apps and wait almost a minute for it to start. Which leads to another problem:

2) I use an irc client KVIrc which has almost similar problems(I just started using it a few days ago). Takes almost a minute to launch but quits very smoothly. I have searched their customer service forums, and found no similar problems. No one else seems to get this kind of hiccups/freezes with this program. I have tried reinstalling it, but to no avail. Also, launching this on my laptop(IBM T60 btw) is instant. No freezing.

I believe that there might be an ultimate reason for these freezes:

3) After every reboot of my computer, explorer.exe crashes afterI do something in folders(moving/renaming files) or emptying the recycle bin or anything similar. Not instantly after a reboot but once it has stopped responding, it restarts itself and freezes no more until next reboot of the system. After the restart, there's a small, 10 sec freeze after a few seconds, not sure why is that but thought of mentioning it. There's an entry of it in Eventviewer but as I am no computer engineer, I don't know what to do with it. I can post it, but just tell me which part/what log I should post.

This PC is now a bit over one year old. Last fall I had to take it to repair because suddenly one morning, after I had left the computer running over night, I saw that it had intalled Windows updates(I believe it was SP2 or another major update) because I was in the login screen. The computer froze instantly after moving the mouse and started making an odd noise, which would repeat after a constant amount of time. After every reboot, it worked for 10 mins and froze and began to make that noise again. I believe it came from my optical drive or HDD.

So, they replaced my motherboard and after that it had been running great, except of these explorer.exe crashes. I am not sure if it happened right after the repair because windows installed SP2 almost instantly so I had no time to monitor it. About that weird noise, I still keep hearing it on every startup, but only once. Also, every time I put a CD into my optical drive, the noise comes and goes for a few times. There is no problem reading CDs whatsoever.

With some games(Aliens vs Predator, ArmA 2) I get similar freezes when ever going to esc pause menu(takes long time to go there and keyboard LCD time display freezes) which didn't occur at least last winter with ArmA 2. I understand that these are very demanding highend games that take lots and lots of resources but they used to run well after the repair and during last winter.

Thank you for your time, I appreciate greatly any help I can get :) PS: if it's in any way avoidable, I wouldn't like to reinstall windows, as I have some 550 GB of games and apps to get their names, saves and settings and lots and lots of files to backup.

[-pops-]

Is the 550GB of data (games) on the prime hard drive ("C" drive)? Seems a lot for the machine to have to trawl through on a regular basis.

First of all I would remove all unwanted programs and files, remove any rubbish with something like Ccleaner http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner and then defragment the drive.

If there is little or no improvement I would consider moving some of the data to a separate drive to be accessed as and when needed.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Also, do you possibly have multiple versions of Java RTE installed (check Add/Remove Programs)?

When your computer "hangs" 30-40 seconds, can you check with the Task Manager (Processes tab) what is actually going on - high CPU, high I/O, what process(es)?

[hegemege]

@-pops-

Like I said, I had wiped out all crap with CCleaner.

And yes, everything is on one drive(1 TB) This might be the issue for general freezing. I use Windows' auto-defragmenting tool that runs every week or so and I manually ran it last week. Does placing everything else except OS files to a second physical drive really speed up the computer that much? Should I consider buying a SSD?

@ ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb

I had two RTEs installed, but I uninstalled both and intsalled only the latest(6/20) Java RTE, rechecked it from Remove/Add programs.

As you suggested, I monitored Task manager and ran the application. During the hang there was no chance in values in the processes tab, which is quite obvious, and after the hang, the Java process takes some 280 000 kb. Next is Firefox with steady 100 000 kb. The performace of the processor made a significant spike to 90%, and stayed in 10-15% after and before the hang. RAM usage increased about 500 MB, which is okay for this application, as it has to load and use a lot of data frequently. Closing the application didnt cause my mouse to freeze anymore but everything else froze, and processor history had a huge spike to almost 85% and RAM decreased back to the level it was before running the app.

No luck in getting it to work so far. Thanks for your replies :)

[-pops-]

Regarding having a second hard drive for storage of programs and data, it would be better to do this, perhaps even to swap out your current 1TB for something much smaller (160GB).

One of the difficulties with these very large drives (1TB and over) is that although the storage capacity technology has vastly improved, the technology for retrieving data seems not have in the same way resulting in a mechanical reading head searching about a disk 500 to 1000 times bigger than even just a few years ago.

I've experienced delays like this myself with video files. When a 1TB drive reaches about 700 - 800 GB there is a marked reduction in the "find speed" for a particular file although, once found, the drive behaves OK.

[hegemege]

Indeed, I have read about the huge amount of mechanical movement the reading head does on even 500GB+ hard drives. I have around 373/951 GB free on C and considering this machine has been in quite demanding use for the whole year, it might be that it has been slowing down over time.

So, what kind of hard drive should I get? I don't know that much about the advantages or disadvantages of SATA, SATA II, SSD etc. I seem to have 3 free SATA connections on my motherboard left, according to this

[-pops-]

I would replace my main "C" drive with a much smaller one and install your Windows version and programs on to this. The current 1TB drive is then used as storage for the large amount of games you have.

I'm not a gamer so I can't comment on the exact way to do this but, for video files, all I do set the drive as an extra - usually becomes "E" or "F". It doesn't matter that there is an operating system on the "E" drive as you will be already booted from your new "C" drive. It may require some jiggling about before your machine is able to find and utilise the new setup but when you are up and going, you may want to delete the O/S and unwanted data on the large drive to give more free space.

Please allow someone else to comment on what I have written before going ahead.

[hegemege]

Little update here:

Suddenly, I don't know why, my computer has started acting much faster on the applications I said had issues with startup. I haven't tried the games yet to see if they went any better but looks like the problems are solved now.

I went to buy a new HDD today though I forgot to buy the needed cables. I had opened the case and cleaned some places with lots of dust with canned air. Might have cleaned a component that was malfunctioning because of the dust. Anyways, thanks for your help. :)

[catgate]

Little update here:

Suddenly, I don't know why, my computer has started acting much faster on the applications I said had issues with startup. I haven't tried the games yet to see if they went any better but looks like the problems are solved now.

I went to buy a new HDD today though I forgot to buy the needed cables. I had opened the case and cleaned some places with lots of dust with canned air. Might have cleaned a component that was malfunctioning because of the dust. Anyways, thanks for your help. :)

It looks as though your problem was due to overheating, due to dust build up. This is not uncommon.

However, the advice given by pops, regarding the size of the drive you use for your operating system, should not be ignored. The problem he outlined is very real and you should carry out his suggested alterations, despite the fact that you have achieved an improvement by cleaning.

[hegemege]

Little update here:

Suddenly, I don't know why, my computer has started acting much faster on the applications I said had issues with startup. I haven't tried the games yet to see if they went any better but looks like the problems are solved now.

I went to buy a new HDD today though I forgot to buy the needed cables. I had opened the case and cleaned some places with lots of dust with canned air. Might have cleaned a component that was malfunctioning because of the dust. Anyways, thanks for your help. :)

It looks as though your problem was due to overheating, due to dust build up. This is not uncommon.

However, the advice given by pops, regarding the size of the drive you use for your operating system, should not be ignored. The problem he outlined is very real and you should carry out his suggested alterations, despite the fact that you have achieved an improvement by cleaning.

Looks like the problem came back this morning. Only thing that had changed in my computer was an adobe update which shouldn't really affect Java stuff or other applications. It is quite hot here so the case and the components are overheating quite fast. I have a extra coolinf fan for my graphics card and looking at RivaTuner other components are not overheating.

[MelenG]

I had similar problems before though it is due to a different reason. My friend who just recently resolved the same problem with her computer suggeted that I use registry cleaner for microsoft.

The problem was immediately resolved after running this utility program. No more frozen application windows plus my computer's speed has greatly improved too. ;)

[bludgard]

I had similar problems before though it is due to a different reason. My friend who just recently resolved the same problem with her computer suggeted that I use registry cleaner for microsoft.

The problem was immediately resolved after running this utility program. No more frozen application windows plus my computer's speed has greatly improved too. ;)

Which cleaner did you use?

[hegemege]

As time has gone by, the explorer.exe crashes have stopped but I am still in the same situation: a lot of games or applications that require to load lots of data from the hard drive causes the whole system to freeze for some good 30-40 seconds and this is really frustrating. Installing the applications or games to my new 320GB hard drive didn't solve the problem so I started to believe that my Windows install and/or my drivers are corrupted. I've tried some graphics drivers but none of them helped solving the problem, probably because the drivers are installed to the 1TB hard drive which I think is corrupted/has bad sectors/has slowed down. System utilities don't recognise this though. As said before, I have used registry cleaners to wipe out all the trash from there.

I've now decided to install my Vista to the new 320GB HDD and remove the original 1TB drive and probably buy another 320 or 500 GB, which would hopefully make my gaming experience more enjoyable. The problem is, that every help page that shows how to install Vista to a new hard drive says that I must have the installation discs. I didn't get those, as this is a prebuild model by HP, but I have in D:(FACTORY_IMAGE) a file called Recovery which I think is used to turn my pc back to the factory settings. The question is, am I able to install Windows to my second hard drive with it, or do I have to buy the installation discs/ask them from the manufacturer. I might also buy W7 which would solve the whole case and take me away from this Vista hell, but I was just wondering whether this was possible?

I would like to get some details on this before I start moving my backup files to my external drive.

Just as a sidenote, I havent ever been able to install some of the security updates that Windows Update downloads, might be another expression of a corrupted OS.

[bludgard]

The question is, am I able to install Windows to my second hard drive with it,...

If you want to reinstall Vista,obtain a Visa .ISO comparable to what you have.Install and use the OEM COA that came with your machine to activate Windows.

(You can borrow an install disk from a friend or acquire it through other means)

If you want to install Windows 7 make sure hardware will be compatible for this OS to run as smooth as possible.

[hegemege]

In the Vista Help there's a guide on how to reset Vista back to the factory settings. After running the system reinstallation, I would need to finish the installation of Windows, according to the guide. However, will I be able to change the installation directory at that point? Would my PC recognize the 320GB HDD that is named as B:/ drive or install default on the C: drive?

Can I somehow create the .iso image from the recovery file or can I download it from Windows webpage, or is the only way to obtain original installation discs? I located the COA on the side of my case.

[hegemege]

Problem resolved, at last :)

msconfig, clean boot and adding one-by-one the processes or services I wanted to use. I didn't find the exact process or program that made theese freeze-ups but I am glad that my PC is finally working like it should.

[J Jam W]

Although you've established that the problem is due to resource-draining software, it shouldn't be peaking your CPU to 95% if it's only Java-based. I would recommend you dust your heatsink, re-fit it and upgrade the thermal compound.. It still sounds to me like a slight overheating issue might be the case.