Win7 x64 issue. Very strange!

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BallerX

[H]ard|Gawd
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I'm not really sure what is going on. This is absolutely the strangest problem I have ever had.

Every hour on the hour, (currently happening at the 53min mark) the system becomes completely unresponsive for a period of not longer than 20 seconds. During this time the HDD activity light is cranking away.

I have watched the resource monitor during these times and it registers nothing out of the ordinary in either HDD access or CPU usage.

As you can imagine, this is quite annoying. If it happens when I am watching a movie, the movie just locks up and I have to navigate forward or reverse to resume playback.

I have checked every single scheduled task and log file in the whole computer and I can find nothing that corresponds with these events. I have been trying to track this down since the day I built this system and I just can't crack it. Words cannot express the extreme anger I have right now having spent so much money and time on this damn thing and I can't even watch a movie all the way through.

This doesn't happen if I am playing a game. It is a pretty strange problem.
 
Yea, I am not having the same issues at all. The PC is rock stable in all other conditions and this happens like clock work, on the dot, every time. It is not random.

Otherwise the system is not slow at all. Everything else functions normally.
 
The install is less than 2 months old and I scan for viri all the time. I do not run on access scanning or anything of the like though. so that is not interfering. Matter of fact I just got finished scanning and I got nothing. It has been doing this since day one.

I am thinking about trying to disable HDSMART in the bios and see if that helps. Windows claims it isn't reading or writing anything much to the HDD but the whole machine becomes unresponsive and the light just cranks like there is no tomorrow.
 
Hard drive going bad perhaps? If you don't have much to back up have you thought about doing a clean fresh install and just giving that a go? Might be a bad driver or DLL or something in there.
 
On the hour, open up resource monitor and see what process is using all the disk activity.
 
I have already watched the resource monitor several times. It reports no strange reading or writing to the disk at the time this happens and system Idle process is 99%. The HD checks out fine with no errors. WD own tool DLG gives it a pass. Like I said, I have been chasing this problem since day one, and have done everything I can think of within ordinary measures to find out what is going on.
 
I can't imagine the hard drive going crazy with absolutely no sign of it in the OS. Something software wise, whether a program or service is causing it to do that. If it's the HDD on itself, then it's a bad drive.
 
Turning off SMART in the BIOS has resolved this problem for me I THINK..:p

I will report back when I have done some more testing. Strange issue indeed. This drive is IDE and I suspect that since there is only one real IDE channel on this board that it isn't doing a great job handling the periodic SMART update with grace. We shall see.
 
What mode is the hard drive configured in? It may have dropped to PIO mode. You could take this as a chance to ditch IDE once and for all.
 
Why? It's a perfectly fine working drive. In fact, it is not much slower than the sata 320GB storage drive. I checked to make sure it wasn't in PIO mode. and it isn't. I do have a question about what driver I should be installing though.

I have a gigabyte p55-ud3r board and I have installed all of the drivers and updated to the latest BIOS.

There is some raid drivers available on the website for the sata raid on this board. I installed those drivers but it made all my HD drivers change from ATA to SCSI in device manager and then I couldn't access my DVD Burner anymore. I promptly removed those drivers and rebooted windows the 3 times that it took to restore the old drivers and all was well again. I am right in thinking I don't need these drivers unless I am running SATA raid which I am not?
 
Balls!! No luck, still every hour on the hour with the same fucking bullshit.:mad:

The hard drive is fine, there is no way a HDD error would produce a problem like this.
Still, windows says that there is nothing accessing the HDD at this particular time. This is the stupidest fucking thing I have ever heard of. I am about two fucking inches away from getting my money back and going back to XP. Fuck this POS software and fuck all you assholes who claim it works.
 
BallerX said:
Balls!! No luck, still every hour on the hour with the same fucking bullshit.:mad:

The hard drive is fine, there is no way a HDD error would produce a problem like this.
Still, windows says that there is nothing accessing the HDD at this particular time. This is the stupidest fucking thing I have ever heard of. I am about two fucking inches away from getting my money back and going back to XP. Fuck this POS software and fuck all you assholes who claim it works.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you really make us want to help you.

What software do you have running? Would you be willing to capture a perf trace to track down what's causing this? http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/performance/cc825801.aspx
 
Tawnos, my comments aren't directed at anyone in particular. The point I am making is the OS is certainly not better if I am having this kind of problem. So far this OS has been nothing but a thorn in my side. Every single thing I want to do turns out to be a giant hassle. I just want to watch a DVD without interruption for god sakes. Lets face it. It's something I have been able to do just fine in windows since 98se. Let me tell you, even when it is working playback still has cadence problems that I never had on XP.

After trying a few things and rebooting a bunch of times now the pause it at the min 27 on the hour. I guess I will take a screen shot the the resource monitor at 1:27 And post it up to see if any of you guys can see anything I'm missing.

I will try to get it setup to cap a trace but damn that seems so complicated that I doubt I can even get the information necessary to make a diagnosis.
 
Well I tried to go for the trace thing but guess what. You have to install win7 SDK for that WTF? Yea I'm not installing the whole damned SDK just for that tool set.

The trace wouldn't tell you anything anyway since the problem I am having isn't related to bootup or shutdown or transition in and out of sleep and suspend mode.

Honestly, I just don't think there is anyway to resolve this problem. Whatever it is, it is a deliberate action by the OS for it to be happening on the hour like that. It is certainly not the HD. I have put the screws to that sucker and it has passed with flying colors.
 
Open Task Scheduler and see what tasks are scheduled to run and when.
 
BallerX said:
The install is less than 2 months old and I scan for viri all the time. I do not run on access scanning or anything of the like though. so that is not interfering. Matter of fact I just got finished scanning and I got nothing. It has been doing this since day one.

I am thinking about trying to disable HDSMART in the bios and see if that helps. Windows claims it isn't reading or writing anything much to the HDD but the whole machine becomes unresponsive and the light just cranks like there is no tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Still sounds like a malware program trying to phone home
at regular intervals.

Did you check to see if there are any Event Monitor events
at those times?
 
I doubt this problem you have has anything to do with the fact that you're using Windows 7. It's not some widespread thing happening across a shitload of people's installs. For example, everyone in my house (including myself) has either Windows 7 Home Premium x64 or x86, or Windows 7 Ultimate x64 or x86, and every computer is working flawlessly. In any case, I agree with the "malware trying to phone home" theory. Sounds like the most likely candidate.

...oh, random tidbit - "viri" isn't a word. The only correct way to refer to more than one virus is by using the word "viruses". Just thought you should know. :)
 
BallerX said:
Balls!! No luck, still every hour on the hour with the same fucking bullshit.:mad:

The hard drive is fine, there is no way a HDD error would produce a problem like this.
Still, windows says that there is nothing accessing the HDD at this particular time. This is the stupidest fucking thing I have ever heard of. I am about two fucking inches away from getting my money back and going back to XP. Fuck this POS software and fuck all you assholes who claim it works.
Click to expand...

Real good way to get help. What are you 5 years old, ? resorting to name calling because you can't resolve an issue on your PC, good luck getting help anywhere wth that attitude.:rolleyes:
 
BallerX said:
Fuck this POS software and fuck all you assholes who claim it works.
Click to expand...
Nice. Fuck us because we are able to run Windows 7 and you can't figure it out or are unwilling to try our suggestions? Yep, we're the problem...you got it!
 
BallerX said:
Tawnos, my comments aren't directed at anyone in particular. The point I am making is the OS is certainly not better if I am having this kind of problem. So far this OS has been nothing but a thorn in my side. Every single thing I want to do turns out to be a giant hassle. I just want to watch a DVD without interruption for god sakes. Lets face it. It's something I have been able to do just fine in windows since 98se. Let me tell you, even when it is working playback still has cadence problems that I never had on XP.

After trying a few things and rebooting a bunch of times now the pause it at the min 27 on the hour. I guess I will take a screen shot the the resource monitor at 1:27 And post it up to see if any of you guys can see anything I'm missing.

I will try to get it setup to cap a trace but damn that seems so complicated that I doubt I can even get the information necessary to make a diagnosis.
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"Not directed at anyone in particular;" though you do specify those of us who claim it works, and indirectly those of us who actually worked on it and are here on our own time (that is, in addition to normal work hours) helping people because we like the product.

If you did an upgrade, it's possible you dragged along a piece of software that's causing the issue. As I asked earlier: what programs do you have running at startup?
 
It was a fresh install. I only have Core temp running at startup. I don't have a bunch of Software booting with my PC or running all the time. I DID NOT UPGRADE!!! I formatted the drive and reinstalled win7. That was in early December. It has been doing this since day one. So if it is spyware, it's spyware that come on the windows disk?

Programs set to start with the PC are

Core Temp.exe
CCC.exe (video)
RAVCpl64.exe (Audio)
Adobe gamma loader.exe

That is it, nothing else.
A far as I can see the only hourly task setup by default in windows7 is RACtask, so I turned it off for now and have been running it manually. That is clearly not the problem.

Whatever it is, it doesn't do it when I am playing a video game. I don't have any funky services turned off or on that would cause this.

I have used every tool in windows to diagnose this problem. I have checked all the logs and there is nothing happening at the time this happens.

You'll have to forgive my tone from earlier. I was obviously angry from fighting with this for a month already. I didn't just come in here and start bitching, even though that is what it looks like. I came here as a last resort. What you guys are telling me to do is what I have been doing for a month already! I have scoured the possibilities from the very beginning.

Even my page file is on another much faster drive. I have tried anything and everything that is conceivable to fix this problem short of reformatting and starting over. If I do that, win7 is not going back on this machine.
 
I'd start by removing everything from startup, as none of those programs are required. And you're certain that's it? (That is, you've checked HKLM\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run and HKLM\software\wow6432node\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run for programs)
 
BallerX said:
Fuck this POS software and fuck all you assholes who claim it works.
Click to expand...

BallerX said:
You'll have to forgive my tone from earlier. I was obviously angry from fighting with this for a month already.
Click to expand...
We've all been angry at troubleshooting issues, but we've never told those trying to help us to fuck off. I don't see how you take your anger at the problem and turn it into telling us to go fuck ourselves. Not unless you have serious anger issues.

Like I said above, I'd do a complete fresh install again, and load nothing at all in terms of drivers. Then I'd let it run and see if the issue arises. Then I'd try one driver at a time, starting with the chipset drivers, then reboot and let it run for a while. It is most definitely not the OS, or else we'd all be having the issue. I would also stop running CoreTemp at boot.
 
Why would you not boot with core temp. I like to know what my CPU temp is don't you?

Maybe you guys are not understanding me. When I first installed windows the first thing I tried to do was play a DVD. It started then. I have screen shots I took earlier. You will see that nothing is really reading or writing from or to the drive yet it's activity is through the roof for a period of time.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=100375&stc=1&d=1263244704

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=100374&stc=1&d=1263244704
 
Your resource monitor looks strangely empty. Are you running it as administrator?
 
Well I am logged in on the only account on this system and it is set to administrator. UAC is turned off. I tend to keep my PC clean. I don't really run multiple programs or have a bunch of crap running at once like most people.

If there is another way I should be running it then enlighten me. I have been going to the task mannager and clicking the button.
EDIT
Apparently the storage drive is on the same controller as the IDE drive and the DVDrom.

I'm gonna try moving it to another Physical controller. this is really starting to look like an interrupt issue.
 
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What's the response time look like for those processes? It appears something is having a lot of small service requests to the drive, leading to high disk activity but low throughput transfer...

Have you checked Event Viewer for potential errors?
 
The only thing in event viewer that seems odd to me is that several services are constantly being turned on and off. Apparently, at windows behest, but the times never coincide with the pause. I haven't had any errors at all really. At least ones I didn't directly cause.

Changing the controllers made no difference. It is definitely something windows is doing every hour on the hour. It happens whether the PC is heavily loaded or there is nothing going on at all. But, if I am playing a game it is fine for hours.

This is really a stupid problem. I mean the PC is perfect otherwise but once every hour it takes a shit. Unless I am playing a game.
 
BallerX said:
The only thing in event viewer that seems odd to me is that several services are constantly being turned on and off. Apparently, at windows behest, but the times never coincide with the pause. I haven't had any errors at all really. At least ones I didn't directly cause.

Changing the controllers made no difference. It is definitely something windows is doing every hour on the hour. It happens whether the PC is heavily loaded or there is nothing going on at all. But, if I am playing a game it is fine for hours.

This is really a stupid problem. I mean the PC is perfect otherwise but once every hour it takes a shit. Unless I am playing a game.
Click to expand...

You keep making the assumption it's windows, but you haven't yet answered other questions that I've asked, nor have you tried disabling programs as recommended. For all we know, some program is doing stuff that causes thrashing when the system is "not under load", unlike when you're playing a game. It's why I asked you to check the registry in both locations I stated, as well as disable all unneeded programs on boot.
 
Does it only happen once an hour, or does it happen at a specified time (you mentioned :53 earlier). Like, if it happens, and then you set the clock to be :53 again right away, does it then happen again right away? Is it tied to the time, or an interval?
 
Well I fixed the problem. I went to the store and bought an up-converting DVD player for $40.
 
BallerX said:
Why would you not boot with core temp. I like to know what my CPU temp is don't you?
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No, I don't, not all the time. Also, if you knew enough about the troubleshooting process to tell us all to go fuck off, it would have been blatantly obvious WHY I suggested shutting it off for the time being.

The truly sad thing about this thread is, the only perosn who hasn't been helpful is you, the OP. There have been a few people lately dropping attitude after asking for help, but you sir, take the prize.

And while we are on the subject of ridiculousness...how does buying an upconverting DVD player solve this issue?
 
DeaconFrost said:
And while we are on the subject of ridiculousness...how does buying an upconverting DVD player solve this issue?
Click to expand...

I'm guessing because he doesn't have to watch movies on his PC now.

Still, that's a band-aid, not a fix...and I'm curious to know what's causing this. So OP are you going to stick with 7 and continue to troubleshoot?
 
You could try unplugging your computer from the internet completely to see if it happens. If it doesn't probably virus/malware...?

Does the same thing happen if you are in safe mode?
 
BallerX said:
I am about two fucking inches away from getting my money back and going back to XP. Fuck this POS software and fuck all you assholes who claim it works.
Click to expand...

That's classic, lmao. I have to consider adding that to my sig... and I very rarely ever add anybody's comments to my sig.
 
This thread is nuts. You've tried absolutely nothing to fix your issue, so of course it still isn't working right.

Go into msconfig, turn off ALL startup items, and monitor. Also, MONITOR the damn system to see what is going on at the time. Also, what is your AV? Make sure you are looking at ALL processes in task manager before/during/after - I guarantee you will see something.

Or, stick to your current troubleshooting, and buy a new DVD player. Great solution.

Actually, I DO know the problem - Microsoft hired an employee to monitor your PC via spyware installed on the special Windows 7 disk you bought, and his sole job is to pause your system every 53 minutes. Buy a Mac, and all your problems will be magically solved.
 
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