'Task manager' & 'end process' is sluggish and fails in XP... help?

[zer0nix]

i sometimes have to deal with broken files that cause programs to hang and for some reason, the xp pro pc i'm stuck with has a few odd (and very annoying) quirks relating to the task manager:

first of all, it cannot close hanging programs immediately; ending a nonresponding program can take anywhere from 30-45 seconds.

secondly, if the pc is being thrashed (most likely due to swapping files out of the hdd into ram, thanks to a firefox memory leak), the task manager will not automatically appear when ctrl alt del is pressed -and sometimes it doesn't even appear at all, thus forcing a reboot.

thirdly, the task manager can become hung/frozen when trying to close hanging/frozen programs (!!!)

is there any way to fix this behavior or to force xp to end a frozen program?

thanks for reading!


system:

cpu: p4 northwood 2.53 ghz
mobo: compaq 07e8h
ram: 2x 512mb pc3200

 

[Red Falcon]

Specs of your system and versions of said programs would definitely help us help you.
Do remember this is an 11 year old OS at this point, is there any chance of upgrading to Win 7 or above, or are you 'stuck' with XP?

 

[zer0nix]

Specs of your system and versions of said programs would definitely help us help you.
Do remember this is an 11 year old OS at this point, is there any chance of upgrading to Win 7 or above, or are you 'stuck' with XP?

whoops. updated 1st post with details:

cpu: p4 northwood 2.53 ghz
mobo: compaq 07e8h
ram: 2x 512mb pc3200

the issues with the task manager affect all programs; the last time it froze, i was trying to end a frozen firefox session. i've been told that xp doesn't have a 'killprocess' function, unlike win2k, but i can't believe something so essential would be missing. surely there must be some way to end nonresponding programs quickly.

i don't really play any modern games or do much video editing so i'd rather not upgrade if i don't have to -unless someone can sell me a copy of windows 7 / vista for very cheap (and i'm also looking for a 2gb dual channel ddr kit and an overclocking capable socket a mobo with three or 4 ram slots. ...yep, old tech all around).

i'd rather not downgrade to win2k or switch to linux since that would make some of the programs i use incompatible (i've tried a few different versions of linuxmint and... long story short, i prefer windows).

 

[Ranma_Sao]

First off, the code between killing processes in 2000 and XP is pretty much the same.

TerminateProcess() is the function.

Are you killing the process with End Process in the process list? Or the application view?

My guess is going to be your hardware is starting to fail, and DPC's are taking awhile. (P4's are kind of old these days)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Red Falcon]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

lulz

i've been told that xp doesn't have a 'killprocess' function, unlike win2k, but i can't believe something so essential would be missing. surely there must be some way to end nonresponding programs quickly.

Well, considering that XP and 2000 Pro, like Ranma_Sao stated, are pretty much the same.
In all honesty, it is really time for a new system.

You will end up spending more for that legacy DDR1 memory than you would for 8GB of DDR3 on a new system.
Also, if you have any malware, viri, or bloatware/rougeware installed without your knowledge, that will definitely make your old P4 struggle.

My best suggestion at this point, even if you wanted to stick with XP, would be to upgrade your hardware.
Even a lowly dual-core AMD Fusion processor will run circles around the fastest P4 in existence.

 

[Radical]

To me this sounds like your software load is too much for your hardware. I don't really think it's something you're going to be able to fix without buying new hardware, and I don't think W7 is going to run well on your current system.

 

[GushpinBob]

You might wanna do a disk check and backup whatever you have on your system drive. I've experienced similar symptoms about a year ago with programs just locking up without hogging a ton of CPU cycles. I ran some of the diagnostic tools that WDC provides on their website and sure enough, thousands of bad sectors everywhere.

 

[cyclone3d]

You might wanna do a disk check and backup whatever you have on your system drive. I've experienced similar symptoms about a year ago with programs just locking up without hogging a ton of CPU cycles. I ran some of the diagnostic tools that WDC provides on their website and sure enough, thousands of bad sectors everywhere.

I second this.

open up a command prompt as an administrator and run "chkdsk /f"

Also, to force kill a process, you can use taskkill

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/.../xp/all/proddocs/en-us/taskkill.mspx?mfr=true

The /f option forces it to close and works very well. I have had to use it in instances where a regular taskkill doesn't actually kill the process fully through task scheduler. It is also a lot faster than opening up task manager, especially on systems that take a while to open up task manager.

 

[zer0nix]

update:

decided to heed the advice and ran a full disk check on chkdsk. the test took about a day and it looks like there are no bad sectors detected, although there were a number of file system errors:

[spoilers]Event Type: Information
Event Source: Winlogon
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1001
Date: 5/17/2012
Time: 6:08:07 PM
User: N/A
Computer: P4COMPAQ-ECED07
Description:
Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 518 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 518 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 518 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.

12895196 KB total disk space.
10417308 KB in 37547 files.
11840 KB in 6376 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
146376 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
2319672 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
3223799 total allocation units on disk.
579918 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
10 10 01 00 9f ab 00 00 04 e4 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
8e 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 a2 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
d4 ad f4 01 00 00 00 00 3a fd e9 15 00 00 00 00 ........:.......
6e e2 d6 05 00 00 00 00 da d9 bd 37 01 00 00 00 n..........7....
96 4f fc 5e 00 00 00 00 86 72 e5 bb 01 00 00 00 .O.^.....r......
99 9e 36 00 00 00 00 00 30 3c 07 00 ab 92 00 00 ..6.....0<......
00 00 00 00 00 70 d2 7b 02 00 00 00 e8 18 00 00 .....p.{........

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.


For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
[/spoilers]
[spoilers]Event Type: Information
Event Source: Winlogon
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1001
Date: 5/17/2012
Time: 6:08:07 PM
User: N/A
Computer: P4COMPAQ-ECED07
Description:
Checking file system on F:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.
The object id index entry in file 0x19 points to file 0x430c
but the file has no object id in it.
Deleting an index entry from index $O of file 25.
The object id index entry in file 0x19 points to file 0x430f
but the file has no object id in it.
Deleting an index entry from index $O of file 25.
The object id index entry in file 0x19 points to file 0x4310
but the file has no object id in it.
Deleting an index entry from index $O of file 25.
The object id index entry in file 0x19 points to file 0x4311
but the file has no object id in it.
Deleting an index entry from index $O of file 25.
Cleaning up 13 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 13 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 13 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.
The upcase file content is incorrect.
Correcting errors in the uppercase file.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

182465535 KB total disk space.
28747464 KB in 95057 files.
42872 KB in 10885 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
182759 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
153492440 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
45616383 total allocation units on disk.
38373110 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
70 b2 01 00 e1 9d 01 00 1f d8 02 00 00 00 00 00 p...............
52 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 1b 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 R...............
00 5a 62 02 00 00 00 00 aa ee da 5e 00 00 00 00 .Zb........^....
6a ed 92 01 00 00 00 00 e6 6b c9 b5 01 00 00 00 j........k......
ca ab 59 4b 08 00 00 00 e0 a9 28 6b 0a 00 00 00 ..YK......(k....
99 9e 36 00 00 00 00 00 b8 3b 07 00 51 73 01 00 ..6......;..Qs..
00 00 00 00 00 20 9b da 06 00 00 00 85 2a 00 00 ..... .......*..
Checking file system on F:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

182465535 KB total disk space.
28747472 KB in 95058 files.
42872 KB in 10885 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
182759 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
153492432 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
45616383 total allocation units on disk.
38373108 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
70 b2 01 00 e2 9d 01 00 20 d8 02 00 00 00 00 00 p....... .......
52 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 0e 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 R...............
a6 f7 5f 02 00 00 00 00 66 62 0f 5f 00 00 00 00 .._.....fb._....
d2 76 9c 01 00 00 00 00 98 26 a7 b6 01 00 00 00 .v.......&......
c6 3d a9 4a 08 00 00 00 1a 7d 9d 6b 0a 00 00 00 .=.J.....}.k....
99 9e 36 00 00 00 00 00 b8 3b 07 00 52 73 01 00 ..6......;..Rs..
00 00 00 00 00 40 9b da 06 00 00 00 85 2a 00 00 .....@.......*..


For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
[/spoilers]

following that...

again firefox froze and crashed the task manager so i decided to dig up my old seagate 'utility toolkit' cd and give that a whirl.

first, here are the error reports from the hanging taskmanager:
[spoilers]
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Hang
Event Category: (101)
Event ID: 1002
Date: 5/26/2012
Time: 5:24:30 AM
User: N/A
Computer: P4COMPAQ-ECED07
Description:
Hanging application taskmgr.exe, version 5.1.2600.5512, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 48 61 6e 67 ion Hang
0010: 20 20 74 61 73 6b 6d 67 taskmg
0018: 72 2e 65 78 65 20 35 2e r.exe 5.
0020: 31 2e 32 36 30 30 2e 35 1.2600.5
0028: 35 31 32 20 69 6e 20 68 512 in h
0030: 75 6e 67 61 70 70 20 30 ungapp 0
0038: 2e 30 2e 30 2e 30 20 61 .0.0.0 a
0040: 74 20 6f 66 66 73 65 74 t offset
0048: 20 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 0000000
0050: 30 0


Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Hang
Event Category: (101)
Event ID: 1002
Date: 5/26/2012
Time: 2:07:00 PM
User: N/A
Computer: P4COMPAQ-ECED07
Description:
Hanging application taskmgr.exe, version 5.1.2600.5512, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 48 61 6e 67 ion Hang
0010: 20 20 74 61 73 6b 6d 67 taskmg
0018: 72 2e 65 78 65 20 35 2e r.exe 5.
0020: 31 2e 32 36 30 30 2e 35 1.2600.5
0028: 35 31 32 20 69 6e 20 68 512 in h
0030: 75 6e 67 61 70 70 20 30 ungapp 0
0038: 2e 30 2e 30 2e 30 20 61 .0.0.0 a
0040: 74 20 6f 66 66 73 65 74 t offset
0048: 20 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 0000000
0050: 30 0
[/spoilers]


the hdd in question is a 200GB seagate st3200822a ... which is divided into two partitions with gparted, 13.2 GB for the os and 162.8 GB for files.

using seagate's 'utility toolkit' cd, i ran two DiagATA tests: the full test and the file system test.

the full test took a little bit longer than an hour and the hdd passed without indicating any problems or errors ... there are no bad sectors or any warnings indicated in the report.

the file system test is where things go awry. i ran the file system test twice and both times, both partitions at precisely the same place: 67% of the way in for the 13.2 GB partition and 94% of the way in for the 168.8 GB partition.


the earlier chkdsk tests also indicate file system errors but no bad sectors.

wth could be causing these problems?


UPDATE:

there are 2 suspect caps on the mobo. both are next to each other and are situated in an area between the cpu and the io shield. one is kind of tilted (possible bulging at the bottom) and the other looks like it has burst on top, although the matter looks dry. with no bad sectors detected, could these be the cause of the problems?

EDIT: how do you hide txt on these forums?