Xp Pro long freezes - Any ideas?

[sandmanx]

I'm having a problem with my work machine. It's an Athton XP 2600+, 1GB ram, plenty of HD space, and running XP Pro SP2 w/ all the latest updates. Lately, it's been randomly freezing up, sometimes for over a minute.

What it does is freezes up the taskbar. The start button stays in a pressed state(without a menu), and if I move the mouse cursor over it, there is an hourglass. It does this randomly when I run a program. Any other programs I already have open are accessable during the time the taskbar is frozen. I have opened the Task Manager and watched while this happens, but no processes are taking up any extra cpu time.

I really started to notice this after running Cisco ASDM(a java app) for the first time. A reboot seems to help the problem a bit, but it gets worse the longer I run, even if I do not open that evil java app. It's now to the point where a reboot doesn't seem to help much at all. I've done all the normal checks for spyware and virii, and it comes back clean.

Any ideas on how to track the problem down? This is really starting to be a PITA since I'm the net admin here, and when it takes 1.5 minutes to open up a remote connection to another machine while on the phone, it's really inconvient. I'd rather avoid having to reload the machine if possible since it will take weeks to get back to where I am currently.

 

[sandmanx]

Argh! I've been putting up with problems for over a week, and it looks like McAfee On-Access Scan is the culprit. I turned the damn thing off and my machine is flying now. I guess I'll just leave it off since I've gotten 0 viruses over the past 5+ years here anyways.

 

[Vette5885]

Maybe you haven't had a virus in 5 years because of your anti-virus. Ever think of that?

McAfee is a resource hog - try some of the free ones. I personally like AVG, from free.grisoft.com

 

[HvyMtl]

Ok, when I have had similar issues in the past there have been a few solutions.
1. Double check on what is running in the background. I have had an anti-virus proggy lock up my system like that, as well as a spyware scanner. Those could be the culprits - especially if there is a lot of hard drive activity. Again though, make sure that there are no programs running in the background and see if that solves the problem.
2. Run Memtest or similar memory testing application. 2.a. check your hard drive for issues. - In other words, remove the chance of hardware problems.
3. Remove and reinstall the Cisco app
4. Reinstall/update Java - could be corrupted...
5. Look for processes (not programs - you can see them in the Task Manager)look for new ones you do not recognize. BE CAREFUL DOING THIS - start by stopping a few of the processes in the manager. See if that helps - NOTE: it CAN CRASH XP big time, so make sure you have a backup of everything on the system (in the odd chance XP does not come back...) Then see what processes go with what program - and there is your culprit.


Best of luck
EDIT:
OK So it was your anti-virus. Ok things to do - Dump McAfee. Go with other lesser known but excellent quality anti-virus - such as Antivir.

 

[djnes]

Maybe you haven't had a virus in 5 years because of your anti-virus. Ever think of that?

McAfee is a resource hog - try some of the free ones. I personally like AVG, from free.grisoft.com

But....but....but....no one needs AV software if they know what they are doing!

I agree that McAfee needs to go, but don't be crazy enough to think you don't need AV software at all. There are some good free ones, like the above mentioned AVG that will work very well, and hardly use any resources.

 

[sandmanx]

But....but....but....no one needs AV software if they know what they are doing!

I agree that McAfee needs to go, but don't be crazy enough to think you don't need AV software at all. There are some good free ones, like the above mentioned AVG that will work very well, and hardly use any resources.

Well, the problem is around again now that I'm back from lunch, but the machine is much more responsive with McAfee disabled. I'm going to test out the hardware now, since I didn't even think to check it, and it very well could be the culprit.

I'm using McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.0i for the record, not the craptacular end user version. I've had great results with it over the past 5 years, and haven't had any virus problems ever since I ran it on any of the 50 machines I admin. It is quite a resource hog though. I'm kind of leary running AVG, since it let a virus sneak past my home boxen not long ago, and it took me hours to clean that mess up.

I know better than to run without protection, even though I'm smart enough to know what not to click on, you never know.

 

[djnes]

I know better than to run without protection, even though I'm smart enough to know what not to click on, you never know.

Exactly...you need a combo of AV software and knowledge as well. I think you'll enjoy not having McAfee running...even if it doesn't quite solve the issue. I'd start with the memory and the hard drive(s), in terms of hardware.