NationStates Jolt Archive

Okay, so this is a bit of a head-scratcher.

Apparently, for some reason, over the past few days something has happened which causes every program to load REALLY SLOWLY. By this I mean that when the program is first started--this includes all programs at boot-up, mind--it takes a lot longer than it should to start up. (For example, Firefox, which should start up in anywhere from seven to twenty seconds--twenty being when I start it up while the computer is still finishing booting--now takes anywhere from three to five MINUTES.) Boot-up alone takes ten minutes when it should take at most fifty seconds.

Initially I suspected it was ZoneAlarm, but some testing with it disabled shows that' s not it.

The really freaky thing is that once a program has started up, it runs just fine, just like it's supposed to, with no hiccups or anything. I haven't tested this extensively, but I believe the program will also start back up normally if it's started up again after having been shut off.

This is really confusing me, because the freakiest part is that memory usage and CPU usage doesn't really change when the programs are loading(note that even the task manager started up slowly for me.) They look just like they normally would.

I ran some serious virus and spyware checks before coming here for help: not a thing.

So...what the hell could the problem be?

(In case they're necessary:
CPU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103626)
Video Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814122244)
RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145575)
OS (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16837102059)
Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131540)
Hard Drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148140)
Case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129155))

When was the last time you defragmented your hard drive?

Google and run the following, in this order.

Ad-aware 2007
Spybot S&D
CCleaner

This should get rid a lot of harmful and unnecessary files in your temp folder.

EDIT: Oh, well forget the first two then if you're certain that it's not a spyware problem. I would still run CCleaner just to see what shows up. Also, have you been burning cds recently?

Scan your computer for viruses. It might be a startup boot virus. My mother´s computer started acting up the same and after we ran the scan and cleaned the virus, everything came back to normality. Check it out.

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

virus scan.

its free and good.

Clean out your cache
Remove ALL Temporary files
Reboot computer
Run two current Ad/spy ware programs and anti-virus software
Power off computer and disconnect from any network (including internet)
reboot and bring up in safe mode
Defragment your harddrive
Clean your harddrive
Reboot your computer with network/internet disconnected and check startup speed. also check programs.

if problem persists, then you have a program installed that is either corrupted or hidden. You need to hunt it out and kill it.

if ok, then power off and reconnect Network and internet and power up... test speed. If problem returns then you have a program installed that is causing the problem by accessing the network... hunt it down and kill it.

I don't think this is a virus issue.

I have a similar issue with IE. The first time I type something in the address bar, after launching it after a bootup...it just freezes for a while...about 30 secs..then it comes back on and after that it works fine..even with any new windows opened after the first time freeze.

I tried everything (cleanups, settings check, defrag etc) and gave up and have taken to cursing Microsoft instead. Most of my work stuff can be done only through IE, so I am forced to do this although for personal browsing I exclusively use firefox.

I don't think this is a virus issue.

I have a similar issue with IE. The first time I type something in the address bar, after launching it after a bootup...it just freezes for a while...about 30 secs..then it comes back on and after that it works fine..even with any new windows opened after the first time freeze.

I tried everything (cleanups, settings check, defrag etc) and gave up and have taken to cursing Microsoft instead. Most of my work stuff can be done only through IE, so I am forced to do this although for personal browsing I exclusively use firefox.

Aye I have the same issue with IE and also use firefox for that reason.

I don't think this is a virus issue.

I have a similar issue with IE. The first time I type something in the address bar, after launching it after a bootup...it just freezes for a while...about 30 secs..then it comes back on and after that it works fine..even with any new windows opened after the first time freeze.

I tried everything (cleanups, settings check, defrag etc) and gave up and have taken to cursing Microsoft instead. Most of my work stuff can be done only through IE, so I am forced to do this although for personal browsing I exclusively use firefox.

but the bolded means it came up normally. the problem could be connectivity or with IE itself. Did you try clearing the cache? what about Updates and patches?

Kyronea's problem is that it freezes while the program comes up. which could be a registry problem also. (just thought of that.)

Run a defrag with Disk Keeper, far better for fixing fragmentation that the one built into Windows.

You may also want to run a utility called MSCONFIG. To use it, you can either use: WINDOWS Key + R or go to START > RUN, and type in MSCONFIG. From there, go to start up and it will list all the programmes you have loading at Windows Startup. I recommend turning off ALL programmes other than the core basics. Leave on your AV, firewall and any special keyboard, mouse or soundcard utils.

http://www.weaselhut.net/sysconfig.PNG

I only have a few utils running at start-up. The only non-essential programme I run is Google Talk. ;) Daemon Tools counts as a necessary util in this age. The rest of the items in this list are for soundcard, firewall, AV and NetMeter.

I find that it also helps to have partitions serve certain functions.

IE: one partition for your actual Windows install (plus Windows apps like a word processor and your internet browser), which isn't very large as to aid in the quick defragmentation of that partition.

One for games, one for music...etc and if you engage in it, one for torrents, which wouldn't have to be defragged because that drive is constantly having new data added to it.

Mind you, I use this practice on a dual core computer with nearly 800G across two SATA drives even though I have the capacity to run more at start-up. I'm an app minimalist.

The slow down could come from not doing clean installs.

Registry cleaners are your friends. Though caution should be exercised. The best way to increase your time would be to do a clean reinstall. It would allow for you to clean up your Windows partition and narrow the number of programmes you're running. Chances are you have crap you don't need.

I ran a defrag rather recently, but I'll run a new one with this Disk Keeper.

I'll also try a Safe Mode boot-up and see what happens...I'm reasonably certain though that it's not a case of boot-up overload, program wise. I'm rather minimalist too...here's what my boot-up program list is:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v625/PIcaRDMPC/bootprocesses.png

Hmm...I haven't taken a good close look at this in awhile...I have no idea what that Adobe Gamma thing is...

But I think it's the only non-essential thing on that list.

As for those advising virus/spyware scans, I am positive that it's neither one, since I already checked.

Disable TeaTimer in Spybot S&D. ZoneAlarm and TeaTimer do not like each other and on the ZoneLabs support forum site - we recommended you disable TeaTimer when ZA is installed.

PS - I am Guru Jeruselem on the ZA user support forums

Why version of ZA are you running? The most recent release is 7.0.473.000 for XP and 7.1.254.000 for Vista.

Disable TeaTimer in Spybot S&D. ZoneAlarm and TeaTimer do not like each other and on the ZoneLabs support forum site - we recommended you disable TeaTimer when ZA is installed.

PS - I am Guru Jeruselem on the ZA user support forums

Really? I've been running them together for a couple months now and they've been peachy keen.

Why version of ZA are you running? The most recent release is 7.0.473.000 for XP and 7.1.254.000 for Vista.

Well, it's ZoneAlarm's Security Suite, not just the firewall. It's 7.0.470.000

Really? I've been running them together for a couple months now and they've been peachy keen.

See if disabling TeaTimer has any effect. In the past, we've had major issues when it's fighting with ZA in IE.

Head the following for free ZA support
http://forum.zonelabs.org/zonelabs

if all of the above does not work
here is a trick I have.
hit CRTL-ALT-DEL.

go to Task Manager. If you see something in applications tab that you are not running write down the name and Google it to see if others have had problems with it before, also find removal procedures.
Next click on the process tab. See if anything is using a lot of your CPU, if you have nothing running then system idle process should be the only thing eating up most of your CPU. If you see something Google it to figure out what it is and what program it is attached to.
you also might want to end process on it but this can be dangerous and cause a computer reboot and should not be done too often.

Well, it's ZoneAlarm's Security Suite, not just the firewall. It's 7.0.470.000

Not much different between the 470 and 473 release really.

You could reduce the CPU intensity of the virus scans which is normally the cause of the start-up times. The ZA products now the Kaspersky AV engine which has some uniquely annoying features.
1. Open the ZA client
2. Click on the Advance Options button
3. Click on Scan Options under Virus Management
4. There's a set scanning priority - this should be Medium. In the past, one the older versions it was set to High.

Not much different between the 470 and 473 release really.

You could reduce the CPU intensity of the virus scans which is normally the cause of the start-up times. The ZA products now the Kaspersky AV engine which has some uniquely annoying features.
1. Open the ZA client
2. Click on the Advance Options button
3. Click on Scan Options under Virus Management
4. There's a set scanning priority - this should be Medium. In the past, one the older versions it was set to High.

Yes, that's already done...I knew about that possible problem and fixed that from the start.

I'll be trying the boot-up without Teatimer as soon as I get Diskeeper finished with its defragmenting.

However, I may have a slight problem...I decided to attempt to disable the Adobe Gamma entry in the start-up list and it gave me an access denied error when I attempted to apply the change. It's never done that to me before in any changing around I've done, which alone says it could be a problem. (I know it has a chance of being a virus, and though not located in the folder where the virus version would be located, I'm going ahead and uninstalling Photoshop to see if that removes it. If so, then it's not a virus...it's just being stupid.)

if all of the above does not work
here is a trick I have.
hit CRTL-ALT-DEL.

go to Task Manager. If you see something in applications tab that you are not running write down the name and Google it to see if others have had problems with it before, also find removal procedures.
Next click on the process tab. See if anything is using a lot of your CPU, if you have nothing running then system idle process should be the only thing eating up most of your CPU. If you see something Google it to figure out what it is and what program it is attached to.
you also might want to end process on it but this can be dangerous and cause a computer reboot and should not be done too often.
Thanks for the advice, though I'm already aware of all of this--hence why I mentioned that nothing seemed to be using up absurd amounts of CPU or memory in my original post.

Hmm...I haven't taken a good close look at this in awhile...I have no idea what that Adobe Gamma thing is...

Unless you haven't installed photoshop, it is a nice utility to calibrate your screen.

1. What do your logs say about the problems ?

2. How did you check for virusses and spyware ? Using a live cd of windows/linux or did you run the scan from the possibly infected environment itself ? Same question for defragging. And yes, I am a live cd fan.

Burn it.

I don't think this is a virus issue.

I have a similar issue with IE. The first time I type something in the address bar, after launching it after a bootup...it just freezes for a while...

Aye I have the same issue with IE and also use firefox for that reason.

You guys have "Search from the address bar" turned OFF in Internet Properties ... right?

Unless you haven't installed photoshop, it is a nice utility to calibrate your screen.
Indeed. It was not a virus.

1. What do your logs say about the problems ?

...what logs?

2. How did you check for virusses and spyware ? Using a live cd of windows/linux or did you run the scan from the possibly infected environment itself ? Same question for defragging. And yes, I am a live cd fan.
Erm, from the environment itself, of course. I wasn't aware you could run a program like that off of a CD and have it somehow behave differently.

...what logs?

The standard windows logs -especially the one concerning bootup. It is quite likely some service is malfunctioning, slowing everything down.

Erm, from the environment itself, of course. I wasn't aware you could run a program like that off of a CD and have it somehow behave differently.

Once a virus is loaded it can in theory activate defenses against a scanner. It cannot if you never load it by not booting into the infected environment.

For defragging it matters because the OS locks certain files (because it is using them), which means defrag will be unable to optimise them.

The standard windows logs -especially the one concerning bootup. It is quite likely some service is malfunctioning, slowing everything down.

Call me dumb, but I didn't know Windows even bothered to keep logs. Where would I find them?


Once a virus is loaded it can in theory activate defenses against a scanner. It cannot if you never load it by not booting into the infected environment.

For defragging it matters because the OS locks certain files (because it is using them), which means defrag will be unable to optimise them.
Ah...that is important, then. I'll keep that in mind in the future.

For now, however, I'm not sure I'll need to worry. It appears it might very well have been Teatimer interfering with ZoneAlarm. An attempt at restart with Teatimer disabled has successfully resulted in a normal, fast boot-up(or as fast as it can be with ZoneAlarm...seems to enjoy slowing things down just a tad at first, but that's been the case since I started using it.)

Unfortunately this now means I lack a registry defense. Is there another registry defending utility that does not conflict with ZoneAlarm?

Call me dumb, but I didn't know Windows even bothered to keep logs. Where would I find them?

Start-run- eventvwr

Or control panel, system management.

Understood.

As for my initial relief at disabling Teatimer working? It apparently didn't, or at least not longer than one boot-up session, since I'm back to really slow stuff everywhere. What's interesting is that if I try to set MSConfig so it boots up in "diagnostic start-up" which I'm guessing is Windows XP's version of Safe Mode, it gives me an administrator error. (That is, it says I need administrator access.)

But I am an administrator. I freaking built this computer, so I'm the only one who uses it, and so of course my "account" on it is the administrator.

Anyway, I had also run Diskeeper, but it hasn't done a thing to speed things up.

One interesting thing I've noticed through watching the task manager is that the processes, when I first start them, all use the exact same amount of memory while they're frozen trying to startup: 68K. Very little, but very strange.

As for the logs on this boot-up, I only have two errors(Note that errors are placed chronologically, not in the order of the list:

--Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for the IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service service to connect.

--The IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service service failed to start due to the following error:
The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

Three errors yesterday:

--TCP/IP has reached the security limit imposed on the number of concurrent TCP connect attempts.

--The time service has not been able to synchronize the system time for 49152 seconds because none of the time providers has been able to provide a usable time stamp. The system clock is unsynchronized. (49152 seconds? Holy shit.)

--TCP/IP has reached the security limit imposed on the number of concurrent TCP connect attempts.

And then on Friday a whole bunch of errors like this:

---The ScRegSetValueExW call failed for Start with the following error:
Access is denied.

Several of that over the course of the day.

So from what I can see there's not much going on. I'm starting to wonder if this has nothing to do with the software and something to do with the hardware. I did open the case up a few weeks ago to dust it out...maybe I knocked something just enough that it detached later. That might explain why programs act completely normally once they're actually started.

Like others have suggested, run Spybot Search & Destroy, AdAware, and a virus scan.

The first thing that came to my mind was the following: Does your Windows have enough space on the HD it is installed on for its virtual memory file?

(I know my PC slows down almost to a halt when C:\ is too full)

Like others have suggested, run Spybot Search & Destroy, AdAware, and a virus scan.

The first thing that came to my mind was the following: Does your Windows have enough space on the HD it is installed on for its virtual memory file?

(I know my PC slows down almost to a halt when C:\ is too full)

It's not viruses. I've run several checks since to make sure, and it's definitely not viruses.

It's also not a problem with virtual memory. (If it was I'd be alerted, and I have well over sixty gigabytes of free space on my harddrive anyway.)

It's not viruses. I've run several checks since to make sure, and it's definitely not viruses.

It's also not a problem with virtual memory. (If it was I'd be alerted, and I have well over sixty gigabytes of free space on my harddrive anyway.)
Then you'll have to perform an exorcism on your computer! (I suggest a sparse use of Holy Water, though!)

Hope you'll get things straightened out soon.

So, no change in how it's been working...

If someone could recommend a technical forum where I could get some more help on this issue, I would appreciate it, than kyou.

Okay, I just had a very (potentially) serious problem...I did a restart to try to get it into safe mode, and upon restarting my hard-drive/motherboard/something inside the case set off two very loud, long beeps that sounded quite ominous. After hitting the reset button the computer booted up normally(a wee bit faster than before, but I suspect that was due to the restart) but I'm still very worried.

Please, at the very least could someone point me to a technical forum where I'd be able to get help if you can't help me here? This is very disturbing, because I CANNOT afford to lose this computer.

Okay, I just had a very (potentially) serious problem...I did a restart to try to get it into safe mode, and upon restarting my hard-drive/motherboard/something inside the case set off two very loud, long beeps that sounded quite ominous. After hitting the reset button the computer booted up normally(a wee bit faster than before, but I suspect that was due to the restart) but I'm still very worried.

Please, at the very least could someone point me to a technical forum where I'd be able to get help if you can't help me here? This is very disturbing, because I CANNOT afford to lose this computer.
My initial thought on reading this thread was if not virii or spyware related (which you appear to have done a good job at eliminating) would be hard drive failure. You start to see all kinds of quirks like this when drives fail.

With this symptom added to it I am starting to lean possibly RAM failure. One way for you to run a fairly comprehensive memory test is this
http://www.memtest86.com/

Pretty exhaustive memory test and should tell you any faults (I always make the boot disk)

Try this, and I'd agree with UT, how old is your computer?

http://hcidesign.com/memtest

Try this, and I'd agree with UT, how old is your computer?

http://hcidesign.com/memtest

I put it together less than two years ago.

maybe something to do with the PSU? make sure its all fitted properly, all screws and plugs (including those on the mobo) and fans are all good. i bought a computer once where they had both not installed the PSU, nor the RAM, properly, and it was both really slow and would beep at me occasionally, and shut down at odd moments (often when things got processor or memory intensive). if it doesn't seem something software based, maybe its something hardware based ;)


other than that, my advice would be looking at your processes for things taking up too much CPU in task manager, and msconfig to get rid of useless boot items. but they've already been covered.

just to check though, have you run a boot-time virus scan? if you are having booting problems as well this may be where the problem is, and scanning once windows has loaded may not find it. avast does boot time fyi

maybe something to do with the PSU? make sure its all fitted properly, all screws and plugs (including those on the mobo) and fans are all good. i bought a computer once where they had both not installed the PSU, nor the RAM, properly, and it was both really slow and would beep at me occasionally, and shut down at odd moments (often when things got processor or memory intensive). if it doesn't seem something software based, maybe its something hardware based ;)


other than that, my advice would be looking at your processes for things taking up too much CPU in task manager, and msconfig to get rid of useless boot items. but they've already been covered.

just to check though, have you run a boot-time virus scan? if you are having booting problems as well this may be where the problem is, and scanning once windows has loaded may not find it. avast does boot time fyi

PSU for hardware failure is not all that out there either ... specially if close to underpowered where it has problems spinning disks up and such

Though I think it is less likely it is something to keep an eye on

PSU for hardware failure is not all that out there either ... specially if close to underpowered where it has problems spinning disks up and such

Though I think it is less likely it is something to keep an eye on

:)

and btw, that was the last time i bought a computer from that company :p

:)

and btw, that was the last time i bought a computer from that company :p

Yeah I have been burned by buying pre assembled mobo/CPU combos even paying for the "testing" (was building a bunch of ultra bargon basement machines)

They forgot to take the shrink wrap off the copper spacer ... so so wierd heat proc behavior

The beeps make it sound like a hardware issue, a few things I can think of. If you have your manual for the motherboard, check that for two long beeps. If not, try these:
1)As others said, a hard drive issue is likely. If you have a program like Norton Ghost and a spare drive, ghost and replace it and see if the situation improves. If not, test the other stuff first and come back to it later. You could also open up the case, turn the PC on, and put your ear up to the hard drive. If you hear a weird sort of clicking or popping noise it's almost definitely the hard drive and you should back up your important stuff immediately. Seagate has a good 5 year warranty, so you should be all set with replacing it if this is the problem.
2)Take out one of the ram sticks, boot it, see if you have the problem still. You could also run a memory test to be sure. If that one works, switch the sticks and test again.
3)On the off-chance it could be software-related, clearing your prefetch files is an option, because it sounds like you've tried everything else. C:\Windows\Prefetch is the default path and delete all the files there. Once in a while I've seen prefetch files cause a problem.

Good luck.

...head-scratcher.

...REALLY SLOWLY. ...boot-up, mind--it takes a lot longer than it should to start up......should start up in anywhere from seven to twenty seconds--twenty being when I start it up .....finishing booting--now takes .....from three to five MINUTES.) Boot-up alone takes ten minutes when it should take at most fifty seconds.

.....disabled shows ....
....really freaky thing is .....no hiccups or anything. ....haven't tested this extensively, but I believe .....will ....back up ...having been shut off.

......really confusing me, ....freakiest part is that ... manager started up slowly for me....They look just like they normally would.

....serious virus ....

So...what the hell could the problem be?


You should see a doctor.

I bought the drive OEM...so I'm not sure if I have a warrenty.

Memory testing showed absolute zilch.

I tried listening to the hard-drive...I heard, occasionally, a few strange noises, like a scritch/scratch of some sort...

The thing is, I've had a hard drive fail on me before. I know what THAT was like, and it acted nothing like this. There were a LOT MORE sounds, most of them really loud and horrible. Furthermore, as I said before, once the freezing is over, the programs run COMPLETELY NORMALLY, as if everything was perfectly fine. This happens regardless of the program. But when my other hard drive was crashing, everything would run slow all the time, usually freezing up for even longer, and even when running the programs would suffer serious problems.

I'll try deleting the prefetch files.

One more thing I haven't mentioned yet, but I now think I probably should have from the start: Recently, over the past month or two, I've been running uTorrent a lot longer than I might normally have, even over the course of three continuous days, and since I first started using it a year and a half ago I've been using it more or less constantly. I didn't think much of it, but could it be I'm simply wearing out the harddrive really fast?

I bought the drive OEM...so I'm not sure if I have a warrenty.

Memory testing showed absolute zilch.

I tried listening to the hard-drive...I heard, occasionally, a few strange noises, like a scritch/scratch of some sort...

The thing is, I've had a hard drive fail on me before. I know what THAT was like, and it acted nothing like this. There were a LOT MORE sounds, most of them really loud and horrible. Furthermore, as I said before, once the freezing is over, the programs run COMPLETELY NORMALLY, as if everything was perfectly fine. This happens regardless of the program. But when my other hard drive was crashing, everything would run slow all the time, usually freezing up for even longer, and even when running the programs would suffer serious problems.

I'll try deleting the prefetch files.

One more thing I haven't mentioned yet, but I now think I probably should have from the start: Recently, over the past month or two, I've been running uTorrent a lot longer than I might normally have, even over the course of three continuous days, and since I first started using it a year and a half ago I've been using it more or less constantly. I didn't think much of it, but could it be I'm simply wearing out the harddrive really fast?

Hard drives fail in many different ways ... you usually get more noise on a bearing spindle failure and a knocking on a 0 sector goes bad (the outside sector) which causes the read head to hit the stop

As far as it goes I have done way harder activity then torrenting on my drives without issues in regards to that

As far as ram you may try eliminating one bad stick by swapping between the two of them (would also catch failing DIMM's)

Things would run a bit slower because of less ram but if you have two sticks it is something to try

Hard drives fail in many different ways ... you usually get more noise on a bearing spindle failure and a knocking on a 0 sector goes bad (the outside sector) which causes the read head to hit the stop

As far as it goes I have done way harder activity then torrenting on my drives without issues in regards to that

As far as ram you may try eliminating one bad stick by swapping between the two of them (would also catch failing DIMM's)

Things would run a bit slower because of less ram but if you have two sticks it is something to try
Right then.

I ran another memory test with that utility the other person mentioned, and I just finished with one from yours. According to them all, there's not a single error with my memory. So odds are it is a hard-drive issue.

Presuming I have to get a new drive, would it be possible to install said new drive in the computer alongside the current one and copy everything over? I've got a LOT of stuff on here I'd rather not lose, so much that it would take a lot of DVDs to copy to, DVDs I don't have.

If that is possible, can you point me to some website that would give me a good tutorial to follow through on that? Obviously it would take a lot, since I'd have to reinstall Windows and everything(if it can't all be copied straight over with no changes, which I highly doubt can be done) and I'd want to make sure I'm doing it properly.

HOWEVER

Before I do any of that, I need to know if there's some other way to check for disc errors, some way to see if that's what's really happening. I'd rather not panic and take the time to do all of this only to find out it was just, say, a faulty wire wearing out or something.

I figure that even though the memory tests showed negative on errors I might as well test the sticks anyway. I do recall when I was purchasing that memory that there were some warnings in reviews about it potentially failing...it's been performing so well for nigh two years that I figured I'd lucked out and got two perfect sticks, but maybe not after all.

So...yeah. Test the sticks, and also see if there's some way to test for a hard drive crash.

IT'S A MEMORY ISSUE!

One of the memory sticks failed. I tried with only one at first, with the other one(the one I now suspect is the failure) left in there, and I had super huge problems. I booted up but after a moment everything was stuck frozen for at least fifteen minutes before I gave up and shut it back down.

Testing with that stick removed and the other stick back in, however, has shown a remarkable improvement. While things are overall a tad slower--to be expected, since I only have one gigabyte of RAM in there--all of my freezing issues have completely vanished.

I'm going to test this a lot more just to be absolutely certain, but I'm reasonably sure now that it was due to the memory failing. This is good, because replacing the memory is a hell of a lot easier than replacing the hard drive.

Thanks for your help guys. Now I've got to see how I' mgoing to RMA this stuff...

IT'S A MEMORY ISSUE!

One of the memory sticks failed. I tried with only one at first, with the other one(the one I now suspect is the failure) left in there, and I had super huge problems. I booted up but after a moment everything was stuck frozen for at least fifteen minutes before I gave up and shut it back down.

Testing with that stick removed and the other stick back in, however, has shown a remarkable improvement. While things are overall a tad slower--to be expected, since I only have one gigabyte of RAM in there--all of my freezing issues have completely vanished.

I'm going to test this a lot more just to be absolutely certain, but I'm reasonably sure now that it was due to the memory failing. This is good, because replacing the memory is a hell of a lot easier than replacing the hard drive.

Thanks for your help guys. Now I've got to see how I' mgoing to RMA this stuff...
See I am not daft ;) it is sometimes a last ditch test to do that and have to be carefull to not diagnose a slot problem rather than a actual problem with a stick of ram

If you are intrested in some help learning how to ghost your current system (so you can keep a live backup of the ENTIRE computer in its current state OS and all) let me know I have access to the tools to give you to do such

See I am not daft ;) it is sometimes a last ditch test to do that and have to be carefull to not diagnose a slot problem rather than a actual problem with a stick of ram

If you are intrested in some help learning how to ghost your current system (so you can keep a live backup of the ENTIRE computer in its current state OS and all) let me know I have access to the tools to give you to do such

By all means, telegram the information to me. That sounds like it would be extremely useful stuff to know.

Alright, now I'm really pissed off. Apparently my testing yesterday didn't mean squat, because I just had the freezing problems start up on me again today.

I'm now officially very confused. This makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. It shouldn't be doing this. It shouldn't be working like this.

The stupid thing is, every test I can think of that I've run, that I've done, has shown not a single real problem with the memory, or with the hard drive, or anything. So just what, I ask, is going on?

Perhaps the other memory stick has failed now?

Perhaps the other memory stick has failed now?

Maybe...the specific model I bought was designed to work in pairs, not by themselves...maybe I pushed it too hard yesterday. (Since the freezing problems had disappeared I figured I could just go back to whatever I had been doing before--albeit altering performance, obviously, to take into account the lower amount of RAM--but that might have been a mistake.)