IRe: Help with diagnosis

On 01 Mar 2009 13:25:11 -0500, <ahall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Tom Scales writes:

>> -----Original Message-----
From> ahall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ahall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
>> Posted At: Sunday, March 01, 2009 8:49 AM
>> Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Conversation> Help with diagnosis
Subject> Help with diagnosis
>>
>>
>>
>> A few days ago my XPS 600 XP-Pro machine
>> started becoming unresponsive.
>>
>> It would freeze for 30 sec to 10 min, with
>> no mouse movement or window updating. Then
>> a quick update.
>>
>> I had the task manager going, and the only apparent
>> culprit was the "System" process which was running
>> at a stated 20-25% of CPU (dual core with hyperthreading
>> so this was 80-100% of a real core).
>>
>> I had installed a new printer driver (Brother 9840
>> network all-in-one color laser), so I uninstalled that,
>> but still had the problem.
>>
>> Then I thought it might be SyncBack, as the insane slow
>> down happened last night right after a reboot when I launched
>> 5 SyncBack jobs (making sure I had full backups in the case
>> of needing to reinstall Windows).
>>
>> Any ideas at how to track down the problem? It might be happening
>> when there is a lot of file IO. The first night it happened I
>> had reorganized my photo directory, which means SyncBack had a
>> 300gig job backing up to another computer on my network. After
>> that I was trying to get my new Windows Home Server to back up
>> this machine, so there was even more file IO.
>>
>> I have TrendMicro Internet security that does a full scan every
>> night, and has a firewall. THere is also a router firewall between
>> my network and the outside.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>>
>> --
>> Andrew Hall
>> (Now reading Usenet in alt.sys.pc-clone.dell...)


Tom> I'm guessing you installed a second drive yourself? If so, did you go
Tom> into the BIOS and switch it from OFF to AUTO? If not, it will work, but
Tom> VERY slowly and will bog down the system.

I just went into the BIOS and AUTO was not an option. The three
options were OFF, ON, and RAID ON.

It was set to ON.

I enabled SMART monitoring and turned off Fast Boot.

But I had set up a ChkDsk which seemed to hang on Step 4 (Verifying files) it
was stuck at 0% after an hour (there are about 330 gig on the 1 terabyte SeaGate
drive). So I rebooted and made the above BIOS changes. But it went back into
the ChkDsk screen... How do I stop that? What other disk monitoring/fixing software
can I use? THe SeaGate tools for windows or DOS do not work.


I think that's what the Fast Boot does (skips the diagnostics on boot
up). I haven't followed this thread but if it were me, I'd do one of
3 things that come to mind but not necessarily in this order... go
into safe mode to eliminate drivers, determine if it's related to one
hard drive and/or try to eliminate processes to find the offending
software. I think there are too many possibilities to say for sure
which is the problem without doing as you're doing... trial and error
approach. I could imagine even a firewall gone haywire could cause
this but who knows.

When did you notice this happen? Do you recall anything you did just
before that? Can you go back to an earlier backup prior to you
noticing this happening? I think the poster who told you to monitor
the processes is a good suggestion for starters.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: IRe: Help with diagnosis
    ... Conversation> Help with diagnosis ... >> A few days ago my XPS 600 XP-Pro machine ... >> of needing to reinstall Windows). ... I enabled SMART monitoring and turned off Fast Boot. ...
    (alt.sys.pc-clone.dell)
  • Re: Is this a virus? Nasty enough to be...
    ... If you intend to solve this problem, you need to concentrate on diagnosis ... I really think the signs now point to some hardware problem, ... installation of Windows XP Pro on another partition. ... >> virus infection of files the human really wanted to send, ...
    (microsoft.public.security.virus)
  • Re: Help with diagnosis
    ... Conversation: Help with diagnosis ... SyncBack jobs (making sure I had full backups in the case ... of needing to reinstall Windows). ... 300gig job backing up to another computer on my network. ...
    (alt.sys.pc-clone.dell)
  • Re: Same Old Bootup Error--Stop Me Before I Reinstall
    ... I'd been running Windows ... I'd do a hardware diagnosis before reinstalling. ... Post back if you need help doing hardware testing. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
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