Re: Help with diagnosis

JayB wrote:
sounds to me like your hard drive is bad, and the chkdsk is getting errors trying to repair, that iw why its taking so long.
i would immediate take all day off that drive for safe keeping,
then do a full low level format. see what happens with that.
probably should replace the drive under warranty.


ahall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
BillW50 writes:

BillW50> In news:iBAql.10065$v8.4513@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
BillW50> S.Lewis typed on Sun, 1 Mar 2009 12:41:24 -0600:
>> <ahall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news> kpg3adx1dtt.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>>>>> S Lewis writes:
>>> >>> >> ahall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news> kpgk579qowv.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> 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...)
>>> >>> >>> >>>> Boot the machine in safe mode w/networking and see if you can
>>>> duplicate the issue - to eliminate system hardware as a source.
>>> >>>> Personally, your description lends me to think you believe it's
>>>> software and which program(s) is/are the villains.
>>> >>> That is my bias. I forgot to mention that I ran the Dell hardware
>>> diagnoses
>>> package yesterday and it found no errors.
>>> >>>> That machine s/be destroying pretty much anything you throw at it.
>>> >>> I will try the safe mode later. Does that include USB drivers, as
>>> the immediate
>>> backups I am trying are to USB external drives...
>>> >> >> Not positive Andrew. For some reason I want to say 'no'.

BillW50> Many BIOS support USB drives at POST. So that shouldn't be a problem if BillW50> the computer is newer. Although the BIOS I believe only supports USB 1.1 BillW50> speeds. So that could be a problem working at lower speeds.

It did support the USB drives. After asking I thought that they must,
as most keyboards and mice are USB these days. As I said, as soon as I tried to back up the suspect drive in safe mode
the system slowed to a completely unusable crawl (the mode it is stuck in
now, trying to run MS ChkDsk --- 2% of the stage 4 file checks after 2.5 hours)




Nope. If a drive has relocated sectors, there is a good reason for it. And the good reason is the same one to replace the drive after backing up as much data as possible... Ben Myers
.

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