Problems with freezing system after new hard drive install

Hi,

I have just had a new hard drive and DVD burner installed into my PC after the original crashed and burned. The old DVD burner had been shot for a while but I had never got around to getting it replaced until now.

As part of that the shop reinstalled XP. I have downloaded all the updates for it.

The problem I have now is that the system seems to freeze quite often. Probably what seems like every 30-40 seconds. Symptoms include the mouse cursor not moving, any typing not displaying and then quickly catching up once it 'unfreezes', as well as programs just sitting there as if noting is happening and then they just appear to start re-working again.

Another thing I have noticed is that every now and then when I click on a program (say firefox) nothing happens. What I mean is that firefox just doesn't start. So I will click on it a few more times and still nothing. However, when I have a look at the processes that are running, there are a couple of instances of firefox listed as running. If I try to end these processes through windows task manager, nothing happens.

The last thing I have also noticed is there are many double ups of processes running (eg. CLI.exe, ati2evxxx.exe, svchost.exe).

I would be very gratefull if someonone is able to help me sort this out.

Cheers,
Aaron

 

You may try following troubleshooting while waiting for experts.
1. start your computer in safe mode. if problem disappeared then it may be about drivers.
2. run memtest to identify issues of your RAM
3. replace your HDD cable.
4. run chkdisk /f your hdd may be developing bad sector or you may have not formatted your drive.
5. reinstall your OS if you may.

 

Aaron, Welcome.

My first blush is to take your computer back to the shop and complain!

But if you want to give a shot at fixing it yourself I suggest just a couple of little things that may tell you something:

Boot up fresh and don't run anything. Open Task Manager and just sit there and watch it for a while to monitor processes coming and going. The freezing you are seeing is likely caused by one or more of the processes taking a lot of CPU cycles periodically. Which ones do you see that are doing this? Take notes about CPU usage and how often which programs use the CPU heavily (heavily I'd call more than about 30-40%).

Note: It may help in Task Manager to see what's happening if you set the following columns to be active, if they are not already.
Image Name
CPU
Memory Usage
Peak Memory Usage

How many processes are running after a fresh boot? How much memory does your computer have? It's very possible that your computer is just bogging down from things loading at startup that you don't really need loading until you ask them to load (on demand).

It's also possible that the apparent cause of programs not 'starting', FF for example, is because the CPU is real busy doing something (see above) at the exact time you elect to click the program to start it. Does FF never appear on screen at all except in running processes?

Am i understanding you correctly when you say you can't end a running process with Task Manager? None at all? (Be careful not to end a Windows process, like Explorer, etc.).

You mentioned double entries of processes in Task Manager. Do you see any double entries of programs after a fresh boot? Or only after you've tried to start programs repeatedly? Note: It's normal to have several svchost.exe entries running concurrently.

Does any of the above tell you anything?

 

Thanks Kipfeet & Jaydee for the advice.

I think the first thing I will do is take it back to the shop and complain.

If they can't get it working properly then I guess I will have to have a go myself at fixing it.

Once I get it back from the shop I will update this thread with what the problem was (if they can fix it). Or I will be back needing some help.

Wish me luck.

Cheers,
Aaron