Hi,

I recently built a new system and have a problem that I think is software related. Sometimes when I open or close the file the screen freezes for about 10 seconds, most or all of the desktop icons disappear but the place holders remain. After this time the system refreshes quickly. The mouse works without problem throughout but the folders and icons are frozen. It can happen at any point while the computer is on.

The issue seems to be getting worse and the system seems to hang for slightly longer each time. This also happens on my laptop but on it tends to be for a brief moment on the laptop, with this new computer it lasts much longer and the new computer is much faster.

The computer is fast and has lots of memory so I cant understand why this is happening. Windows updates are all up-to-date. The hard drive is defragmented. I have tried the following in order to try and solve the problem but so far without success:

Updating all the drivers (inc. video and Bios)
Checking the windows error log – nothing listed for when the problem occurs
Ran chkdsk on my hard drive – Samsungs diagnostic software wont run
Changed the sata ports where the hard drive is plugged in
Disabled unnecessary startup programs
Disabled unnecessary drivers e.g. Jmicron IDE controller
Changing video card settings to performance
Reducing windows paging file
Changed the registry DisablePagingExecutive to 1

The spec is as follows:

Core 2 Quad Q6600 cpu (2.4GHz quad core)
Asus EN8600GT Silent video card (256mb passive cooling)
Asus P5K-E/Wi-fi motherboard
Samsung HD501LJ Hard Drive (SATA)
Asus 1814BLW DVD-ROM (SATA)
Transcend DDR2-800 RAM (1GB x 2 = 2GB total)

Relevant software being run at start-up:

Windows XP SP2 with all current updates
Zonealarm pro firewall (windows firewall disabled)
Webroot Spysweeper
BitDefender standard antivirus
Timeleft – desktop clock
Secondcopy – back-up software – set to run manually


Please help if you can, its very annoying! Thanks in advance.

Does the HD light stay on when frozen? What happens when you run Samsung diagnostic? Try Drive Fitness Test from IBM/Hitachi.(Google it) Run Memtest86 to test your memory, overnight if possible.

Mike.

Hi mike,

Tried memtest86 already - 9 passes no errors. Samsung diagnostic wont run for some reason. I've tried it a few times from both cd and floppy but can never get it going. Will try Drive Fitness test though.

The light flashes intermittently while its frozen and then constantly when it finally refreshes.

Hi Mike, I ran DFT but it didnt find the drive - any idea what this means? I'm now downloading the ultimate boot cd which has lots of utilities (inc. DFT) so I'll try some of the other hard drive diagnostics on there.

Are you using the motherboard RAID controller? If the BIOS detects the drive, so should disk utility programs. Some SATA controllers show as SCSI. Try running DFT with SCSI controller option. Check in BIOS, should have RAID disabled. check SATA options, some give choice of operation for SATA.

Mike.

Hi Mike, tried as SCSI but still no joy. Its a single drive so not running raid and raid not enabled in Bios.

Thankfully, I have managed to sort the problem out, it involved completely reformating the hard drive and the reinstalling all the software and drivers in stages and then seeing if the problem occurred and then moving on to the next batch.

It seems to have done the trick. The first time around I had installed most of the software and drivers that came with hardware, some of which I realise now were not necessary, so this time I also installed specific drivers. The problem I think may have been related to the Jmicron controller as this time I did not install it.

Anyway thanks so much for your help, it was greatly appreciated.