Help! Computer partial freezes - Lateral thinking needed

[Roger Mills]

My computer has recently developed a very annoying fault of locking up, and I need some help to diagnose and fix it.

It's an HP/Compaq laptop running Win XP/SP3 but I'm using it as a desktop with additional monitor and separate keyboard/mouse.

The symptoms are as follows:

• The taskbar (which is usually hidden) displays when I mouse over it, and then freezes in position - and the clock doesn't update

• The mouse pointer continues to move in response to mouse movements, but mouse clicks (mostly) have no effect

• I am unable to open any new programs or shut down any that are open

• Mailwasher (which I have permanently open on one of the monitors) continues to scan for emails and displays any new ones it finds. It even responds to mouse clicks to zap any emails I don't want - but it's virtually the only program which *does* respond to mouse clicks

• This freeze-up happens every morning - not always at the same time, but usually between 10am and noon. [I can't find anything that's scheduled to happen at this time, which may cause it]

• The only way (that I can find) to recover is to power down ("big red switch" job - except that it isn't red) and start again

• Once restarted, it usually runs ok for the rest of the day

Oh, and one final thing - I'm not sure whether it's relevant . . It has only started happening since I installed the software for a USB-based Canon all-in-one printer scanner - but the device itself is at another location and so not physically connected - but the problem is still occurring. [The device doesn't show up in Device Manager, so I can't tell the system not to use it in this profile, or somesuch]

Anyone come across anything like this, or got any ideas?

TIA.

[Adrian C]

What time do you switch it on?

Fan/Heatsink clogged up with fluff? Left the carton for the HP software box blocking the laptop vents?

[The Natural Philosopher]

hardware fault or dodgy device driver: looks very like (some) interrupts are being masked, probably by an interrupt service routine waiting forever for hardware that doesn't respond..

[Adrian]

"Roger Mills" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Is there a Canon software component being auto-started on boot?

[Bruce]

I have had similar problems in the past with anti-virus software. When it started scanning, everything seemed to freeze. Perhaps yours is timed to start its daily scanning at 10:00 AM?

[Roger Mills]

About 7:30 each morning

I'll check for fluff, but I doubt whether it's temperature related. It tyupically fails after about 3 hours, and then runs ok for another 14 hours after being restarted.

The machine is 7 or 8 years old - so no software cartons left!

[Roger Mills]

That sounds quite possible. How do I find the culprit?

[Roger Mills]

No - AVG updates each day at 18:00 and does a full scan only once a week, on a Monday evening.

[Dave Liquorice]

Wonder if that has installed a "check for latest driver/firmware/clean socks" something that happens a couple of hours after the machine is first booted each day?

The above is then grinding to a halt when it can't find the device to check what firmware it has. Why are windows programmers so fing dumb when it comes to error checking or rather not error checking?

[Roger Mills]

Now, there's a bit of lateral thinking!

Yes, there is a program called CanonMyPrinter which is auto-started and sits in the system tray. I've now disabled it, and will see whether that makes any difference.

Meanwhile, thanks to all for the other suggestions - keep them coming!

[Baz]

Worth a try.

New beta site.

Baz

[BillW50]

In news: [e-mail], Roger Mills typed on Tue, 20 Apr 2010 12:39:55 +0100: [...]

The first place I would start is the Canon software. I have seen many of these multifunction printer drivers causing lots of problems like this if it can't find the device. Good thing you mentioned this too. ;-)

You could try killing it under the Task Manager. If this fixes the problem, you have a number of options:

1) Uninstall the software. 2) Rename the program which also disables it without uninstalling anything. Thus all you have to do is rename it back and run the program or reboot if you need it later.

I like Process Explorer (free from Microsoft) rather than using the Task Manager. But the Task Manager should be able to handle this one. Process Explorer also shows DPC usage too, which could be your problem too. Probably linking back to the Canon software.

[Mark]

AVG is a real resource hog. I'd switch to a lighter weight AV program.

Have you monitored your memory usage? The demand for memory may exceed the physical memory you have. This could result in apparent freezes.

Finally if mailwasher is the only responsive program then maybe it is the culprit. Have you tried closing this down?

[Huge]

What he said. I've settled on Avira, which seems to work and doesn't cause SWMBO to complain about how slowly her machine runs.

(I use Linux.)

[RobertL]

I had something similar and it turned out to be overheating. When the PC gets hot it reduces the clock rate so it can cool off, but this makes everything grind to a halt. Use a vacuum cleaner (with hose) to suck through the air intake. You can get a lot of fluff in there. Also make sure there is plenty of fresh air getting to the air intake.

You can also download some software that monitors the temperature sensors and see if that is happening. I use "SpeedFan".

Robert

[John Whitworth]

Maybe the fully paid up AVG is a resource hog, but I have never found AVG Free to be that bad. Perhaps on a 7-8 year old machine though...

[tony sayer]

Any recommended?..

[tony sayer]

In article , Roger Mills scribeth thus

If it were me...

1. Power supply responsible for a lot of faults like this.

1. Video card overheating sometimes

2. Possible overheating prolly linked with 3

1. UN-install the Canon prog

2. Be thankful you've got XP and not Vister;)..

[Huge]

Oh, I have. It was *painful*.

It's a 2GHz Celeron with 756Mb of memory in it. Dunno how old it is, though.

If it causes any more pain, then Windows is going in the bin.

[John Whitworth]

In Device Manager, in View, have you ticked "Show Hidden Devices"? Can't remember whether that will show disconnected USB devices for which the drivers are still present.

Failing that, could you uninstall the printer driver using Add/Remove programs? Then, when it is connected to the machine again, and you reinstall, you could experiment with disabling the hardware in specific profiles.

JW