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I dunno what's causing it. It's been a problem for a while.

I even went so far as to pay $40 to have my OS re-installed, thinking that the trouble was because of maybe some software crap that somehow found its way into my system, but wow that did not actually help the problem.

Right now, the most irritating part is that my µTorrent, which usually works wonderfully, eventually goes unresponsive within about three minutes of running it. But many things on my computer go very slowly or go unresponsive just for the fun of it! And, oh, how fun it is! Ya know, as a result, I've found myself running the Task Manager as much as, if not more than, any of my other programs. Ya know: to monitor system-performance, shut down yet more unresponsive programs or processes--what a *beep*ing gas! Hey, how about a shot of it? Okay! Here ya go!:

[Uploaded with ImageShack.us]

Now isn't that lovely.

How should I collect system specs for this thread? dxdiag.exe? CPU-Z? Just tell me and I'll do that.

There could be any number of things wrong with your system: bad power supply, bad RAM, could be a heat issue, etc. To test CPU and memory, you have to run benchmarks like Memtest86 for RAM and Prime95 for the CPU. To check the power supply, try swapping it with a good one from another system. To check heat issues, run some system monitors that lets you check fan speed and heat of various system components.

Okay. But maybe it could be just some kinda software crap that's in there screwin' the works up, and can be rather easily rectified by its removal, etc.?

The Lord of the Flies wrote:

Okay. But maybe it could be just some kinda software crap that's in there screwin' the works up, and can be rather easily rectified by its removal, etc.?

Boot from a LiveCD and/or use a spare HDD with a clean OS install to verify the software part.

Hmm...well I don't have the former. And I've heard nightmarish stories about the latter. LiveCD, eh? It is really safe and all, no prob?

The Lord of the Flies wrote:

Okay. But maybe it could be just some kinda software crap that's in there screwin' the works up, and can be rather easily rectified by its removal, etc.?

The memory and CPU load in that screenshot look OK.

What did you reinstall after the OS reinstall, that was also there before?

Have you tried updating all of your drivers?

Have you checked your system event log for errors? A failing hard drive can cause the symptoms you describe. Also check in Device Manager to make sure it isn't running in PIO mode.

The Lord of the Flies wrote:

Hmm...well I don't have the former. And I've heard nightmarish stories about the latter. LiveCD, eh? It is really safe and all, no prob?

I don't understand. Did you get the former latter thing reversed? Or did you really mean you don't have a LiveCD (easy to download and burn one) and you have heard nightmarish stories about using a spare drive with a clean new OS install? As long as you unplug your current drive(s), your data is safe. I keep a 4GB and 7GB drive just for these kinds of diagnostic purposes. They are now very old and loud as hell, but before I put my system into production these are my "scratch" drives I use to test stability and overclocking. Basically booting to a different OS/OS install you can determine if what you are experiencing is a software issue, since you seem to be worrying about "software crap".

That physical RAM number is a bit odd. How much RAM do you have installed in that machine?

The Lord of the Flies wrote:

Okay. But maybe it could be just some kinda software crap that's in there screwin' the works up, and can be rather easily rectified by its removal, etc.?

The only software that's likely to actually lock up your system like that is a driver. Otherwise it's probably hardware, I'm afraid.

Might also be worth checking if Windows didn't for some reason bring your disks down from DMA to PIO mode.

FlyingFox wrote:

I don't understand. Did you get the former latter thing reversed?

Oh, whoops! Yeah, I did get them backwards. I meant that I don't have a spare HDD and that I've heard bad stuff about using LiveCD (I think). BUt what about the LiveCD? Is it really safe and all, no prob?

UberGerbil wrote:

That physical RAM number is a bit odd. How much RAM do you have installed in that machine?

It's supposed to be 1.25GB of DDR1 RAM. But since you bring it up, I'm gonna look into that....

morphine wrote:

Might also be worth checking if Windows didn't for some reason bring your disks down from DMA to PIO mode.

Hmm, this problem sounds familiar, like maybe I had that problem years ago with another computer I once had.

So how do I look into that and fix it if necessary?

DMA check/fix: http://winhlp.com/node/10 or http://www.onthegosoft.com/dma_setting_nt.htm

Beware, though: if your disks actually have gone back to PIO mode, there is usually a good reason for Windows to do that. Re-check the cabling and/or check the HDD for bad sectors using the manufacturer's tools.

The Lord of the Flies wrote:

FlyingFox wrote:

I don't understand. Did you get the former latter thing reversed?

Oh, whoops! Yeah, I did get them backwards. I meant that I don't have a spare HDD and that I've heard bad stuff about using LiveCD (I think). BUt what about the LiveCD? Is it really safe and all, no prob?

I want to know what your source is smoking. The whole idea of the LiveCD is to not touch your disk unless you want to install to HDD. If you are so concerned just unplug the HDD while you are booting from LiveCD. It is still useful in that you can confirm if this is a software problem (granted the HDD and cable may still be your root cause). Unless you manually write things to the HDD booting from a LiveCD should not mess with your data. But then again since you are reporting problems you should be backing things up already, right?

Depending if you have an ide or sata hard drive, make sure the cable has not worked its way out of the plug a little bit. Had that happen on one of my secondary rigs once...took me a several days to figure out what was causing the instability of my system.