Repetitive, Momentary Freezing

[zoaxanthellae]

Recently I've been having a particularly annoying problem with my Windows XP computer. Almost every time I perform a new action [i.e. open a document or webpage] the screen "freezes" for a about 10 seconds. I can still move the cursor, but can't click on anything. What's more, if I type something while the screen is frozen, it will show up once everything is back to normal.

Another interesting thing I've noticed - on the internet [Firefox], I can sometimes get around this by moving from page to page rather quickly, not staying on one page for more than a few seconds. However, this only lasts for 3 or 4 pages, before it's stuck again.

The whole thing is understandably getting very annoying. Ran a MalwareBytes full scan which came up clean, HijackThis didn't turn up anything I saw as out of the ordinary, I've been using Comodo...

Quite open to suggestions!

 

[Bobbye]

Please look for Errors in the Event Viewer that are corresponding to the time of the "freezes."

Start> Run> type in eventvwr

Do this on each the System and the Applications logs:

• 
  [1]. Click to open the log>
  [2]. Look for the Error>
  [3] .Right click on the Error> Properties>
  [4]. Click on Copy button, top right, below the down arrow >
  [5]. Paste here (Ctrl V)
  [6].NOTES
  • You can ignore Warnings and Information Events.
  • If you have a recurring Error with same ID#, same Source and same Description, only one copy is needed.
  • You don't need to include the lines of code in the box below the Description, if any.
  • Please do not copy the entire Event log.

Errors are time coded. Check the computer clock on freeze.

 

[zoaxanthellae]

Thanks for the reply!

I did what you asked and looked at my event viewer for both Application and System. However, neither log seems to match up with the times of the "freezes". Whereas these freezes occur on most every action I do [making them about once every 30 seconds when I'm using the computer], the events from eventvwr are minutes apart at the least. I'll post the most common one, but again, it doesn't seem to sync up with the freezes very well. Here it is:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Disk
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7
Date: 5/16/2009
Time: 14:20:20
User: N/A
Computer: ****
Description:
The device, \Device\Harddisk1\D, has a bad block.

 

[Bobbye]

As per Microsoft:

The device has a bad block of memory, which Windows attempted to read. The data might be missing or corrupted.

Manual steps to run Chkdsk at the command prompt
Log on as the Administrator

• 
  [1]. Click Start> Run> type in cmd
  [2]. press ENTER.
  [3]. To repair errors, locate bad sectors, and recover readable information, at the command prompt, type:
  chkdsk d: /f /r
  and then press ENTER. (Note space before /f/r
  [4].Reboot the computer. Chkdsk will run. Let it finish. system will reboot when done.
  [5].If Chkdsk reports no errors but you continue to receive this message, run hardware diagnostics on the disk drive named in the message and on its controller.
  
  "Harddisk1\D" is referring to the second drive or partition in your system. Look in Disk Management and find drive D (Start> Run> diskmgmt.msc). Is D: drive your CD or DVD ROM drive?

 

[zoaxanthellae]

D: is the CD drive according to diskmgmt.msc but I can't get chkdsk to run. The current/default path for cmd when I open it up is C:\Documents and Settings\username> and I don't think that's right.

 

[Bobbye]

Another lesson in why it's bad to assume! Sounded simple right? Well it wasn't! I tried the same path and an alternate in Windows Explorer> didn't work, so I looked around and found this:

Don't be deceived by the "D" in the listing, it's not your D: drive. It says HardDisk1, so that's the second physical hard disk drive (not partition) detected (HardDisk0 is first detected, HardDisk1 is second,
etc), which is probably the one on the secondary ide controller. Note it should know the diff between a "HardDisk" and a "CD Disk", so it's not an optical drive, it's a drive that XP considers a "Hard Disk".

My mistake, sorry. Check the suggestions here starting with Post #4 following the quote above. Please get back to me if something works out.

You can run through this:
Control Panel> System> Hardware tab> Device Manager> click on + sign to expand DVD/CDROm drives> then right click on the D drive> choose 'scan for hardware changes'.

OR Choose the drive letter that is the second partition.

See if that leads to the Chkdsk option..

My Computer> right click on the D drive> Properties> Tools> Error Check> Check the two boxes for scan and fix> Close> Reboot.

If this doesn't get it, I suggest you move over to the Hardware forum.