computer keeps freezing

[Andy™]

recently installed windows XP SP2 onto a new (well, been lying round for a year) hard drive. it installed ok, have installed a few programs so far (but not many - mostly installing stuff as its needed). problem is, it keeps freezing for 15-30 seconds, then comes back to life as nothing has happened.

Freezes at completly random times, has no consistency with anything im doing or programs open

All programs are the most used stuff, and installed at the same time, so cant narrow it down to what program it started after installing. only thing it may be is, a program installed (Primo PDF) wanted .net framework 2.0 installed.

Any ideas?

(Lets not go into too much detail of where XP came from... - but its the same CD i used when i last formatted the computer about a year ago)

 

[Robojin]

recently installed windows XP SP2 onto a new (well, been lying round for a year) hard drive. it installed ok, have installed a few programs so far (but not many - mostly installing stuff as its needed). problem is, it keeps freezing for 15-30 seconds, then comes back to life as nothing has happened.Freezes at completly random times, has no consistency with anything im doing or programs open

All programs are the most used stuff, and installed at the same time, so cant narrow it down to what program it started after installing. only thing it may be is, a program installed (Primo PDF) wanted .net framework 2.0 installed.

Any ideas?

(Lets not go into too much detail of where XP came from... - but its the same CD i used when i last formatted the computer about a year ago)

Andy I'll assume that it's not disc/memory swapping

Any dodgy apps like to hide in svchost processes, it's a generic MS app wrapper that can be running multiple times but only shows limited detail in Taskmanager, with taskmanager running click on the PROCESSES tab double click on CPU and this will stack the processes with a % of CPU usage, this may help you narrow down the offending process

For more detail download ProcExplorer from here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

It will give more detail on each svchost instance, this type of performance hit is typical of some virus but not exclusively

I can't discuss on this forum about the specifics of your XP , but might have some ideas PM

 

[Andy™]

have downloaded process explorer... but not sure what im looking at. there are 6x svchost processes running. all at 0% CPU usage. Hardware interrupts is constantly running mid 30's

 

[Andy™]

I think i may have solved the problem.

went to use CD drive and noticed it not working (has power, but doesnt appear in my computer)

checked cables inside and the SATA cable to the drive has slightly deformed at the connector to the drive. replaced it, and everything seems to be working fine, no problem or anything

 

[Robojin]

I think i may have solved the problem.went to use CD drive and noticed it not working (has power, but doesnt appear in my computer)

checked cables inside and the SATA cable to the drive has slightly deformed at the connector to the drive. replaced it, and everything seems to be working fine, no problem or anything

Applaud Smiley

ProcExplorer is very useful even with hardware I/O, had you not found the fault already I'd suggested that with your comments from PE