PC hanging but recovering...

[concreteDonkey]

My pc has this wonderful trait of hanging for almost exactly 3mins at a time, and then carrying on as if nothing happened. It's been going on for a long time now, and I am at the point where I want to try and find out what's going on. So, the problem in detail:

PC hangs and is completely unresponsive, the clock on my keyboard freezes so I am able to time how long it's frozen for, and it seems to be almost exactly 3 mins every time (I don't know if that's significant). Once the 3 mins is up, it returns to normal functionality. I am tempted to say that it only does it under the "stress" of gaming, but it has done it when playing youtube videos before. The hangs occur almost every day, sometimes many times per day, but sometimes not at all in a day.

Can anyone recommend what I should be looking at immediately after a hang in order to try and diagnose the problem. And also any monitoring software I can use to try and see what the machine thinks is going on in those 3 mins, and perhaps narrow it down somewhat. I want to monitor heat of the various components, processes running and the resources they're using during the hang.

Cheers

 

[denis280]

Give system spec.and OS. and if it's windows 7 go into event log.under application and system.

 

[sm625]

Download this http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

Try the default settings first. You might want to set your history depth (Option->History Depth) to a smaller value if your PC cant handle many millions of lines. But any modern PC should.

Just keep pressing CTRL-X periodically to clear it out. Once your computer locks up, wait for it to come back, then do a Save, and save it as a PML type. Use CTRL-E to stop or start capturing. Once you have a good capture of this lockup event, you can host it somewhere or just go through it yourself to see if you can find the process that caused the lockup. Just look at the timestamps for a large gap in time, then look to the processes that come before it.

 

[concreteDonkey]

Thanks for replying. System specs(getting on a bit now) are:

Intel Core2Quad Q6600 @ 3.2GHz
Asus P5Q Pro motherboard
4GB Ram
Radeon 4850HD 512MB

Running Windows 7 Pro x64

If you need more specifics, let me know. I've downloaded that Process Monitor and I'm about to place the system under some strain in order to create a hang. Wish me luck...

 

[cubby1223]

My initial guess is the hard drive has a section going bad.

 

[xeledon20005]

My initial guess is the hard drive has a section going bad.

Was thinking the same thing. Consider backing up all your data.

 

[Bubbaleone]

My pc has this wonderful trait of hanging for almost exactly 3mins at a time, and then carrying on as if nothing happened. It's been going on for a long time now, and I am at the point where I want to try and find out what's going on. So, the problem in detail:

PC hangs and is completely unresponsive, the clock on my keyboard freezes so I am able to time how long it's frozen for, and it seems to be almost exactly 3 mins every time (I don't know if that's significant). Once the 3 mins is up, it returns to normal functionality. I am tempted to say that it only does it under the "stress" of gaming, but it has done it when playing youtube videos before. The hangs occur almost every day, sometimes many times per day, but sometimes not at all in a day.

Can anyone recommend what I should be looking at immediately after a hang in order to try and diagnose the problem. And also any monitoring software I can use to try and see what the machine thinks is going on in those 3 mins, and perhaps narrow it down somewhat. I want to monitor heat of the various components, processes running and the resources they're using during the hang.

Cheers

Two of the most overlooked causes of Windows hanging for no apparent reason: errors in the Volume Bitmap and incorrect reporting of Free Space.

Click Start, type CMD in the search box, then right-click the CMD icon and select Run as administrator. At the command prompt type this command:


chkdsk C: /x /v /r /b (then press Enter)


Chkdsk will tell you it can't lock the volume, then ask if you would like it to run the next time Windows restarts. Type Y, press Enter, close the command prompt and reboot.

This will correct all potential disk and files system errors, including any bad sectors. If your PC continues to hang after completing this procedure, you can be sure that a driver, program, or service is the actual cause.

Follow the instructions that sm625 posted for you about using Process Monitor to isolate the cause. Another option is the (very tedious and slow) clean-boot and process of elimination procedure to isolate the problematic driver, program, or service.

.

 

[concreteDonkey]

I've been running the process monitor for a couple gaming sessions now and, would you believe it, no hangs xD

If hard drives could be an issue, I should explain that I have 2. I used to be really anal about keeping my games and 'My Documents' separate to the drive with windows on so that when I "refreshed" the windows installation, I didn't lose any saves, settings etc. But since the advent of SteamPlay, I've been getting really lazy and just installing games all over the place.

The 2nd hard drive is set to sleep, or not stay on all the time (can't remember which way the setting words it), and this sometimes causes small pauses when games need to access it while it fires up. My logic was that it would make the drive live longer, but if that's a potential problem, I can switch it so it stays on.

I'll try the chkdsk next chance I get and let you know how I get on.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[concreteDonkey]

Results from running chkdsk on drive D(the one with my documents and games on it)

Removing 1 clusters from the Bad Clusters File.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
  84720 files processed.
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
  15139847 free clusters processed.
Free space verification is complete.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

 244198048 KB total disk space.
 183447016 KB in 72478 files.
     20596 KB in 4876 indexes.
         0 KB in bad sectors.
    171048 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
  60559388 KB available on disk.

      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
  61049512 total allocation units on disk.
  15139847 allocation units available on disk.

 

[Steltek]

That CHKDSK output indicates that a file system error was corrected. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to download a utility from the hard drive manufacturer to do some additional testing to ensure you don't have a failing drive.

In addition, file system errors also frequently can be the end result of a defective memory module. You really ought to also consider downloading a MEMTEST86+ ISO and running a few passes on each of your memory modules, one at a time, to ensure you don't have a failing DRAM module.

 

[concreteDonkey]

Result of checking the main hard drive, with windows and steam library on it:

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.                         

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
  345088 file records processed. File verification completed.
  886 large file records processed.
  0 bad file records processed.
  2 EA records processed.
  57 reparse records processed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
  427982 index entries processed.
  Index verification completed.
  0 unindexed files scanned.
  0 unindexed files recovered.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
  345088 file SDs/SIDs processed.
  Cleaning up 2524 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
  Cleaning up 2524 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
  Cleaning up 2524 unused security descriptors.
  Security descriptor verification completed.
  41448 data files processed.
  CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
  35015488 USN bytes processed.
  Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
  345072 files processed.
  File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
  56709191 free clusters processed.
  Free space verification is complete.

Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

 488384511 KB total disk space.
 260923724 KB in 288168 files.
    160484 KB in 41449 indexes.
         0 KB in bad sectors.
    463535 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
 226836768 KB available on disk.

      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
 122096127 total allocation units on disk.
  56709192 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 44 05 00 9c 07 05 00 b3 35 09 00 00 00 00 00  .D.......5......
a4 4a 00 00 39 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  .J..9...........
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00  ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.

By the look of it, only Stage 3 of 5 found anything wrong, right?

Judging by the two Chkdsk results I've posted, would anyone care to venture an opinion on whether things that were fixed were the problem?

Cheers

 

[Bubbaleone]

Result of checking the main hard drive, with windows and steam library on it:
.....By the look of it, only Stage 3 of 5 found anything wrong, right?

Judging by the two Chkdsk results I've posted, would anyone care to venture an opinion on whether things that were fixed were the problem?

Cheers

Understand that having files on two seperate partitions, and that an application requires access to both partitions in order to function correctly, if there are disk or file system errors on either partition it definitely will cause not only that application, but Windows itself to have problems working right.

In my first reply I stated that "Volume Bitmap and incorrect reporting of Free Space" were often overlooked as a cause of serious OS errors. When you checked D:\ drive and "CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap. Windows has made corrections to the file system.", you fixed exactly the type of errors I mentioned. When you checked C:\ and chkdsk reported "Cleaning up 2524 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9", that's just good "house cleaning" and not an error. Although, Windows still has to parse all those unused entries every time it boots.

If you continue to have any problems with Windows hanging, you can now be sure that it's being caused by a misbehaving application, driver, or service. But I think if this is a fairly recent event then you shouldn't experience anymore hangs. Run chkdsk using those switches, once a month, as part of your regular preventive maintenance.

.

 

[concreteDonkey]

Just played another ~4hr session with no hang. The problem was getting so bad that I felt as though I was getting a hang every time I played. I actually had 3 in one session at one point. The game I'm into at the moment has it's expansions stored on the 'D' (*had to edit because D followed by a colon shows up as: D drive while the game is installed in the Steam library on the C: drive, so hopefully it was those pesky volume bitmap thingy-ma-jiggers.

But I feel cleansed and free from 3 minute freezes, for now.

Thank you so much for all your help.

 

[concreteDonkey]

Unfortunately, after weeks of joy, I've had 3 hangs in one day!! A quick (over an hour!) chkdsk later, and it doesn't appear to be the same sort of errors:

Chkdsk was executed in read/write mode.  

Checking file system on D:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume dismounted.  All opened handles to this volume are now invalid.
Volume label is Daddy.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
  84736 file records processed.
  File verification completed.
  96 large file records processed.
  0 bad file records processed.
  0 EA records processed.
  0 reparse records processed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
  94506 index entries processed.
  Index verification completed.
  0 unindexed files scanned.
  0 unindexed files recovered.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
  84736 file SDs/SIDs processed.
  Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SII of file 9.
  Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 9.
  Cleaning up 1 unused security descriptors.
  Security descriptor verification completed.
  4886 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
  13134352 USN bytes processed.
  Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
  84720 files processed.
  File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
  15082193 free clusters processed.
  Free space verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

 244198048 KB total disk space.
 183677596 KB in 72524 files.
     20640 KB in 4887 indexes.
         0 KB in bad sectors.
    171040 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
  60328772 KB available on disk.

      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
  61049512 total allocation units on disk.
  15082193 allocation units available on disk.

So I'll get the process monitor up and running again, and see what I can see.

 

[denis280]

i think the drive is starting to give up.