What causes (not responding)?

[glen]

It seems to frequently happen - the Window turns a sort of grey white and the cursor spins!

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

The drive possibly.

 

[tcsenter]

A utilization bottleneck somewhere (if no crash dump or notice is given).

 

[exdeath]

When the application is hung up in a way that doesn't allow the window message pump to empty it's message queue. This can be avoided by proper use of threading, but most applications work something like this:

loop forever until application closes
{

check for windows events

do application stuff

}

When it hangs in "do application stuff", the message queue for the window backs up and the app is "not responding". Most common reason is not enough disk IO or high CPU load and /or lack of threading.

 

[glen]

What is not enough disk IO?

 

[exdeath]

When your HDD light is 100% solid and cpu is at 99% idle.

 

[glen]

So, how do I narrow down the cause or fix it?
I can open the resource monitor and seeit is normally something to do with InternetExplorer.

 

[corkyg]

Sometimes it is just a matter of the user sending WE too many commands too quickly, and the processor gets bogged down with an "aw shit" moment. 🙂