Windows 7 constantly getting "not responding"

[Fumes]

Hi. I'm having an issue with my pc laptop thats driving me apoplectic.

I've had this computer a little over a year now and after a few months the computer started giving me the "not responding" thing. Not just in one application but everything hangs for a minute or two. It gets so bad that it might happen every few minutes or so.

The disk light will be full on during these periods. I tried having the task manager and resource monitor open to maybe see what might be taking over so to speak but I haven't seen anything unusual as far as I can tell.

I've tried finding solutions to no avail. I'll try some vodoo like running the fix problems stuff in the control panel but that rarely finds anything wrong...uninstall java...check disk...do a restore to a few days earlier...just a bunch of stuff that I have no idea if its the actual problem or not.

And then the problem will go away....for about another couple of months and then it comes back. This has been going on all year. Now its doing it again. The usual vodoo doesn't work. Heck, even restore won't work anymore. It now keeps telling me it 'couldn't complete'.

I've googled this problem. Many seem to experience it, but I can't find any decent explanation or fix.

Anybody know anything about this? Hasn't gotten to the point where I should wipe the drive and reinstall everything....only to have it happen again.

Thanks

 

[Lanyap]

What brand and model is it?

How much memory does it have?

Have you run memtest and hard drive diagnostics?

 

[Fumes]

Hi. thanks

Acer Aspire. Got 4gb ram. Drive diagnostics was always fine. Never bothered to do a memory test. Are there any free ones out there?
I use macs but I bought this less expensive laptop to knock around with. As a last thing I could think of is I disabled Avira but it still did it. Its such a weird thing. It'll happen a lot, then I might get a bit of a respite, then it acts up again.

Plus this whole thing were it never happens for a couple months then starts up again...drives me nuts. And I have no way of knowing what voodoo I might have done to make it go away.

And dare I say it cuz I'm so po'd....I never, ever, get this kind of nonsense on my "other" computers.

Sorry, couldn't help myself

I made backup restore disks when I first got the machine. I'll do a memory test but if that shows nothing then I think I'm just going to have to wipe the drive and start over

 

[Lanyap]

Most people use memtest86.
http://www.memtest86.com/

It's running Windows 7 and not Vista, right?

The reason I was asking about memory is because it sounded like it was paging from memory to disk.

What CPU does it have?

Acer tends to add it's own extra software. Do you think an automatic backup could be turned on? Maybe check Windows and Acer backup programs.

 

[Fumes]

Yes, Windows 7. Thanks, I'll try the memtest. As a matter of fact, I had ran that one on my macbook once before.

CPU is an AMD athlon 64 X2 QL65 2.1Ghz with a ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphjics.

Yes, Acer has a bunch of stuff on there like Acer assist, update, launcher, power manager, etc. I'm not really ever sure on what I can trash or not. Maybe all of it because I think Windows has all that stuff anyway.
If I can trash anything that says 'Acer', I could try that.

I believe I've tried turning all the startup items off (its hard to tell as windows has so many different prefs and control panels), but that didn't make any difference.

The windows 'find and fix problems' things are useless in that they never find anything wrong...except once. I read on another forum that someone said they fixed it by disabling some 'windows desktop manager' thingy under advanced services. That didn't help. Tried turning off windows update as well as a few other things...didn't help.

I also try CCleaner.

Because the hd lights full on during these episodes, I'm kind of thinking windows, or something, is keep trying to do something that it can't really 'fulfill', if you catch my drift.

See, this is the thing I've found I can't stand about windows...its an enormous rats nest of preferences and control panels. The preferences have preferences. The preferences of preferences have control panels. The control panels of control panels have control panels!!
Theres a half billion things that could be causing this. Arrrgh!!

You think an app like SpeedUpMyPC might find whats causing it?

 

[denis280]

Hard drive

 

[notposting]

Interesting. My 16 month old Acer Aspire running Windows 7 on a QL-64 (basically the same) crapped out this month. Basically, the fan would never ramp up...it would come on at it's low default idle speed, but never ramped up....and the laptop would crawl and eventually reboot at around 100C.

Also...I prefer Memtest86+ <--plus vs the standard one.

As far as trashing the stuff, yeah most of it goes. I replaced the Acer with another one (got all my money back thanks to the Squaretrade warranty). I believe the only Acer software remaining now is the updater, power management, and recovery. Made the backup discs, took a WHS backup, and then wiped everything else. Just google the stuff if you are wondering about it, that's what I did for any questionable stuff.

Or something (hard drive) could be crapping out. If you're really brave, pop it open and reseat the hard drive in the port.

edit: as far as my problem went, I reflashed the newest BIOS, reset back to factory (Vista ughhh) and the problem remained so it wasn't software.

 

[Fumes]

Thanks.

The laptop runs fine otherwise. I have hard disk sentinel running on startup and it always says its fine.
Yesterday I started this thread cause it was happening and now today it didn't happen for some voodoo reason. And the in a couple months it'll act up and drive me nuts.

How long have you had yours till it died?

Those four or five backup discs I made when I first got it...can I boot the computer from one of them?
I was wondering if I wanted to wipe the whole drive clean....or do I really need to keep that little restore partition anymore?

Or if I keep using these inexpensive pc laptops maybe I'd buy Windows OS just so I don't have to go through all the crap these manufacturers stick on their machines. Wipe them clean and do a fresh installation...if these machines even allow that. I have no idea.

BIOS, FIOS WHS... *sigh* my macs are so easy to use and understand... ;-D
no offense.

 

[notposting]

Yes you can buy Windows for that purpose. Get a retail copy (not OEM) for that purpose however (and full, not upgrade). And may as well go Pro, versus Home Premium or Ultimate. Yes MS has far too many options for it.

Yes the backup discs will boot it (start with disc 1). I just leave the restore partition as I don't end up needing the space anyway....saves on time when restoring versus reading the DVDs.

WHS--Windows Home Server, a home server operating system. Was awesome. MS is in the process of killing it.

 

[Fumes]

Thanks again nonposting, you've helped.

What kills me is that for the past few days after getting these constant interrupts, it hasn't done it. And I have absolutely no idea how or why. But I do know one day, tomorrow or a couple months from now, it'll return. lol

oh, yes...I've got to do the memory test. I'm hesitating cause if I recall when I did it on the mac it took a looooooong time...couple of hours or more I think. nevertheless, it will be done

 

[mlc]

seems like a hard drive problem , or windows is corrupted and needs to be reinstalled.....

1) try running a checkdisk while in safe mode , if you haven't already.... and let it repair any damaged files.. it will run the test after you reboot...

2) pull the bottom plate off and check that the memory is fully inserted into the slots.. if so, then run the memtest mentioned previously...

3) could be a heat issue.. but it's only a year old.. so i doubt dust blocking the fan/heatsink comes into play.. but feel the vent to ensure you have a flow of air coming out.. does it sound like the fan is running hard all the time?

4) next time you have the problem.. try rebooting into safe mode to see if it still occurs

5) If the machine is relatively new, there may be a bios update or some new chipset/graphics drivers to address past issues with the hardware. ..so check ACER's support page

 

[Fumes]

Thanks mic, I'll check those things out.

I have run diskcheck/repair but not in safe mode. I basically went into the hd properties, scheduled a check which it would do the next time I booted up.
Never noticed anything bad other than a couple orphaned files.

Fan seems ok. Doesn't overstress as far as I can tell. Maybe I should get one of those little cpu temp monitoring utilities.

Hmmmm. just checked Acer. Looks scary. "Updating incorrect BIOS can harm your system"
There are two listed from 2009. The latest in Nov 2009. I bought this laptop in Dec 2009. Maybe that latest bios wasn't installed.

How to I find the BIOS version on these machines?

Also there seems to be a bunch of driver updates for the little stuff like audio, trackpad, etc.

Thanks


....Wait, I found it

BIOS Version/Date Phoenix Technologies LTD V1.10, 9/17/2009

Now thats really confusing! My laptop says its bios is Phoenix v1.10 9/17/2009 and Acer website has a bios updater named Acer v 1.11 11/19/2009!!

 

[mlc]

if it's Acer, then they usually have some type of detector tool, in their download section that will detect your machine type, and let you know which updates would apply... So anything relating to chipset, graphics, controllers, etc.. may help...

As far as the bios goes.. if you're not comfortable, then hold on on that .. you can create an unbootable machine if you do something silly, like interrupt the machine during the update, flash the wrong bios, or if you don't have it plugged into an ac source while updating....

 

[Fumes]

Thanks again. I did download this little thing that shows your operating system and hardware vendors installed on the machine.

I'll just go ahead and call Acer and ask them whats what