Bay 12 Games Forum
Finally... => Life Advice => Topic started by: JoshuaFH on October 09, 2015, 12:35:36 am
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I'm at my wits end, I can't stand this anymore and I've looked everywhere for an answer and can't find anything.
When I say my computer is having seizures, that's pretty much the bluntest way of explaining the symptoms. Just at random, internet connection completely locks up, processing power locks up, there's jilting audio stuttering, and with no apparent cause...
specs are:
Windows 7 64-bit
AMD Athlon x4 760k quad core processor
ASUS 7790 series
8GB Ram
ST1000DM Sata disk drive
I'd say about 2 years old now.
I bought and built my computer for gaming, but if and when a seizure happens I might as well be getting DDOS'd. Help badly needed.
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Check what's going on in Resource Manager when that happens. (Can be found under Programs->Accessories->System Tools or from a button on the Performance tab of Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc).) If the problem is software, you'll likely find it there. You can view all the important stuff at once on the Overview tab.
Edit: I'll also add that it sounds sort of like what happens if you start messing with process priorities (e.g. setting DwarfFortress to realtime), but that's probably not the issue.
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If you have a recent version of Windows (8+), check the disk access time in task manager. If that is high (e.g. >1000ms) then it's most likely your disk is dying and possible your pc is stalling on disk accesses.
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If you have a recent version of Windows (8+), check the disk access time in task manager. If that is high (e.g. >1000ms) then it's most likely your disk is dying and possible your pc is stalling on disk accesses.
::)specs are:
Windows 7 64-bit
...
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Disable all your non-essential start up items.
Open up Performance in the Task Manager.
Observe it when the spikes happen.
It could be disk, it could be CPU, it could be memory, it could be network saturation.
I've had Waterfox 64 lock my whole machine before when trying to close tabs, especially video tabs. Windows Update can lock up your machine, especially if it kicks off during gaming.
If you're not actually getting BSOD'd, it's not as bad as it could be.
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Just for completeness sake I'd like to throw in that you shouldn't forget to do the standards like running a virus scan either.
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Here's a picture of my Resource Monitor during a freakout:
http://imgur.com/6LUUdQq
I honestly have no clue what I should even be looking for. Please pardon my utter cluelessness, my 10+ years of computer usage have not prepared me for for this baffling mystery.
But yeah, I've checked my computer from top to bottom for any malware. It's thoroughly defragged. I've checked the harddrive for bad sectors. There doesn't seem to be anyone hijacking my internet (if they are, it's some intense sneakiness happening at all hours of the day at random). I'm just stumped.
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Here's a picture of my Resource Monitor during a freakout:
http://imgur.com/6LUUdQq
I honestly have no clue what I should even be looking for. Please pardon my utter cluelessness, my 10+ years of computer usage have not prepared me for for this baffling mystery.
It's hard to tell from the screenshot. The usage seems very low at the time of the screenshot, so I'm beginning to suspect hardware. Is this taken during the seizure or right after? Sometimes the resource manager has to wait to catch up on its statistics (if, for instance, another process is using all the system resources.)
Also, expand the Disk, Network, and Memory groups. Sort in descending order: CPU by CPU, Disk by Total (B/sec), Network by Total (B/sec), Memory by Working Set (KB). Look for any suspicious increase in usage during and after the seizure. I'm not sure if you'll find anything, but it's at least better information.
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Yeah nothing at all seems to be out of the ordinary in that screenshot, unfortunately.
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Deferred Procedure Calls and Interrupt Service Routlines
I wonder what that is.
Might as well as hardwares. Try checking every device that uses USB. Clog them into other computer. See what happens.
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Bump.
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Deferred Procedure Calls and Interrupt Service Routlines
I wonder what that is.
Something that's supposed to be there.
If it's still software the most likely culprit would be something monopolizing the hard drive to the point that nothing else can run. You'd be able to see this in task manager if you had a newer version of windows than 7. With 7, you lack a % disk usage, but you might be able to see if something in the Disk tab goes ridiculously high in resource monitor or taskmgr.
You can also check the SMART diagnostics on your hard drive(s) to look for clues as to whether it might be failing. I usually use SpeedFan. (You would think reading them and showing them to you would be part of windows, but apparently not. Apparently it's supposed to warn you if it's going to fail, but it's never warned me.)
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I believe the free sysinternals process explorer is the "super taskmanager for win7" that you are looking for there.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/processexplorer.aspx
It will even let you control the service processes inside the srvchost.exe wrapper, let you see exclusive file locks, and other fancy things.
If not that one, there are other sysinternals apps that can reveal who is hogging the disk with exclusive locks.
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If it's still software the most likely culprit would be something monopolizing the hard drive to the point that nothing else can run. You'd be able to see this in task manager if you had a newer version of windows than 7. With 7, you lack a % disk usage, but you might be able to see if something in the Disk tab goes ridiculously high in resource monitor or taskmgr.
He already posted:
Here's a picture of my Resource Monitor during a freakout:
(http://i.imgur.com/6LUUdQq.png)
Useage doesn't look to be the issue.
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CPU has flatlined at 100% looks like though. Post another picture with it sorted by CPU (just click on the CPU thing once or twice till the big numbers are visible) and that should let us be able to take a much better shot at solving the problem.
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i suspect the .net framework optimization service. it likes to bust in like a bull in a china shop.
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I'm sorry if this is spamming, but maybe you could ask for some more help? (https://askleo.com/)
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I haven't forgotten about this thread, not for one day... the only problem being, I'm still not sure what's going on or how to approach the problem. Not sure who this Leo guy is, I'm taking it he's a computer pro?
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I'm sorry if this is spamming, but maybe you could ask for some more help? (https://askleo.com/)
You realize that asking for more help is pretty much what he's doing right here right? I know that at least a few of us (myself included) are either Computer Science majors or hold jobs as computer tech people. :P
These are all good ideas:
Also, expand the Disk, Network, and Memory groups. Sort in descending order: CPU by CPU, Disk by Total (B/sec), Network by Total (B/sec), Memory by Working Set (KB). Look for any suspicious increase in usage during and after the seizure. I'm not sure if you'll find anything, but it's at least better information.
If it's still software the most likely culprit would be something monopolizing the hard drive to the point that nothing else can run. You'd be able to see this in task manager if you had a newer version of windows than 7. With 7, you lack a % disk usage, but you might be able to see if something in the Disk tab goes ridiculously high in resource monitor or taskmgr.
You can also check the SMART diagnostics on your hard drive(s) to look for clues as to whether it might be failing. I usually use SpeedFan. (You would think reading them and showing them to you would be part of windows, but apparently not. Apparently it's supposed to warn you if it's going to fail, but it's never warned me.)
Do these things first and report back what you find (or give us screenshots/video of them). They are very likely the thing that is going to point us in the direction of the culprit.
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If all else fails back up your files, format the hard drive and re-install. That will settle pretty quickly whether the issue is on the software or hardware side of things. Software, the problem will probably go away for a long while. If it's hardware, you should notice the same issues reoccurring soon after if not immediately after a re-install.