BenBurned
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Process Explorer (procexp) Display Frozen (no updates for 25 sec)
I've been running process explorer v10.21 in an effort to diagnose why my WinXP Pro PC takes a long time to complete startup. I noticed that the procexp display was not updating when my PC was bogged down at startup. This was when procexp was running at priority 13 with the display update set at 2 seconds. So I ran it at priority 24 (realtime) and the display still froze at times for up to 25 seconds. The following examples show the process, its CPU percentage, and the duration of the frozen display:
bdss 42% for 19 sec (bdss is BitDefender9 antivirus)
bdss 11% for 8 sec
wgatray 15% for 25 sec
bdss 6% for 23 sec
bdss 44% for 54 sec
All the above occurred during the first 2 min 11 sec after the WinXP desktop appeared. I started Word at 43 sec, but it did not open until 2:23
I did not notice any other process running at priority 24. winlogon and csrss run at 13; services and lsass at 9; system, svchost and most other processes at 8.
Why would the procexp display be frozen even when running at priority 24?
(1) Could a processes be locking up the PC, waiting for a response, e.g. waiting for a response from a call to home base on the Internet?
(2) Could a very high priority task start, consume a lot of CPU resources, and then exit before procexp can report on its activity?
FYI: My orig question about why the PC is slow at startup is at https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22441239/Windows-XP-slow-unusable-for-9-minutes-after-boot.html
My question about BitDefender9 slowing the PC at startup is at https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22456981/BitDefender-9-very-slow-at-startup-with-Scan-accessed-files-enabled-WinXP.html
bdss 42% for 19 sec (bdss is BitDefender9 antivirus)
bdss 11% for 8 sec
wgatray 15% for 25 sec
bdss 6% for 23 sec
bdss 44% for 54 sec
All the above occurred during the first 2 min 11 sec after the WinXP desktop appeared. I started Word at 43 sec, but it did not open until 2:23
I did not notice any other process running at priority 24. winlogon and csrss run at 13; services and lsass at 9; system, svchost and most other processes at 8.
Why would the procexp display be frozen even when running at priority 24?
(1) Could a processes be locking up the PC, waiting for a response, e.g. waiting for a response from a call to home base on the Internet?
(2) Could a very high priority task start, consume a lot of CPU resources, and then exit before procexp can report on its activity?
FYI: My orig question about why the PC is slow at startup is at https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22441239/Windows-XP-slow-unusable-for-9-minutes-after-boot.html
My question about BitDefender9 slowing the PC at startup is at https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22456981/BitDefender-9-very-slow-at-startup-with-Scan-accessed-files-enabled-WinXP.html
ASKER
Thanks, Jonvee
I have cleaned up my startup tasks and did a HiJackThis report which Vic reviewed and pronounced as clean in the other question thread. I have already looked at answersthatwork and am not running any processes on my PC that are identified as problems.
At this point, I plan to do a Ghost backup and then try Bit Defender 10.
I would not think I have a HDD problem because the PC performs beautifully once past startup. However, I'm saving your tip for possible future use.
Regardless of what processes I have running, and which is the best AV, it still seems strange that the procexp display freezes. Could something within WinXP itself be keeping procexp from updating the display? I accepted the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) update (was it last year?). I wonder if that may be slowing things down.
I have cleaned up my startup tasks and did a HiJackThis report which Vic reviewed and pronounced as clean in the other question thread. I have already looked at answersthatwork and am not running any processes on my PC that are identified as problems.
At this point, I plan to do a Ghost backup and then try Bit Defender 10.
I would not think I have a HDD problem because the PC performs beautifully once past startup. However, I'm saving your tip for possible future use.
Regardless of what processes I have running, and which is the best AV, it still seems strange that the procexp display freezes. Could something within WinXP itself be keeping procexp from updating the display? I accepted the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) update (was it last year?). I wonder if that may be slowing things down.
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Thanks again Jonvee.
No need to apologize for not knowing what has already happened -- it would take a lot of time to read all my postings and the replies I got. I'm just thankful for folks like you want to help.
I took a look at the http://kadaitcha.cx/high_cpu.html site. That has some interesting data and am making note of that site for future reference. I made of the tweaks they recommended -- the one to speed up the right-click menu.
That site refers to many problems with 100% CPU usage, but my situation is different. I did not make it clear in my original question, but the CPU percentages I cited are the HIGHEST usage processes other than System Idle. For example, when the procexp display froze for 23 sec with bdss at 6% CPU usage, System Idle was probably at 94% (or close to it).
Like you said, one of the WGA-related problems should have been resolved long ago. The other WGA problem was related to drivers on an nVidea MB. I have an ASUS MB. Furthermore, my problems started in January, not when I installed the WGA thing.
I was just wondering if maybe Microsoft server responses have slowed in the past two months causing some processes that are active at startup (wgatray, svchost, etc.) to hang up.
No need to apologize for not knowing what has already happened -- it would take a lot of time to read all my postings and the replies I got. I'm just thankful for folks like you want to help.
I took a look at the http://kadaitcha.cx/high_cpu.html site. That has some interesting data and am making note of that site for future reference. I made of the tweaks they recommended -- the one to speed up the right-click menu.
That site refers to many problems with 100% CPU usage, but my situation is different. I did not make it clear in my original question, but the CPU percentages I cited are the HIGHEST usage processes other than System Idle. For example, when the procexp display froze for 23 sec with bdss at 6% CPU usage, System Idle was probably at 94% (or close to it).
Like you said, one of the WGA-related problems should have been resolved long ago. The other WGA problem was related to drivers on an nVidea MB. I have an ASUS MB. Furthermore, my problems started in January, not when I installed the WGA thing.
I was just wondering if maybe Microsoft server responses have slowed in the past two months causing some processes that are active at startup (wgatray, svchost, etc.) to hang up.
Have you checked, if windows haven't turned DMA off? When a harddrive hiccups only once, windows disables DMA for good, one way to get it back is to just go to hardware manager and delete the primary/secondary etc channels under ide/sata controllers, then restart 2 times and check. I had seen similar problem (additionally the windows startup sound was kind of jerky and with pauses) and this has helped, as windows will redetect the controllers after restart and forget about any previous errors that prevented it from using dma
ASKER
Thanks pjasnos,
I'm not sure how to tell if DMA is turned off.
I navigated as follows:
Start | Control Panel | System | Hardware Tab | Device Manager | IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
There I have two entries for "Primary IDE Channel". In each of the two, I went to the "Advanced Settings" tab
For the first Primary IDE Channel entry, for both Device 0 and 1, Transfer mode is "DMA if available" and Current Transfer Mode is "Not Applicable"
For the second Primary IDE Channel entry, the Device 0 Transfer mode is "DMA if available" and Current Transfer Mode Ultra DMA Mode 5. For device 1, Transfer mode is "DMA if available" & current transfer mode is "Not Applicable"
My system drive is SATA. I also have a PATA drive in an internal removable drawer which I typically keep powered off.
In Device Manager | Disk Drives, my system (C:) drive is "Location 0(0)"
In my BIOS setup, my system drive is the "Third IDE Master" but there is no "Third IDE Master" in device manager! In the BIOS, the Primary IDE master is not detected (this is the removable drive that is powered off). Primary IDE slave is not detected. The Secondary IDE master is my DVD-ROM and the slave is the DVD-RW.
I'm not sure how to tell if DMA is turned off.
I navigated as follows:
Start | Control Panel | System | Hardware Tab | Device Manager | IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
There I have two entries for "Primary IDE Channel". In each of the two, I went to the "Advanced Settings" tab
For the first Primary IDE Channel entry, for both Device 0 and 1, Transfer mode is "DMA if available" and Current Transfer Mode is "Not Applicable"
For the second Primary IDE Channel entry, the Device 0 Transfer mode is "DMA if available" and Current Transfer Mode Ultra DMA Mode 5. For device 1, Transfer mode is "DMA if available" & current transfer mode is "Not Applicable"
My system drive is SATA. I also have a PATA drive in an internal removable drawer which I typically keep powered off.
In Device Manager | Disk Drives, my system (C:) drive is "Location 0(0)"
In my BIOS setup, my system drive is the "Third IDE Master" but there is no "Third IDE Master" in device manager! In the BIOS, the Primary IDE master is not detected (this is the removable drive that is powered off). Primary IDE slave is not detected. The Secondary IDE master is my DVD-ROM and the slave is the DVD-RW.
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ASKER
My EE subscription is ending today. I intend to make another post & award points to pjasnos, but I'm making this post now in case my subscription expires before then.
ASKER
I've run out of steam today & am running out of time on my expiring subscription to EE, so I'll post this quick note.
I think the frozen procexp display is the result of something that BitDefender is doing. I've started to see the CPU percentages freeze on a few occasions after startup and BitDefender's bdss was one of the tasks showing activity when the percentages froze.
Re alternatives to BitDefender, the site http://www.av-comparatives.org/ has comparative scores of various Anti-Virus Software. I don't know anything about this organization -- I read about this organization in PC Magazine
I have not had time to experiment with DMA.
Thanks to pjasnos and Jonvee for your advice -- I'm splitting points between you, although I still don't understand why the CPU percentages freeze.
I think the frozen procexp display is the result of something that BitDefender is doing. I've started to see the CPU percentages freeze on a few occasions after startup and BitDefender's bdss was one of the tasks showing activity when the percentages froze.
Re alternatives to BitDefender, the site http://www.av-comparatives.org/ has comparative scores of various Anti-Virus Software. I don't know anything about this organization -- I read about this organization in PC Magazine
I have not had time to experiment with DMA.
Thanks to pjasnos and Jonvee for your advice -- I'm splitting points between you, although I still don't understand why the CPU percentages freeze.
Thanks for the report, sorry that between us we could not resolve your issue.
Not familiar with your "av-comparatives" site, but it does at least appear to produce a pretty comprehensive analysis.
An aside .. according to reports both Norton & McAfee AV are known to be a little resource hungry & occasionally problematic, and there has been a report of problems in updating AVG antispyware recently due to the associated server being 'too busy'.
On a more positive note, the most efficient (free) Malware scanner at present ( from reports out here) seems to be Superantispyware:
http://www.superantispyware.com/
Good luck & thank you.
Not familiar with your "av-comparatives" site, but it does at least appear to produce a pretty comprehensive analysis.
An aside .. according to reports both Norton & McAfee AV are known to be a little resource hungry & occasionally problematic, and there has been a report of problems in updating AVG antispyware recently due to the associated server being 'too busy'.
On a more positive note, the most efficient (free) Malware scanner at present ( from reports out here) seems to be Superantispyware:
http://www.superantispyware.com/
Good luck & thank you.
Have taken a look at your two previous threads and would suggest disabling BitDefender9 and offer very much the same recommendations as michko.
You could also occasionally run HiJackThis which is also free.
You may gain by taking a look at other programs you have running perhaps unnecessarily in the background, and try disabling some of them.
Select Start > Run and type MSCONFIG. From the SCU select the Startup tab.
Uncheck the unwanted items. Reboot. Any improvement?
http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/
This link may be useful >
http://www.answersthatwork.com/
Had you also considered that you may have a HDD problem in the making, & could consider a Test ?
"Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities":
http://tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287