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  • #1

    Irresponsive system

    Hello,

    I'm having a weird issue at home with my dual Xeon (Windows XP Pro). The cpu usage in idle is extremely low (0-1%), but as soon as I start anything (windows explorer, ...), it rises to 100% and the program takes long (4-5 s, sometimes up to 10s) to become visible. This seriously differs from its normal rapid response.

    The PC is not internet connected (no virusses), and the presence of its local network makes no difference. I don't recall any recent software changes that might explain it.

    Any suggestions/thoughs?

    If not, I'll just restore from an image (loosing some more recent softwares) as it will be faster than working out the issue.


    Jörg
    pixar
    Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Try disabling any Anti-Virus software and see if it gets better. Install the newest Anti-Virus software and scan thoroughly, and see if it gets better. Can you see what processes go to 100%? DMA enabled?
    There's an Opera in my macbook.

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    • #3
      Try to kill all unnecessary process' and see what happens.
      Titanium is the new bling!
      (you heard from me first!)

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      • #4
        az's last one is a good point. This sounds like the same symptoms I had when XP disabled DMA mode on my IDE controller. Go to device manager and make sure all your IDE devices are still in DMA mode, not PIO mode.
        Lady, people aren't chocolates. Do you know what they are mostly? Bastards. Bastard coated bastards with bastard filling. But I don't find them half as annoying as I find naive, bubble-headed optimists who walk around vomiting sunshine. -- Dr. Perry Cox

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        • #5
          All harddisks are U320 and U160, dma is still enabled, anti-virus makes no difference.
          Can't identify all the processes that increase the load, but the launched program takes up more than normal too.
          I just started restoring from an image, will be faster then trying to identify.

          Thanks!

          Jörg
          pixar
          Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

          Comment

          • #6
            Weird...
            I restored the system, and all responsiveness came right back.

            As some software has newer version since my previous restore, I decided to update them and make a new image (for this I use a Knoppix CD with the tool 'partimage'). The weird thing now is that the partimage claims it cannot read the MBR. I tried fixing it from Windows (boot with CD, recovery console, fixmbr) but that didn't help. I then just restored the MBR from an image using partimage, and then I managed to create new images.

            Could it have been caused by something in the Master Boot Record? And how? What?


            Jörg
            pixar
            Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

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            • #7
              It could just have been something wrong with the HDD in general, and windows going to 100% because it tries to read data over and over and over again and can't get it. I had this behaviour once when NTFS died on me: Windows took about ten minutes to boot!
              There's an Opera in my macbook.

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              • #8
                Could be... But things appear to be solved now...
                (the harddisk reports no errors, nor does the filesystem)


                Jörg
                pixar
                Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

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