Member Avatar for wildmanwilly

FINALLY got it together to move from Win98SE to XP. Loaded it onto the PC (which NEVER had a freezing problem before this), scanned for bugs/spyware/malware, no problems.
If you monitor the Task Monitor and watch CPU USAGE, it goes to 100% every 6 'cycles' (vertical lines) or so, then comes down to around 20% for a while then 6 cycles later, does it again.

It doesn't do it all the time. It usually starts after I've been on the computer a while (>30min), and seems to reset after a shutdown/reboot.

This freezes me out for 30-60 seconds at a time, so it makes the PC almost unusable.

HELP!

What can you wizards recommend?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by LaurelC

Dani AI

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A periodic 30-60 second freeze after XP has been running for a while, with regular CPU spikes, can come from several different places. Both and raised memory/pagefile and disk-space as possible contributors — valid points — but those are only part of the checklist. The important first step is to determine whether the spikes are caused by a user-mode process, kernel-mode activity (interrupts/DPCs), or heavy disk I/O; that determines the right fix.

A practical diagnostic path:

  • Boot to Safe Mode (F8). If the problem stops, third-party drivers or services are likely involved.
  • Do a selective startup with msconfig (disable non-Microsoft services and startup items) to isolate software.
  • In Task Manager enable "Show Kernel Times" (View menu). A large red kernel bar indicates interrupts/DPCs (driver/hardware problem). Use Sysinternals Process Explorer to see kernel vs. user CPU and to catch the offending driver or process.
  • If spikes point to an application, identify it by sorting processes by CPU and check for scheduled scans, indexing, or update tasks running on a timer.

Key hardware and driver checks:

  • Verify IDE/ATA transfer mode in Device Manager (Primary/Secondary IDE Channel → Advanced Settings). PIO mode produces huge CPU/disk overhead; DMA should be used.
  • Run chkdsk /f, a SMART disk test, and a multi-pass memtest86 to rule out failing drive or RAM.
  • Update motherboard chipset and storage drivers (and BIOS only from the vendor and after a backup). Temporarily stop the Indexing Service and scheduled antivirus scans as a quick trial.

Useful evidence to collect for follow-up: Event Viewer System/Application entries around a hang, an msinfo32 system summary, and a short Process Explorer snapshot taken during a spike. If Safe Mode removes the hangs, focus on disabling/updating drivers and startup services before assuming a RAM-only solution.

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Member Avatar for prof.thakur

1st solution should be increase virtual memory settings
and next atleast 1 GB free space in the drives containing OS's
and then stop or kill the unneccesssary applications running on ur system

check it and tell me

Member Avatar for LaurelC

I had this problem with my son-in-law's computer and then with several others as well. Chances are, if you're going from 98 to XP you don't have enough RAM on your puter for XP. I think MS says the system requirements are something like 128MB of RAM but that is RIDICULOUS! Even with 256MB, it will be slow. I suggest 512MB, if the machine is upgradable to it.

My son-in-law's computer was actually sold to him with 128MB of RAM and XP home (SHAME ON YOU DELL!). In other cases, people have done upgrades to XP and their puter virtually STOP! In each case, increasing the RAM solved the problem.

HTH,
Laurel

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