Windows 2000 erratic behaviour

[y2kman]

I have Windows 2000 and noticing erratic behaviour in the form of delayed responses whether it be from the mouse or anywhere while in Windows or any application and it's occuring all the time.

Sometime after for instance moving a window, I have to wait till it completes before I can gain the use of my mouse, When loading a program, deleting something, typing, signing on to the internet, etc. It happens everywhere.

No virus found by Norton {updated with definitions} or AVG {also update}. Swept for spyware but I am ok there too.

Any help?

Thanks
Dave

[crjdriver]

I would check the hd. You can download the mgf's utility for checking the drive.

Have you added any new hardware or software lately?

[y2kman]

I believe my hard drive is ok because it was performing ok all along but I did reinstall my OS and software and one new hardware. I will trace my steps back to see which software may be the problem. I am sure I installed new drivers somewhere along the way which I was suspecting as possible culprit.

Thanks
Dave

[crjdriver]

Does it do the same thing in safe mode? If so, that points at a hardware problem. If it works ok in safe mode, you most likely have a software / driver type problem.

[y2kman]

Ok I changed my IDE cable and swapped the power cable and it seems ok.

I will watch it for a few days because I ran the WD Utility and it failed twice. Once before the swap and once afterwards. I know that don't necessarily mean a problem with the drive but I will continue monitoring the problem and report back.

If needed I will run the Safe Mode.

Thanks for now guys.
Dave

[[Mystic]]

Originally Posted by y2kman I have Windows 2000 and noticing erratic behaviour in the form of delayed responses whether it be from the mouse or anywhere while in Windows or any application and it's occuring all the time. Sometime after for instance moving a window, I have to wait till it completes before I can gain the use of my mouse, When loading a program, deleting something, typing, signing on to the internet, etc. It happens everywhere. No virus found by Norton {updated with definitions} or AVG {also update}. Swept for spyware but I am ok there too. Any help? Thanks Dave

Also...

Get the NEW ad-aware SE, and the NEW spybot 1.3

This sounds more like a CPU load problem than anything... Also run msconfig.exe and see whats loading up...

[crjdriver]

The freezing for a second then it works is an indication of hd problems. I have had a number of WD drives fail in the last year [even one on my own system and it did just what you describe] I would watch it closely now. BTW I do not install WD any longer because of the failure rate.

[crjdriver]

One more thing, backup any important info. If the drive tested as failed twice, I would not trust it with anything critical.

[[Mystic]]

Originally Posted by crjdriver The freezing for a second then it works is an indication of hd problems. I have had a number of WD drives fail in the last year [even one on my own system and it did just what you describe] I would watch it closely now. BTW I do not install WD any longer because of the failure rate.

Just for clarification purposes...

Seagates have a higher failure rate than wd's... also at my shop, seagates die more often than wds. But seagate has a 5 year warranty now, you can't really beat that...

[compusport]

you also might want to try a plain ol' defrag as well. I'd say either your cpu is under a higher load than normal, or your hard drive is taking too long to seek. Either way it wouldn't hurt

[y2kman]

Ok guys

I am looking into all the advises given. It's still hanging in there. Lots of stuff already backed up a while back but last nite I tried backing up some recent stuff but my CDWriter went bad, Ain't that something?.

I did not mention but I recently installed a new mobo but that was not when the problem developed. Of course I am still taking any necessary precautions.

Also, isn't it possible that bad RAM could be the cause?

I might try changing that seeing it is at least one of the things I can try on my own.

I don't have another CPU or motherboard to try. I ran defrag a while back but can try that again.

If it's my hard drive I hope that WD will replace it but then again it's probably been over a year now but to be honest, I don't remember exactly without looking at the receipt. This is a 120GB hard drive and where I live they want $120.00. Not affordable right now.

Thanks guys
Dave

[crjdriver]

You can test the ram with something like memtest86. Here is a link. It runs from a bootable floppy or cd that the program makes for you.

[y2kman]

I finally reformatted the hard drive and the problem is now gone. I suspect a certain driver that was not intended for Windows 2000. Not that I had to reformat the drive but there were other issues going on so it did not matter to me to reformat anyway.

Thanks for the memtest app. Took all day so I had to quit it. Maybe becuz the hard drive had that problem.

Thanks to everyone who helped.

Dave

[Mesaeus]

About the memtest app, it's a continous test that won't stop out of itself. As soon as it can do one pass of seven tests without any errors, it's probably ok to quit.

[y2kman]

ok thanks for the tip.

Dave