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I have a Windows 7 computer that I use almost exclusively for streaming video (Hulu in Internet Explorer, or recorded or live broadcast TV with Windows Media Center). Often the computer freezes for a number of seconds. The hard disk light is on continuously during this time. It seems to happen a lot when I begin to watch something or after pausing the video.
Following the advice in this thread,
How do I troubleshoot a Windows freeze or slowness?,
I have installed Windows Performance Analysis Tools and run the xperf command until a freeze occurs.
If I am interpreting the results correctly, the disk activity appears to correspond with the System process having a large flush count and flush service time. This is being done by a component with an unknown path tree and path name.
I have posted a set of log files here: Files
So, what do I do with this information?
Update: 1/19/14: I should probably add that there have been three BSODs in the last month--two of them in the last week. That is a much newer problem than the freezing, although it seems to point to memory or HDD problems. But as I have said in the comments below, I have run MemTest and disk diagnostics without detecting any problems. I have added the latest BSOD dump file to the collection of posted files FWIW. And there has been an ongoing problem since I bought the computer where it freezes up when coming out of standby; I have to force a restart. All of these have been random incidents that are hard to troubleshoot, and may or may not be related.
Update: 1/29/14: I have found that the problem continues even if I do a clean boot. Is it possible that it is related to the volume of data on the HDD? I have about 300 Gb of recorded TV on the drive. They are mostly half-hour to two-hour programs, so they are large files--anywhere from 3 to 25 Gb each. They should be contiguous files; defragmenting doesn't make much of a difference in performance.
There's one other interesting piece to the puzzle: It never happens when Windows Media Center is recording. The recorded shows do not have breaks or freezes, and we can watch other video during recording without any freezing. Either Media Center commands full priority and doesn't allow interruptions, or perhaps it is somehow the cause of the freezes during playback. Or, consistent with Zero3's suggestion below, maybe the constant activity during recording prevents the drive from spinning down.
This type of behavior normally is explained by a HDD with lots of reallocated sectors. In other words your HDD is having to move data around to another sector because the original sector is considered bad by its firmware – Ramhound – 2014-01-17T16:49:48.057
Check out this answer (linked in the comments on the question/answer you linked): http://superuser.com/questions/345006/how-can-i-identify-the-culprit-of-my-slow-windows-shutdown/347191#347191
– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2014-01-17T16:52:00.567Thanks for the suggestions. I had previously run diagnostics on my HDD using Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics and Acronis Drive Monitor. Both have reported a healthy drive. Is there something else I need to do to check it? I also read the referenced answer and that was how I arrived at the conclusion that a large flush count and service time was the cause of the freezes. – Cliff – 2014-01-17T17:12:52.547
how much RAM do you have? – Keltari – 2014-01-17T17:26:25.047
I have 6 Gigabytes – Cliff – 2014-01-17T17:31:27.237
the Windows Error reporting service tries to read the error report data. Pst some pictures of this tool: http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html
– magicandre1981 – 2014-01-17T18:25:08.220When I ran the setup program it said it was going to change my browser search defaults and to prevent them from being changed back. I aborted the installation. Last time I installed something like that I had to reinstall my operating system. I don't feel safe installing this program. – Cliff – 2014-01-17T18:53:51.023
How full is your hard Drive? I might consider uninstalling all unnecessary software. Try performing a clean boot and then one by one re-introduce services and start up items until you have an offender. These recommendations of course are assuming there isn't a hardware failure somewhere causing the problem. Do you have drivers that can be updated for a graphics card? These are all common items to check when a system starts acting up. – JamesTheDev – 2014-01-17T20:21:57.203
use the portable version: 32Bit: http://crystalmark.info/redirect.php?product=CrystalDiskInfo 64Bit: http://crystalmark.info/redirect.php?product=CrystalDiskInfoX64
– magicandre1981 – 2014-01-18T06:43:37.310@Ramhound sounds like maybe a new hard drive is needed then? – MDMoore313 – 2014-01-18T22:00:57.007
@MDMoore313 - Yeah. – Ramhound – 2014-01-19T01:21:44.163
OK, I have run CrystalDiskInfo. I took a screen shot of the display and added it here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/igu4zse6jq0j0db/xjLExWBxCY. Is there any other info I need from the program?
– Cliff – 2014-01-19T20:10:07.333Because it is essentially used as a DVR, there isn't much software on the computer--IE, Firefox, AVG Antivirus, and Windows Media Center are the most significant programs. I have removed as much as I can of the pre-installed software. I have also done the best I can to keep drivers up to date. I could try to troubleshoot it with a clean boot, but it is one of those maddeningly unpredictable events where it is nearly impossible to determine with any certainty if it has gone away. I was hoping the high flush count and time would be a good clue to the cause. – Cliff – 2014-01-19T20:27:03.830