Not responding

[Antares 531]

I posted a message about this problem a few weeks ago but found
nothing that resolved the problem. I'm still having "stall outs" with
all of my client software from time to time. The programs will run
very smoothly for a while then stall out and I see a message to the
effect "Not Responding." This happens in Explorer, Excel, Word and
other non-MS software. It will usually revert to a state of smooth
operation if I'll just sit back and wait a while. Sometimes it takes a
minute or more other times just a few seconds. And, I notice the drive
light is on constantly when this occurs.

This computer has an ASUS P7P55D motherboard but I can't locate any
information on this setup in the Control Panel any more. It used to be
there but something has changed it.

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit with no touch inputs. The
computer's RAM is 8.0 GB and it shows 3.99 GB usable. The processor is
an Intel Core i7, 860 GHz.

This computer has three Western Digital disc drives...one for the
programs, one for the software working document files and one for
backups. These are:

C: Programs 465 GB with 63.1 GB in use and 402 GB free
D: Documents 465 GB with 159 GB in use and 305 GB free
E: DVD
F: Backup 465 GB with 312 in use and 154 free

Has anyone else found a solution to this stall out problem? I do
remember others stating that they were experiencing the same problem
but I don't know if anyone found out what was causing it.

Thanks, Gordon

 

[Paul]

I posted a message about this problem a few weeks ago but found
nothing that resolved the problem. I'm still having "stall outs" with
all of my client software from time to time. The programs will run
very smoothly for a while then stall out and I see a message to the
effect "Not Responding." This happens in Explorer, Excel, Word and
other non-MS software. It will usually revert to a state of smooth
operation if I'll just sit back and wait a while. Sometimes it takes a
minute or more other times just a few seconds. And, I notice the drive
light is on constantly when this occurs.

This computer has an ASUS P7P55D motherboard but I can't locate any
information on this setup in the Control Panel any more. It used to be
there but something has changed it.

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit with no touch inputs. The
computer's RAM is 8.0 GB and it shows 3.99 GB usable. The processor is
an Intel Core i7, 860 GHz.

This computer has three Western Digital disc drives...one for the
programs, one for the software working document files and one for
backups. These are:

C: Programs 465 GB with 63.1 GB in use and 402 GB free
D: Documents 465 GB with 159 GB in use and 305 GB free
E: DVD
F: Backup 465 GB with 312 in use and 154 free

Has anyone else found a solution to this stall out problem? I do
remember others stating that they were experiencing the same problem
but I don't know if anyone found out what was causing it.

Thanks, Gordon

"ASUS P7P55D
Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit
computer's RAM is 8.0 GB and it shows 3.99 GB usable

http://ark.intel.com/products/41316/Intel-Core-i7-860-Processor-(8M-Cache-2_80-GHz)
"

This likely has nothing to do with the problem, but I'd be working
on that 3.99GB limitation.

Start by going into the BIOS and verifying all memory DIMMs are
accounted for. There should be a status page or something, that tells
you how much RAM the BIOS has detected.

You can also use the CPU-Z program, while in Windows, to verify
hardware information.

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

Section 3.6.2 of the user manual for the motherboard
shows a "Memory Remap Feature" and that should be enabled.
You enter the BIOS and check that setting.

It's also possible, using BCDEDIT, to limit the amount of
RAM the computer will use. So even if the hardware is capable,
it's still possible to shoot yourself in the foot, via the OS.
But this is harder to do with such precision as in your example.

(removememory...)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff542202(v=vs.85).aspx

One way to verify the memory, is with memtest86+. It will report
the RAM configuration, at the same time it does a test for you.
It's another way to verify the quantity of RAM. The downloads
on this page, are half way down the page. Using a memtest86+
disc, you boot the computer with it, and it tests pretty much
all of the RAM, except 1 megabyte or so used by the BIOS area.

http://www.memtest.org/

The screen will look like this. This machine appears to have 4GB installed,
but only 3583MB is visible at the moment to the memtest86+ test program.
The motherboard used for this screenshot is M3N78 and the built-in
motherboard graphics may have claimed the rest of the memory. And
that's why memtest can't test all the RAM. On motherboards without
integrated graphics, more of the RAM should be ready to test. I got
tired of looking for screenshots, and settled on this one...

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f91/FTMiamiBeach/TB/18102009004-1.jpg

*******

Once you've got more of the memory reported as "free", you can
retest for your original problem.

Or, your next step might be to adjust the size of the pagefile, and
make it a lot smaller, and make it a fixed size so that it cannot
be expanded. Like maybe make Initial Size 512MB and Maximum Size 512MB.
Then, it'll still page, but it can't page for quite as long a
period of time. You can probably make it a bit smaller than that,
but that's a start.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Change-the-size-of-virtual-memory

Paul

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

I posted a message about this problem a few weeks ago but found
nothing that resolved the problem. I'm still having "stall outs" with
all of my client software from time to time. The programs will run
very smoothly for a while then stall out and I see a message to the
effect "Not Responding." This happens in Explorer, Excel, Word and
other non-MS software. It will usually revert to a state of smooth
operation if I'll just sit back and wait a while. Sometimes it takes a
minute or more other times just a few seconds. And, I notice the drive
light is on constantly when this occurs.

I get this occasionally on my XP box. I think that what it is is
Windows is not getting a timely response to a message it sent to the
software. You might be trying to manipulate or redisplay the window
while the process is busy with something else.

[snip]

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[Paul]

I posted a message about this problem a few weeks ago but found
nothing that resolved the problem. I'm still having "stall outs" with
all of my client software from time to time. The programs will run
very smoothly for a while then stall out and I see a message to the
effect "Not Responding." This happens in Explorer, Excel, Word and
other non-MS software. It will usually revert to a state of smooth
operation if I'll just sit back and wait a while. Sometimes it takes a
minute or more other times just a few seconds. And, I notice the drive
light is on constantly when this occurs.

I get this occasionally on my XP box. I think that what it is is
Windows is not getting a timely response to a message it sent to the
software. You might be trying to manipulate or redisplay the window
while the process is busy with something else.

[snip]

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

The drive light on constantly, is paging.

I've seen that here, but on WinXP.

And putting the pagefile on a RAMDisk makes a wonderful solution for it.
But it's not time yet, to get quite that desperate It is better
to aim for a more conventional solution.

The "Not Responding" timer is set too short on Windows 7...
Even trivial events result in that message.

*******

I tried the RAMDisk/pagefile, as an experiment, and made a 2GB
pagefile on a RAMDisk, and the OS was as smooth as butter. No more
stalls with drive light on constantly. In case you wish to
comment "how stupid is that", consider the system
configuration used.

WinXP Pro SP3 32 bit (4GB limit...)
6GB RAM installed for experiment. Programs cannot access the upper 2GB.
Cenetek RAMDisk installed, and using the 2GB of RAM above the 4GB mark.
In other words, the RAMDisk uses memory the OS cannot normally access.
It can do that, because it's a driver and runs in ring zero.
The pagefile is then placed on the RAMDisk. When the system
needs to page, that configuration is quite smooth. This is a
benchmark for the RAMDisk. My system doesn't have very good
RAM, which is why it is so "slow".

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/8694/hdtunedataram2gbabove.gif

Paul

 

[Rob]

I posted a message about this problem a few weeks ago but found
nothing that resolved the problem. I'm still having "stall outs" with
all of my client software from time to time. The programs will run
very smoothly for a while then stall out and I see a message to the
effect "Not Responding." This happens in Explorer, Excel, Word and
other non-MS software. It will usually revert to a state of smooth
operation if I'll just sit back and wait a while. Sometimes it takes a
minute or more other times just a few seconds. And, I notice the drive
light is on constantly when this occurs.

This computer has an ASUS P7P55D motherboard but I can't locate any
information on this setup in the Control Panel any more. It used to be
there but something has changed it.

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit with no touch inputs. The
computer's RAM is 8.0 GB and it shows 3.99 GB usable. The processor is
an Intel Core i7, 860 GHz.

This computer has three Western Digital disc drives...one for the
programs, one for the software working document files and one for
backups. These are:

C: Programs 465 GB with 63.1 GB in use and 402 GB free
D: Documents 465 GB with 159 GB in use and 305 GB free
E: DVD
F: Backup 465 GB with 312 in use and 154 free

Has anyone else found a solution to this stall out problem? I do
remember others stating that they were experiencing the same problem
but I don't know if anyone found out what was causing it.

Thanks, Gordon

A common cause of this is nothing to do with Windows at all.
It is one of the hard drives failing (sectors going bad) and
internally fixing itself. When this happens, often nothing is
reported to the operating system.
Once the drive has internally relocated the bad sectors, operation
continues as normal (until the next bad sector is found.)
To check if this is the case, you need to get some SMART
monitoring software installed and look at the 'relocated sectors'
count. Check it for all drives and note the result for each drive.
Next time you get a 'stall out', run the SMART monitoring software
again and compare the figures.
If one drive has increased the relocated sectors count, I suggest
you should replace it (possibly under warranty.)
An alternative is to download and run the WD HD diagnostics
(Data Lifeguard) on your drives. In theory, that will report
a problem (if you trust any company to report faults on their
own products, that is.)

If this is indeed the problem, one day the bad drive will run out
of spare sectors and at that point will fail completely.

 

[Antares 531]

"ASUS P7P55D
Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit
computer's RAM is 8.0 GB and it shows 3.99 GB usable

http://ark.intel.com/products/41316/Intel-Core-i7-860-Processor-(8M-Cache-2_80-GHz)
"

This likely has nothing to do with the problem, but I'd be working
on that 3.99GB limitation.

Start by going into the BIOS and verifying all memory DIMMs are
accounted for. There should be a status page or something, that tells
you how much RAM the BIOS has detected.

You can also use the CPU-Z program, while in Windows, to verify
hardware information.

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

Section 3.6.2 of the user manual for the motherboard
shows a "Memory Remap Feature" and that should be enabled.
You enter the BIOS and check that setting.

It's also possible, using BCDEDIT, to limit the amount of
RAM the computer will use. So even if the hardware is capable,
it's still possible to shoot yourself in the foot, via the OS.
But this is harder to do with such precision as in your example.

(removememory...)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff542202(v=vs.85).aspx

One way to verify the memory, is with memtest86+. It will report
the RAM configuration, at the same time it does a test for you.
It's another way to verify the quantity of RAM. The downloads
on this page, are half way down the page. Using a memtest86+
disc, you boot the computer with it, and it tests pretty much
all of the RAM, except 1 megabyte or so used by the BIOS area.

http://www.memtest.org/

The screen will look like this. This machine appears to have 4GB installed,
but only 3583MB is visible at the moment to the memtest86+ test program.
The motherboard used for this screenshot is M3N78 and the built-in
motherboard graphics may have claimed the rest of the memory. And
that's why memtest can't test all the RAM. On motherboards without
integrated graphics, more of the RAM should be ready to test. I got
tired of looking for screenshots, and settled on this one...

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f91/FTMiamiBeach/TB/18102009004-1.jpg

*******

Once you've got more of the memory reported as "free", you can
retest for your original problem.

Or, your next step might be to adjust the size of the pagefile, and
make it a lot smaller, and make it a fixed size so that it cannot
be expanded. Like maybe make Initial Size 512MB and Maximum Size 512MB.
Then, it'll still page, but it can't page for quite as long a
period of time. You can probably make it a bit smaller than that,
but that's a start.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Change-the-size-of-virtual-memory

Paul

Paul, I've been tinkering around with your suggestions and others but
I am increasingly convinced that my problem is not hardware oriented.
The same problem shows up on my laptop and on my wife's kitchen
computer. All of these computers are connected to a household Netgear
Wi-Fi/Router/Modem network and to the Internet through this setup.

I'm wondering if somehow some malware has infected all our computers.
We use MS Security Essentials and it shows no problems...green and up
to date. Could there be some form of malware that somehow sneaks by MS
Security Essentials and has infected our computers?

 

[Paul]

A common cause of this is nothing to do with Windows at all.
It is one of the hard drives failing (sectors going bad) and
internally fixing itself. When this happens, often nothing is
reported to the operating system.
Once the drive has internally relocated the bad sectors, operation
continues as normal (until the next bad sector is found.)
To check if this is the case, you need to get some SMART
monitoring software installed and look at the 'relocated sectors'
count. Check it for all drives and note the result for each drive.
Next time you get a 'stall out', run the SMART monitoring software
again and compare the figures.
If one drive has increased the relocated sectors count, I suggest
you should replace it (possibly under warranty.)
An alternative is to download and run the WD HD diagnostics
(Data Lifeguard) on your drives. In theory, that will report
a problem (if you trust any company to report faults on their
own products, that is.)

If this is indeed the problem, one day the bad drive will run out
of spare sectors and at that point will fail completely.

Yes, that's a good thing to check. Get a copy of HDTune, and look
at the Health tab.

http://www.hdtune.com/files/hdtune_255.exe

In these three examples, the first line is what a brand new
Seagate disk looks like here. The second and third lines show
how my disk behaved as the "Data" field started to show reallocated
sectors.

Current Worst Threshold Data Status
Reallocated Sector Count 100 100 36 0 OK
Reallocated Sector Count 100 100 36 57 OK
Reallocated Sector Count 98 98 36 104 OK

The other parameter, is a measure of how many sectors are queued
up to be fixed, by testing and reallocation on the next write attempt.
Even though I had reallocations occur, I never saw my Pending value
change at all, which I thought was strange.

Current Worst Threshold Data Status
Current Pending Sector 100 100 0 0 OK

You can also run the Benchmark on HDTune, and look for "bad patches",
but the benchmark option is a tiny bit flaky and you can't rely
on the results, unless the results are really really bad.
Gone are the days, when a benchmark looked like this. This
doesn't have any big dips in the curve as the benchmark runs (although
the disk is slow by modern standards). The result should be a curve,
on a hard drive, but with "stairsteps" in it due to "zoning".
I've had curves that were textbook smooth, but don't seem to
have any of those in my current collection.

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/6494/hdtunebenchmarkst380011.png

Paul

 

[Paul]

Paul, I've been tinkering around with your suggestions and others but
I am increasingly convinced that my problem is not hardware oriented.
The same problem shows up on my laptop and on my wife's kitchen
computer. All of these computers are connected to a household Netgear
Wi-Fi/Router/Modem network and to the Internet through this setup.

I'm wondering if somehow some malware has infected all our computers.
We use MS Security Essentials and it shows no problems...green and up
to date. Could there be some form of malware that somehow sneaks by MS
Security Essentials and has infected our computers?

You can boot the computer with the 237MB Kaspersky Rescue CD.
This is a boot CD, and you use it to boot the computer. It has
an AV scanner in it. I run this maybe once every three months or so.

http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/rescuedisk/main?qid=208286083

Or you could get a copy of MBAM and run that in Windows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malwarebytes'_Anti-Malware

Paul

 

[Tony]

How many sticks of ram? Your post is long and i don't read all of long
posts.

I posted a message about this problem a few weeks ago but found
nothing that resolved the problem. I'm still having "stall outs" with
all of my client software from time to time. The programs will run
very smoothly for a while then stall out and I see a message to the
effect "Not Responding." This happens in Explorer, Excel, Word and
other non-MS software. It will usually revert to a state of smooth
operation if I'll just sit back and wait a while. Sometimes it takes a
minute or more other times just a few seconds. And, I notice the drive
light is on constantly when this occurs.

This computer has an ASUS P7P55D motherboard but I can't locate any
information on this setup in the Control Panel any more. It used to be
there but something has changed it.

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit with no touch inputs. The
computer's RAM is 8.0 GB and it shows 3.99 GB usable. The processor is
an Intel Core i7, 860 GHz.

This computer has three Western Digital disc drives...one for the
programs, one for the software working document files and one for
backups. These are:

C: Programs 465 GB with 63.1 GB in use and 402 GB free
D: Documents 465 GB with 159 GB in use and 305 GB free
E: DVD
F: Backup 465 GB with 312 in use and 154 free

Has anyone else found a solution to this stall out problem? I do
remember others stating that they were experiencing the same problem
but I don't know if anyone found out what was causing it.

Thanks, Gordon

--
The Grandmaster of the CyberFROG

Come get your ticket to CyberFROG city

Nay, Art thou decideth playeth ye simpleton games. *Some* of us know
proper manners

Very few. I used to take calls from *rank* noobs but got fired the first
day on the job for potty mouth,

Bur-ring, i'll get this one: WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM JERK!!? We're here to
help you dickweed, ok, ok give the power cord the jiggily piggily wiggily
all the while pushing the power button repeatedly now take everything out
of your computer except the power supply and *one* stick of ram. Ok get
the next sucker on the phone.

Deirdre Straughan (Roxio) is a LIAR (Deirdre McFibber)

There's the employer and the employee and the FROGGER and the FROGEE,
which one are you?

Hamster isn't a newsreader it's a mistake!

El-Gonzo Jackson FROGS both me and Chuckcar (I just got EL-FROG-OED!!)

All hail Chuckcar the CZAR!! Or in F-R-O-Gland Chuckcar laFROG laCZAR,
ChuckZar!!

I hate them both, With useless bogus bullshit you need at least *three*
fulltime jobs to afford either one of them

I'm a fulltime text *only* man on usenet now. The rest of the world
downloads the binary files not me i can't afford thousands of dollars a
month

VBB = Volume based billing. How many bytes can we shove down your throat
and out your arse sir?

The only "fix" for the CellPig modem is a sledgehammer.

UBB = User based bullFROGGING

Master Juba was a black man imitating a white man imitating a black man

Always do incremental backups of your data or you'll end up like the
A-Holes at DSL Reports. Justin says i made a boo-boo. Yeah boo-who.

Updates are for idiots. As long as the thing works there's no reason to
turn
schizophrenic and develop a lifelong complex over such a silly issue.

Adrian "jackpot" Lewis is a mama's boy!

Jimmy Fricke is good for the game of poker

Using my technical prowess and computer abilities to answer questions
beyond the realm of understandability

Regards Tony... Making usenet better for everyone everyday

This sig file was compiled via my journeys through usenet

 

[Tony]

In your case it's likely a cheap processor but he's using an i7-860 so his
case is different than yours.

I posted a message about this problem a few weeks ago but found
nothing that resolved the problem. I'm still having "stall outs" with
all of my client software from time to time. The programs will run
very smoothly for a while then stall out and I see a message to the
effect "Not Responding." This happens in Explorer, Excel, Word and
other non-MS software. It will usually revert to a state of smooth
operation if I'll just sit back and wait a while. Sometimes it takes a
minute or more other times just a few seconds. And, I notice the drive
light is on constantly when this occurs.

I get this occasionally on my XP box. I think that what it is is
Windows is not getting a timely response to a message it sent to the
software. You might be trying to manipulate or redisplay the window
while the process is busy with something else.

[snip]

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

--
The Grandmaster of the CyberFROG

Come get your ticket to CyberFROG city

Nay, Art thou decideth playeth ye simpleton games. *Some* of us know proper
manners

Very few. I used to take calls from *rank* noobs but got fired the first
day on the job for potty mouth,

Bur-ring, i'll get this one: WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM JERK!!? We're here to help
you dickweed, ok, ok give the power cord the jiggily piggily wiggily all
the while pushing the power button repeatedly now take everything out of
your computer except the power supply and *one* stick of ram. Ok get the
next sucker on the phone.

Deirdre Straughan (Roxio) is a LIAR (Deirdre McFibber)

There's the employer and the employee and the FROGGER and the FROGEE, which
one are you?

Hamster isn't a newsreader it's a mistake!

El-Gonzo Jackson FROGS both me and Chuckcar (I just got EL-FROG-OED!!)

All hail Chuckcar the CZAR!! Or in F-R-O-Gland Chuckcar laFROG laCZAR,
ChuckZar!!

I hate them both, With useless bogus bullshit you need at least *three*
fulltime jobs to afford either one of them

I'm a fulltime text *only* man on usenet now. The rest of the world
downloads the binary files not me i can't afford thousands of dollars a
month

VBB = Volume based billing. How many bytes can we shove down your throat
and out your arse sir?

The only "fix" for the CellPig modem is a sledgehammer.

UBB = User based bullFROGGING

Master Juba was a black man imitating a white man imitating a black man

Always do incremental backups of your data or you'll end up like the
A-Holes at DSL Reports. Justin says i made a boo-boo. Yeah boo-who.

Updates are for idiots. As long as the thing works there's no reason to
turn
schizophrenic and develop a lifelong complex over such a silly issue.

Adrian "jackpot" Lewis is a mama's boy!

Jimmy Fricke is good for the game of poker

Using my technical prowess and computer abilities to answer questions
beyond the realm of understandability

Regards Tony... Making usenet better for everyone everyday

This sig file was compiled via my journeys through usenet

 

[Rob]

Paul, I've been tinkering around with your suggestions and others but
I am increasingly convinced that my problem is not hardware oriented.
The same problem shows up on my laptop and on my wife's kitchen
computer. All of these computers are connected to a household Netgear
Wi-Fi/Router/Modem network and to the Internet through this setup.

I'm wondering if somehow some malware has infected all our computers.
We use MS Security Essentials and it shows no problems...green and up
to date. Could there be some form of malware that somehow sneaks by MS
Security Essentials and has infected our computers?

Try Paul's suggestion for malware scanning. Personally, I always
install MBAM regardless of what anti-virus package is installed, as
they all miss things. If MBAM shows anything, after disinfecting
I then install and run SuperAntiSpyware just in case MBAM missed
something, too. The above has cured all malware infestations I have
come across on the PCs I support.
One other thing worth considering is that the problem is to do with
your router/modem. If all devices are connected via wifi, it could
be an interference problem. If some are wired, more likely a fault
on the modem/router. If a device loses contact with the network,
it can take 30s or so to re-establish the link, although you should
see some evidence of this happening in the status bar, if you have
network icon notifications turned on.
HTH,

 

[Antares 531]

A common cause of this is nothing to do with Windows at all.
It is one of the hard drives failing (sectors going bad) and
internally fixing itself. When this happens, often nothing is
reported to the operating system.
Once the drive has internally relocated the bad sectors, operation
continues as normal (until the next bad sector is found.)
To check if this is the case, you need to get some SMART
monitoring software installed and look at the 'relocated sectors'
count. Check it for all drives and note the result for each drive.
Next time you get a 'stall out', run the SMART monitoring software
again and compare the figures.
If one drive has increased the relocated sectors count, I suggest
you should replace it (possibly under warranty.)
An alternative is to download and run the WD HD diagnostics
(Data Lifeguard) on your drives. In theory, that will report
a problem (if you trust any company to report faults on their
own products, that is.)

If this is indeed the problem, one day the bad drive will run out
of spare sectors and at that point will fail completely.

I think our household computer network setup has some form of malware
but I can't identify it or get rid of it. I use MS Securities
Essential with the latest update and have done a full scan on all four
of these computers.

The problem isn't restricted to one computer, therefore I conclude
that it isn't hardware that is causing this set of problems.

My new desktop is set up with Windows 7 Home Premium, SP1, and an
Ethernet connection.

My old desktop is set up with Windows XP, SP3, and an Ethernet
connection.

My laptop is set up with Vista and a Wi-Fi Connection.

My wife's kitchen computer is set up with Windows XP and a Wi-Fi
connection.

I've done updates on all of these computers and everything checks out
okay in this realm.

When this problem occurs, the screen will fade out but remain
readable. The software will stall or lock up for several seconds or
perhaps for a few minutes. During this lock-up the keyboard and mouse
will not work. Everything will eventually clear and the software will
resume where it left off. This happens on all my client software.

 

[charlie]

When this problem occurs, the screen will fade out but remain
readable

Since this happens on more than one P/C - -
The hardware is likely not identical, although common hardware should be
noted.
Software apps, utilities, etc in common should be noted.

What I suspect - -

1. Possibly there is too much running, perhaps utilities, autobackups,
anti malware, etc.

2. The dim display is interesting, because that is not a very common
symptom. I'd do what I can via task manager to see what is running, and
if it's suspicious. There may be things that you can disable.

3. An ill behaved app, or utility can cause this to happen by not
releasing resources, forcing windows to eventually do it, and this may
be causing the slowdown.

4. Large numbers of emails on file can also be a player, depending on
the email application, and how it deals with such things.


Don't forget malware. Bots can cause the symptoms you described.