Help, please - applications keep hanging,whatever that means...can't open stuff, big delays etc etc

[InternationalFlight]

I don't know what's up with her

Actually is a he, his name is sportacus (the computer)

I keep clicking on things like, say, a link from here, and the whole page freezes, no link appears,

also outlook express isn't opening when I click, I just keep getting half the window - same for other applications. Looked at error viewer and lots of '[application hang' also some 'crypt 32' errors.

any idea what this is about? recently installed avira, not sure if related. Also have got comodo firewall and a couple of spyware things.

ny help appreciated as is driving me bonkers.
Thanks

Fwiw I have deleted cookies, history etc etc

also checked whether I need a defragment and I dont (or so it says - should I do one anyway?)

I don't have a specific answer, but a few thoughts.

Comoodo can also include an antivirus. Not sure if it comes in one package or not. Are you sure you don't have Comodo antivirus running as well as Avira? That would cause some problems.

Also as Avira needs to go online the Comodo firewall needs to allow it to.

I've seen suggestions that the latest Avira has some bugs. If it were me I'd check the Comodo antivirus thing is not installed and then try uninstalling Avira briefly to see if that helps.

Also which other Spyware things? Some of them can clash a bit.

Oh and the other thing I'd do is to clear the event messages once and then see what the very first red error is after that ( post it on here)

Onagar that is fab, thankyou so much. I've just had a go at microsoft H&S thingy and done a system restore, which so ar is working.

I wondered about avira. As soon as it happens again (if it does) I'll do the error thing as you suggest and post on here, wish I ahd waited now as you might ahve been able to diagnose!

Not sure if I have comodo antiv as well, don't think so but will have a look...cheers

Oh have got spywareblaster and spywareguard - uninstalled spybot s&d as I thought it might be implicated but seems not. Will see if I can get it abck and run it just to check no malware.

no antivirus with comodo afaik. It's been on for ages, couple of years I think. same with the spy doofers. Only new thing is avira so maybe it is that.

That's good news that it's working and fingers crossed it stays that way.

It wouldn't have been bad if comodo had included an antivirus. Just that you can't have two antivirus programs at once.

Onager, I've had trouble with it again this morning, checked the error messages and they were Avira ones so I've uninstalled it and put Avast back on - for now - will see if things improve.

Thanks for your help.

No it's still doing it

Could it be an OE issue? Seems to be most noticeable when I try and open OE and the thing is missing chunks while it loads...it works when it gets there, just a bugger waiting for it.

What else can I try? Just looked at event viewer (that took ages as well!) and nothing recorded for the last few minutes, so unsure what's going on.

Will have a think about that and see if anything suggests itself.

If OE or anything hangs there should be events leading up to it. If at this point it's just running very slowly you may be able to tell from Task Manager. On the Processes tab the column marked CPU should give us an idea what's keeping it so busy.

High numbers are bad in this case.

I expect you thought of this, but if Avast or any antivirus is doing a scan it can go slow like that anyway (but not all the time)

OE could be involved, but it could be just that the PC is too busy.

Thanks...just got back on. No scan running, nothing else unusual...CPU is 00 for nearly everything, 02 for a couple and 99/98/97 for system idle process thingy.

I've no idea what that means, can I stop it? It has an option to 'end process'.

Ah have googled, so 99% is good...

the thing is, when you say it is 'busy' that's exactly how it feels...as though the computer just has something else to do, that's holding it up.

Don't suppose comodo might be to blame? Seems unlikely. I might download addaware and see if there's something lurking.

Bit stumped really.

Do you think cleaning the registry might work?

sorry for all the q's. Don't worry, only answer if you have the time to spare x

Oh ask away, but I wish I had more specific suggestions. Maybe someone else will come along with some ideas. The task manager thing is disappointing since I was expecting/hoping that something else (comodo etc) was using the 99%.

Cleaning the registry probably won't help in this case. I don't entirely trust the programs that claim to although they may be better these days.

I just realised that your drive might be running in a slower (PIO) mode. I should have thought of it before.

In Device Manager (control panel - system, on hardware tab) you will have an entry called something like IDE/ATAPI controllers.

Click the plus sign to expand it and you should see Primary IDE channel, Secondary IDE channel etc.

I'm not sure how yours will be laid out so this may vary a bit.

For each channel double click the entry and go on the Advanced Tab

You should see:

Device 0 -------
Transfer Mode: DMA if Available
Device Type: Auto Detection
Current Transfer mode: DMA 6

Device 1 ------- Transfer Mode: DMA if Available Device Type: Auto Detection Current Transfer mode: Not applicable

Most will say "Not applicable" because there is no hard drive on that channel.

You should have at least one that says DMA 6 (between 4 to 6) and that will be your hard drive. One more should say DMA 4 and that will be your CD/DVD

If one says "PIO" then that is a drive that has had an error and has gone into a slow mode as a safety precaution of sorts.

Shucks - tried that, they're all 'working properly' and the CTMs are 5, 2 etc. No sign of PIO.

Oh well.

It's just been doing it again, it sent an error report to microsoft for the umpteenth time about a hung app. Now it seems fine again. I have a feeling I'm confusing it by trying to do too many things at once.

I'll download spybot in a minute and also adaware and see if I can find anything with those - it's all I can think of!

Thanks again for going to so much trouble. You ought to write the help pages, your instructions are very understandable!

Oh well it was worth a try and you're bound to get the PIO thing one day if not this time

Ok last thoughts (for now). Right clicking C: in My Computer and selecting properties. Then on the Tools tab you can 'Check Now' to check C: for errors. If you tick both boxes it offers I think it will say it needs to do it on the next reboot - which is fine.

Hardware problems. Apart from the drive if your fans are not working right the PC could be overheating or something like your Power Supply Unit (PSU) could be old/faulty and giving erratic voltages.

You can look at fans if you take the side off the PC (with it switched off). They probably need cleaning (soft brush) anyway. Mine always do. There should be one on the motherboard (careful with this), and at least one on the back of the case.

When you next reboot you can go to the BIOS (typically tap the DEL key or F1 but look for a message on screen saying PRESS Key to enter Setup)

In the Bios you can check temperatures and fan speeds (perhaps in a section called PC Health).

You can check voltages in there too. I'm a bit fuzzy on what they should be, but sometimes you will see something like 5v line = 4.98 which would be close enough or it might say 5v line = 3.5 which is not ok.

Or you could get a BIG box of chocolates and settle down to watch TV

Thankyou very much.
Yes chocolate idea v good I have been struggling with this all day and getting murderous!

Have arranged for it to check the c drive next time we restart, will also look at the fans - I'm pretty sure they'll need a clean as I've never done it. It's only about 3 years old but the dust levels must be quite high.

Have now scanned with adaware and spybot and between them they found about 20 'things' which have now been disposed of - perhaps it was that all along, I assumed Avira would deal with adware but obv it has better things to do

I'll let you know how it goes, and again - thanks