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Geek Culture / Windows 7 gives me "Not Responding" message a lot!

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xplosys
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Posted: 15th Sep 2009 15:38
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I copied that title from a Microsoft support forum because I have been searching it for a while, and had no luck finding an answer to the issue. I know that some here have been using W7 for a while. Is anyone else seeing this issue where the system becomes non-responsive and active windows show the "Not Responding" title? I seem to get it most when trying to open or save files.

Others say they get it a lot with Internet Explorer 8. I also did, even with XP, but quit using IE a while ago. Can anyone here shed any light on this?

AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 4200+
K8N Neo 4-f Msi
2.00 GB RAM
120GB SATA II Seagate HDD
NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT 512MB
Windows 7 build 7100

Brian.

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 15th Sep 2009 16:04
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In theory, it should work without a hitch. I have a similar spec (and the exact same Windows 7 build) and I doubt it has anything to do with meeting system requirements.

It may be an obvious thing to say, but have you tried reinstalling it? It is possible that it was corrupted somewhere in the installing process, or even in your download file. At least this is based on the logic that I've had software that's not worked properly for those reasons, so I imagine the same principle would apply to the operating system.

At least this is the non-technical reply. I mean, some-body might tell you that something in bios needs to be turned on or your processor needs a certain type of technology build in or something or other. Somebody smarter than me basically.

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xplosys
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Posted: 15th Sep 2009 16:10 Edited at: 15th Sep 2009 16:14
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Thanks Seppuku Arts,

It ran fine for months, and it only started doing it recently. I can see it progressively getting worse, which is why I began to research it. It could certainly be something that I installed, a recent update, or just about anything. Windows is like that sometimes but the sheer number of people who are experiencing the problem leads me to believe that it's an OS issue.

Before I do anything drastic, I'll keep researching and asking around. Eventually, a common thread is found.

Brian.

EDIT: It seems to happen most when I try to open or save a file/folder. Drive is not shared.

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 15th Sep 2009 18:07 Edited at: 15th Sep 2009 18:08
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Have you got it dual booted with another version of windows (or linux)? It's possible that it's a hard issue if it's not long been doing it. If so, have you booted it in that OS and do the problems exist there?

I've lost RAM on my current laptop - it has 4GB installed, 1GB is undetected anyway and one day I discovered that my laptop had gone down to 2GB, so it's possible that it burned out. Though I'll probably replace it one day, it's only effected my performance for games, so I've not given it a second thought. If it isn't a hardware issue, then I'm clueless.

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djmaster
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Posted: 15th Sep 2009 19:40
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I get that ultra lag problem sometimes when I open my computer.

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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 15th Sep 2009 20:00 Edited at: 15th Sep 2009 20:10
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Not Responding just means that the process was sent a message and no reply was received within a time period. Potential causes:

-The program is being paged in/out by the pagefile.sys system.
-The program is not multithreaded and:
-is performing a long operation.
-is writing/reading files frequently.
-is performing long API calls.
-Your system just can't run the program fast enough for it to respond to messages.

As you can see, not responding can be triggered by a great deal of things! Similar to the pinwheel of death of OS X.

The fact that programmers don't seem up to scratch nowadays doesn't help.

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xplosys
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Posted: 15th Sep 2009 20:16
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Thanks to all for the responses.

Yes, it's a dual boot system with XP, but XP doesn't have the problem.

I've done a thorough drive analysis/scan and the drive checks out fine mechanically. Due to the sheer number of other people who have the same issue, I'm comfortable ruling out hardware.

I noticed that page file size was auto automatically set by Windows at 2047MB. I've upped that to 4096/4096. In my experience, it should be at least twice if not three times your RAM, and static for best results. We'll keep an eye on it and see if it changes any.

@Nex, again I have to say this occurs most often when opening/searching my computer or saving a file... even in notepad, so it would seem that the program in question is Windows itself. When it happens, it can stall for up to a minute before becoming responsive again. Then everything is fine until the next time.

Brian.

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Jeku
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Posted: 15th Sep 2009 21:15
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Quote: "The fact that programmers don't seem up to scratch nowadays doesn't help."


Considering OS' are getting exponentially more advanced and complex with each generation, I'll take the odd "not responding" problem over OS freezes, memory leaks, and system slowdowns. I've seen professional apps with hundreds of programmers get that no response problem, so if you have a solution to it that will work in all cases then you could be rich.


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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 15th Sep 2009 21:19
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Not responding is a system slowdown, is it not? Your system stops completely for a short time.

Quote: "I've seen professional apps with hundreds of programmers get that no response problem"


Well, yeah, that's half the problem. Too many people programming, not enough actual programmers.

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JoelJ
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Posted: 15th Sep 2009 21:55
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Quote: "Not responding is a system slowdown, is it not? Your system stops completely for a short time."

No, it's an individual app problem.
I get it a lot with Visual Studio or another huge program when it's loading a project or something and I try to do something else, then it tells me it's not responding. Not responding doesn't mean crashing. It just means be patient.

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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 15th Sep 2009 22:17
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Not responding can easily be caused by bottlenecks in the app itself or the OS. If an API call that's expected to take no time at all takes five seconds, your program is likely to stop responding.

A bad driver could cause an app to run slowly if it causes the APIs it interfaces with to run slowly.

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David R
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Posted: 15th Sep 2009 23:08 Edited at: 15th Sep 2009 23:15
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Check your hard drive and its corresponding controller is OK (SMART or other checks). I think I mentioned this in another thread, but an abnormal I/O wait for the hard drive can cause this kind of behaviour on regular basis - I experienced the same thing under XP with a dud HD (and everything just goes into 'limbo' waiting for the drive to respond)

This is especially likely in light of the fact it only happens when saving/opening files (and I'm surprised no-one has mentioned it yet)

Quote: "Not responding doesn't mean crashing. It just means be patient."


It isn't crashing, but that doesn't necessarily make it good/valid behaviour either. For all we know, there could be a catastrophic failure somewhere, and some kind of deadlock prevention/timeout is the only thing preventing complete lock up etc. If Windows suddenly decides every single application isn't responding, then there's something they're all depending on/using which has 'asploded' so to speak

EDIT:
Quote: "I've done a thorough drive analysis/scan and the drive checks out fine mechanically."


Scan/check with what though?

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xplosys
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Posted: 16th Sep 2009 01:21
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Quote: "Scan/check with what though?"


Seagate diagnostics.

It appears that the change to my page file size has done the trick. I'll watch it a while longer but for now..... no more "Not Responding".

Thanks for your support.

Brian.

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Jeku
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Posted: 16th Sep 2009 02:19
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Quote: "Well, yeah, that's half the problem. Too many people programming, not enough actual programmers."


Sorry to derail this a bit, but can you back that statement up? I have worked in several software companies over the years and have worked closely with amazingly talented people. It irks me when people make these kinds of off-handed statements when they really don't know what's involved in large scale projects with millions of lines of code and dozens, possibly hundreds of programmers from around the world. There is no such thing as perfect software, but if we were forced to release anything 100% bugfree it would be a.) impossible and b.) never released.

</rant>


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xplosys
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Posted: 16th Sep 2009 02:28
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Most of my experience is in hardware, but I have worked very closely with software programmers and vendors on both the development and support ends. I have the greatest respect for them because I know that when it comes to the systems in which their product must work, there are not millions of possible hardware/software/configuration/end-user possibilities, but endless possibilities.

It is impossible for any software to be bug free in a world of endless possibilities. We complain about Windows, but for all it does, it's truly a miracle of modern programming.

Brian.

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Jeku
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Posted: 16th Sep 2009 03:22
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Quote: "We complain about Windows, but for all it does, it's truly a miracle of modern programming."





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David R
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Posted: 16th Sep 2009 16:41
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Pfft, Windows as a miracle. Maybe if you ignore every other piece of tech before it, sure

I think the only 'miracle' aspect of it is the fact it can push games along so well - being an OS obviously aimed at and suited for office and business, DX and other display accelerated stuff running on it all is fairly impressive (especially for the earlier Windows versions - not so much now because of display compositing etc.)

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