TSGL: Hard Drive Thrashing

[H Davis]

Gene,

Some of this thrashing is normal. If Windows isn't busy it'll do some 
housekeeping particularly some things relating to svchost.exe and/or 
wuauclt.exe and/or helpsvc.exe. There is a known problem that affects 
only a few folks where Windows consumes 100% of CPU time on one or the 
other of these routines. There are lots of suggested solutions out there 
but nothing seems to be universally successful. Google for those names 
combined with "slow down", "100 cpu" or similar terms.

I myself have a similar problem but i'm not yet convinced it is the same 
problem as I described above. I can hear, what sounds like, my drive 
stuttering as if the head were shuttling in and out rapidly. This will 
keep up for a long time unless I start some program to make the machine 
busy doing something else. The funny thing though, is that if I watch 
CPU usage on task manager during this stuttering it doesn't show 
anything. No process is using the CPU, just system idle. I've concluded 
that if the disk is really stuttering, it's not being commanded to do so 
by a program or something else is making the noise. However, during this 
stuttering period something appears to be partially slowing the machine 
because it takes some time to get another program running even though 
task manager shows nothing else using the CPU. Do you think I'm 
confused!!!!!!!!!!!! You betcha!!!!!!!!!!

I've just been watching it for quite a while. It's my backup machine 
running XP SP2 with all updates. Another, newer machine, also with XP 
SP2 doesn't have the problem. Sometimes the problem won't show up for 
days. Other times it will return fairly quickly as soon as I stop using 
the machine for anything productive.

Watching and waiting,

H Davis

gene wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
>     Hope someone can help me with this problem. My hard drive keeps 
> thrashing every now and then for a reason I can't figure out.
> I have a hp pavilion dv6000. I have tried to isolate the problem but 
> it just seems to arbitrarily do it whenever it feels like it. 
> Anytime, surfing, working off-line or whatever.
> Can anyone give me some ideas i can try to stop it or can't i stop 
> it, is it just an inherent thing?
> Thanks,
> Gene
>
>
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-- 
H Davis   hdavis1 at gmail.com