system hang

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Jessica - 14 Sep 2004 04:11 GMT

Alright ... here's the deal. Our Win98-powered Sony VIAO
is having issues with, what I'm learning is called,
system hang. The PC will intermittedly not respond during
applications (on-line and off-line) and the clock loses
time (I'm guessing b/c the system does not respond).

Upon restarting, the clock resets to the correct time and
the system responds better. But, it gets progressively
worse as the computer runs.

We've run all the utility programs, defrag, scan disk,
etc (we have Norton Util SW 2001), AOK there, and will
finish installing updated virus software tomorrow.
Basically, does anyone have any ideas??? I'm wondering if
this is software or virus or ... what???

We inherited the computer from a family friend and have
been using it for about 1 1/2 months. It's pretty spare
in its installed applications beyond the basic Win setup.

Thanks in advance for the information.

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Jessica - 16 Sep 2004 02:51 GMT

Since I posted below, I think I've learned that the system hang was due to
spyware. I updated our Norton 2001 to Norton Internet Security 2004, which
caught and blocked the problem. Question though ... how do you remove the
reference? I think it refered to a .exe file.

BUT NOW ... we're having trouble with slow performance and problems
restarting and shutting down. Also, I had absolutely NO luck accessing the
Internet today (worked last night??) ... dialed-up, connected but couldn't
access anything

I'm guessing my new problems are due to Norton. From what I've read, there's
no real way to fix this, so I'm going to uninstall Norton completely and go
with a new anti-virus/anti-spam/anti-spyware program. Good idea or is there
something better?

I'm losing my mind over this ... it's just been one thing after another and
I'm not pleased with Norton in any way. Any suggestions on good
anti-virus/anti-spam/anti-spyware programs for Win 98??

> Alright ... here's the deal. Our Win98-powered Sony VIAO
> is having issues with, what I'm learning is called,
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
>
> Thanks in advance for the information.

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Tony Erwood. Shetland UK. - 08 Jan 2005 10:09 GMT

Hi,

I have a similar problem with no solution as yet. The symptoms are: clock
stops for a few seconds at intervals of some 20 to 30 seconds, during this
time, the mouse and keyboard do not respond and all disk activity stops. I
suspect that something is turning off interrupts for extended periods but
this is only a guess. I've dowloaded all the microsoft updates for Win98. The
hardware is a Dell Inspiron 7500 laptop. Spybot does not find any spyware.
The installation is pretty standard + MS office + Netscape 7.2 + Adobe 6
reader + 3com wireless lan card. This is all very frustrating
and a huge waste of time spent trying to fix it. I don't think there are
any hardware issues because, dare I say it, the machine boots Linux and
performs perfectly with that OS for days on end. Any suggestions most
gratefully received.

> Since I posted below, I think I've learned that the system hang was due to
> spyware. I updated our Norton 2001 to Norton Internet Security 2004, which
[quoted text clipped - 36 lines]
> >
> > Thanks in advance for the information.

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glee - 08 Jan 2005 21:13 GMT

Those symptoms are usually the result of one of the situations listed in these
articles:

Windows Clock on Taskbar and in Date/Time Tool Loses Time
http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=189706

The System Clock Slows If You Run a Program That Uses Sound Extensively
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=309296

Restart or Network Connection Changes Computer Date and Time
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=193912

"System clock loses time when using Norton AntiVirus 2000"
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/df0a595864594c86852567ac0063608c/04
73528ab04a4365882567fd00760e7c
or
http://snipurl.com/7g7g

Signature

Glen Ventura, MS MVP W95/98 Systems
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 51 lines]
> > >
> > > Thanks in advance for the information.

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Tony Erwood. Shetland UK. - 10 Jan 2005 12:49 GMT

Glen,

Thank you for your suggestions. Only the first of the four was relevent in
this case and I have implemented the modifications suggested there and this
seems to have fixed the problem. That the power management system should be
responsible for this problem seems bizaarto me (though probably not to those
in Microsoft who suggested this fix !!).

> Those symptoms are usually the result of one of the situations listed in these
> articles:
[quoted text clipped - 67 lines]
> > > >
> > > > Thanks in advance for the information.

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