Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with hang

Why is Windows XP freezing and refusing to shut down?

ZsigE — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:20:52 -0800

Windows XP freezes, audio has disappeared and returned, system hangs on shutdown...my PC has suddenly taken a turn for the worse, and nothing I've tried seems to be helping. So...help? I'm running XP Home on a self-built PC (Asus M2A-VM HDMI motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 dual core processor, ATI Radeon HD 3600 graphics), which has been running happily for just over a year. Today it started behaving oddly - Firefox hung while I was opening a new tab, followed by the entire PC freezing so completely that I had to hold down the power button to switch it off. On reboot, my sound had disappeared - subsequent reboots showed that all my audio devices had vanished.

Shutdowns no longer work (I get to the "Windows is shutting down" screen and then it sits there apparently indefinitely). The PC dual-boots Ubuntu, so I tried that - the sound was fine, so it's not a hardware problem, and I can shut down from there with no problems. When I went back into Windows, my audio devices had mysteriously returned, but shutdowns were still broken, and it still hung intermittently.

I dug out the motherboard install CD and reinstalled the chipset, audio and LAN drivers. I then went to Asus's website to look for updated versions - found reasonably new audio drivers, which then crashed halfway through installation. So none of that seems to be helping.

Subsequent hangs seem to have come on gradually - Firefox stops responding, followed by whatever I click on. In one case, I saw Firefox die, then the Start menu, then the whole taskbar, then Google Desktop, then Launchy, then the keyboard (Num Lock stopped switching its LED on and off). Ctrl-Alt-Del added the usual icon to the system tray, but the window didn't appear.

Basically, I'm stumped. I've seen fewer crashes in Firefox since disabling all its extensions, but I doubt that was the initial cause. Any ideas as to which avenues I could try next?

What the heck is hanging?

RedEmma — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:49:31 -0800

What is the origin of the phrase "getting the hang" of something? What did it mean, originally, to "get the hang" of something?

Windows Vista is laughing at me...

cgomez — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:37:02 -0800

Server/network/IT-Filter? Windows Vista keeps, or more specifically explorer.exe drops my network transfers, how can I fix this or what is the best Explorer replacement? Also, how can I make Windows Server 2008 more useful on the small scale (more inside of course) ... I previously asked about a storage array for my personal network and ended getting another computer and converting the old one into a RAID-5 Windows Server box.

Here's what's on the network:

Computer 1: Windows Server 2008, RAID-5 Disk Array (2.3TB usable).
Computer 2: Windows Vista Ultimate (used as a media center/personal computer)
Computer 3: MacBook Pro

All of this is linked up through 802.11n/gigabit ethernet.

Question 1: Windows Vista randomly drops network transfers to the server (explorer.exe). This usually happens when I'm moving 5GB or more of data which is often. Essentially it stops transferring and when I press 'cancel', it locks up and I can't kill explorer.exe from the task manager. The only way to recover is restart.

This is, however, not a problem with Windows Networking. I've tried a different file manager called "Directory Opus" which is great and solves my issue. Network transfers never fail. The issue is the program costs $85 US and I'm not going to steal it :-\. So, does anyone have ideas on how to solve explorer.exe or is there a more affordable file manager/Explorer replacement? Also, I've tried this with and without SP1.

Question 2: I'm using Windows Server 2008 as a storage and print server. I've toyed a bit with the virtualization features but I'm looking to see if there are features that might be useful outside a true-server environment for my setup.

(all software licenses are legitimate, piracy is bad, m'kay)

OS X hangs on Spotlight

Wild_Eep — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 06:55:49 -0800

My mac hangs at login, showing only the blue desktop pattern and the spotlight icon in the upper right, but no menus, no icons on the desktop. Mac Mini, MacOS X 10.4.10. Network Home Directories. Every once in a while, someone gets a situation where the OS hangs with the spotlight icon in the upper right. This happens nearly immediately after logging into their network home. Network is switched gigabit copper.

I can boot to single-user mode, but I can't boot to 'safe mode' for some reason.
I can fully login to a local 'administrative' user with no symptoms.

a 'fsck -yf' scan produces nothing to itself to fix.

are spotlight databases stored 'per-user' or 'per computer'? What about spotlight preferences?

On your toes.

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 06:21:16 -0800

I want to tie up my kinky girlfriend, so I need to install a strong hook of some kind in my ceiling. Help me make sure it doesn't fall down. What I'm after is to have some kind bracket in the ceiling, with a hook or carabiner or something, to which I can tie ropes, etc. Ideally, it would be strong enough for a person (say 125 pounds) to hang from.

I know how to find studs to install shelves, and I expect it's a similar idea when mounting stuff to the ceiling. What I don't know is what the strongest point of the ceiling is, and how to find it. I imagine I'll need to distribute the load amongst several big-ass screws. How many will I need, and how do I put everything together? Are there kits for this? What if I mount something to a length of 2x4, and then screw that into a beam at several points? Would that hold?

I rent an apartment, but I'm willing to accept doing some drywall patch-up work when I move out if that's what it takes to pull this off.

Mac Diagnosis

vacapinta — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 13:57:58 -0800

MacFilter: Diagnosing a spinning-beach-ball of Death on a Mac. Every day or two, my older Powerbook (12", OSX 10.4.10) will just hang. I can't access the Finder. I can access some applications but can't start new ones (Icon just bounces forever in the Dock)

I'm comfortable with the Mac command line but most Unix commands hang. If I do a 'ps -aux' for example, just a hang until I Ctrl-C. I can do simple stuff like change directories and whatnot.

Eventually I just do a hard reboot and it all works again. But is there anything I can do to further diagnose this problem either now or when its happening? The machine is otherwise reliable and, yes, I have everything backed up.

Thanks!

Preparing to go to China

gttommy — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 05:08:19 -0800

I'm going to China next year to study for 12 months. I am concerned about getting sick over there, particularly, contracting Avian Influenza (bird flu). My question is, how concerned should I be? I will be staying mostly in Hang Zhou, an ubranised area, as that is where the host uni will be, however I intend to do some travelling and sightseeing especially to rural areas.

My doctor told me I should be the anti-virus Tamiflu after arrival since it would be much cheaper than purchasing it here in Australia. Doe you know if it is as accessible and of the same quality?

What could I do as "prevention"? Eat only from clean-looking restaurants, avoid all poultry...?

Intermittent PrePOST Hangs

srboisvert — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 08:57:50 -0800

How can I trouble a system that intermittently hangs before the POST? It usually boots fine but every week or so the system starts up and starts displaying the Bios info and then hangs with just after writing Memo. (The start of the line for the Memory Test). Would this mean the memory test is failing right away? What other things can I look into?

QuickTime very, very unhappy

NinjaTadpole — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 05:50:58 -0800

QuickTime, (and QuickTimeAlternative) can't play sound correctly and hangs after any interaction. It started after downloading the QT8 plus iTunes bundle a month or so ago and I've never been able to sort it out since.
The video will play correctly if no controls are used, but the sound will either be the first 1/10 second repeated or silence. If using the controls at all (such as reducing the volume) the video hangs for 30 seconds or so before resuming. At no point will the sound play correctly.

I've uninstalled and re-installed both pieces of software and only had one installed at a time. I use Windows 2000.

So what's got stuck and choked my machine? How do I set the QT free?

Why does Apache stop serving one file after I request another?

Danelope — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 20:35:29 -0800

I have run into an unpleasant Apache concurrency problem, whereby the ongoing download of a large file spontaneously and silently hangs ~90 seconds after another request to the server is made. Error logging set at the highest level reveals nothing. Any idea what may be causing this? (Apache/2.0.52, Win2K Professional) 1. This problem doesn't occur when the server is accessed via localhost/internal IP.

2. The format of the large file is irrelevant. The method of downloading is irrelevant. Mozilla, IE, and wget all fail in the same manner. No error is thrown in any of these clients; the data just stops serving.

3. The size or type of the second file is also irrelevant. The problem occurs whether I request a text file, a binary, a PHP script, or even an indexed directory.

4. If I never make the secondary request, the primary request completes without error. This indicates that the problem is not a timeout issue.

5. Most of the settings in httpd.conf are factory default.

6. I am behind a firewall, but the http port (334) is open to both tcp and udp traffic.

Why am I having problems with a USB 2.0 card reader and my Win 2000 laptop?

alidarbac — Mon, 16 Aug 2004 23:03:36 -0800

A USB 2.0 card reader is causing my Windows 2000 laptop to completely hang up. [mi] I have a decrepit Dell Latitude laptop with a PCMCIA USB 2.0/Firewire adapter. I recently bought a Canon Digital Rebel and I wanted to transfer the RAW files over through a USB 2.0 card reader instead of waiting ~1 hour for the pictures to transfer through USB 1.1. So I went down to the local computer store and picked up a cheap USB 2.0 card reader. The reader wouldn't work at all on USB 2.0, but it would work on the USB 1.1 port. So I went back to the store and exchanged it for a slightly better card reader. This card reader also works perfectly fine at USB 1.1, but it only connects successfully on the USB 2.0 half of the time, and even more it completely hangs up after about a minute of copying files and I have to completely reboot.

So I'm figuring the problem is something with the way Windows is handling USB 2.0. I have Service Pack 4 installed. Moreover, I have both an iPod and an external hard drive which hook up through Firewire and USB 2.0 respectively and so far have been working perfectly fine with Windows.

What can I do (other than buy a new computer)?

Right click freeze up, what is happening

scarabic — Wed, 07 Jan 2004 23:14:07 -0800

Whenever I right-click in a folder window, Windows Explorer hangs for about 30 seconds. Same thing if I select a file and hit the delete key. The right-click keyboard key: same thing. Eventually, I do get my right-click menu and can use it, but the lag is making me insane. I've done my Google homework and there's [more inside]. 1) I'm running Windows 2000 Pro - all current critical updates installed

2) I've never installed "Eraser" or "Iomega Hotburn," two programs which reportedly cause a similar problem.

3) Task Manager reports nothing taking up much CPU. In fact, other applications operate just fine while Explorer ponders its navel.

4) I've done a little registry editing, but not much. If your recommendation is in that form, please be exhaustive.

THANK YOU AXME!!!