On my Dell Inspiron 6000 with XP SP3, I now have hard drive thrashing (constant drive access with no discernible cause). I’m thinking this might be an extension of the problem I first had a few days ago and still have now, namely, that my laptop won’t go into standby or hibernate; it just hangs at the “preparing to [standby/hibernate]” screen.
I’ve run Malwarebytes and the other anti-spyware and rootkit programs suggested in the sticky to no avail. I’ve also disabled hard drive indexing, as suggested by an online resource. I installed “Process Monitor” today to see what might be causing the trouble. Most of the activity is coming from “HBPPRO” and “SERVICES.exe”, whatever these are.
Any thoughts? I’ve searched all day for something that might work
It sounds like you you have damaged windows binary files or a physical problem with the hard disk. You really need to back you data up and look at re-installing your OS. If the problem persists and there is no visible CPU access happening it might be a drive hardware issue.
From what I read here, this is a problem with your printer driver. Hopefully the latest version will help you fix it. If not, read on.
If that’s the problem, he can try sfc /scannow from a command prompt first. You have to do it from a real administrator account, with no other accounts logged in (no Runas or "Switch Users), and, if you installed your OS by CD (or otherwise do not have an i386 folder on your main hard drive), you’ll need your either your install CD or these instructions.
I just did it because I was having an issue where the mouse would hang, and all scans came up clear. I haven’t run into the mouse problem since.
Plenty of disk space (16 GB free). How do I check if Windows update is downloading in the background? I mean, what is the name of the process as it would be listed in Task Manager?
This sounds easy to get to, but in my sleep-deprived state I’m drawing a blank. How do I view the event log again?
Missed the edit window. I found the Event Log. I don’t see anything except a bunch of “Information” type events, a few Application Hang errors, and a warning from MSSQL$MicrosoftBCM.
ETA: After a while, the hard drive stops thrashing. It’s almost as if it is running something in the background for a few minutes, and then finishes. Right now, access rates seem to be normal.
I’ve had to push and hold the power button to restart the computer several times. Could that be causing the problem?
Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the problem. As many times as I’ve had to hard restart my system, I wouldn’t be surprised if it mucked something up.
I have the same situation running Windows Vista Home. It could be the reasons stated above; Windows is running an automatic back-up or downloading a service pack or something. Check if you have any of these set on automatic.
I’d just let it run itself out unless you have other problems.
