Hesitation?

Hi all,

I have done about a half dozen clean installs on different
machines over the past several months. The problem is
that all of the machines have a 60 second hesitation
problem that occurs randomly and not very often. It
could be when I start IE or when I start explorer. The
machine locks up for 60 seconds during which time the
task bar/start button turns white. Once the time passes
and 98 wakes up again it runs fine until the next time it
goes brain dead. No additional software other than the
original cd is used and I have tried different oem cd's
on different machines and they all do this. The only
commonality I can see is W98SE. Any ideas?

thanks,
charles.....

Unfortunately, you report the problem as being infrequent and random. Not
easy to diagnose. My *guess* is some scheduled task that you only happen to
notice -- something that happens more regularly than you think. Or, it may
be a procedure that is set to kick-in based on some set of conditions.

A list of your background processes would be handy to see. Also, what
precautions do you take against viruses and spyware. We need specifics
here -- brand name, etc., not just "Oh, a couple of these and a couple of
those." I'd normally recommend a "clean boot" diagnostic procedure, but that
only works well if you have a dependably recurring condition. You do *not*
want to do normal chores with everything disabled in the background, not for
any length of time.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User

"***** charles" wrote in message
. net...
Hi all,

I have done about a half dozen clean installs on different
machines over the past several months. The problem is
that all of the machines have a 60 second hesitation
problem that occurs randomly and not very often. It
could be when I start IE or when I start explorer. The
machine locks up for 60 seconds during which time the
task bar/start button turns white. Once the time passes
and 98 wakes up again it runs fine until the next time it
goes brain dead. No additional software other than the
original cd is used and I have tried different oem cd's
on different machines and they all do this. The only
commonality I can see is W98SE. Any ideas?

thanks,
charles.....

Unfortunately, you report the problem as being infrequent and random. Not
easy to diagnose. My *guess* is some scheduled task that you only happen to
notice -- something that happens more regularly than you think. Or, it may
be a procedure that is set to kick-in based on some set of conditions.

A list of your background processes would be handy to see. Also, what
precautions do you take against viruses and spyware. We need specifics
here -- brand name, etc., not just "Oh, a couple of these and a couple of
those." I'd normally recommend a "clean boot" diagnostic procedure, but that
only works well if you have a dependably recurring condition. You do *not*
want to do normal chores with everything disabled in the background, not for
any length of time.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User

"***** charles" wrote in message
. net...
Hi all,

I have done about a half dozen clean installs on different
machines over the past several months. The problem is
that all of the machines have a 60 second hesitation
problem that occurs randomly and not very often. It
could be when I start IE or when I start explorer. The
machine locks up for 60 seconds during which time the
task bar/start button turns white. Once the time passes
and 98 wakes up again it runs fine until the next time it
goes brain dead. No additional software other than the
original cd is used and I have tried different oem cd's
on different machines and they all do this. The only
commonality I can see is W98SE. Any ideas?

thanks,
charles.....

Thanks for the response Gary.

I have been through all the "normal" diagnostic processes and I hear
the frustration in your answer just like what I have been feeling. As I
sit here, the only thing I can think of at the moment is that all the
computers
had the same video card and thus the same video drivers. Some had
Zone Alarm and some didn't. The task manager always just had
Explorer and Systray in them. No other low level utilities were installed
like Norton. It even happened to W98SE machines that never were
connected to the Internet and still had been installed: 1- hard disk
zeroed out, 2 - partitioned, 3 - formatted, and 4 - clean installed. I even
installed Linux all the "problem" machines and it didn't do the same
thing. The next time it happens I will present a more complete and
precise set of behaviors and conditions for better diagnosis. Even this
machine which has presented the problem in the past is working fine at
the moment It has been clean installed and the only thing on it not from
the OEM cd is Zone Alarm. When I do a ctl/alt/del the task manager
lists:
Hesitation
Google - Microsoft Internet Explorer
Explorer
Zlclient
Vsmon
and Systay
It has been sitting here for hours and I haven't seen a hesitation on it
yet after sitting down and using it for almost 45 imnutes.

thanks for listening,
charles.......

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
Unfortunately, you report the problem as being infrequent and random. Not
easy to diagnose. My *guess* is some scheduled task that you only happen
to
notice -- something that happens more regularly than you think. Or, it may
be a procedure that is set to kick-in based on some set of conditions.

A list of your background processes would be handy to see. Also, what
precautions do you take against viruses and spyware. We need specifics
here -- brand name, etc., not just "Oh, a couple of these and a couple of
those." I'd normally recommend a "clean boot" diagnostic procedure, but
that
only works well if you have a dependably recurring condition. You do *not*
want to do normal chores with everything disabled in the background, not
for
any length of time.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User

"***** charles" wrote in message
. net...
Hi all,

I have done about a half dozen clean installs on different
machines over the past several months. The problem is
that all of the machines have a 60 second hesitation
problem that occurs randomly and not very often. It
could be when I start IE or when I start explorer. The
machine locks up for 60 seconds during which time the
task bar/start button turns white. Once the time passes
and 98 wakes up again it runs fine until the next time it
goes brain dead. No additional software other than the
original cd is used and I have tried different oem cd's
on different machines and they all do this. The only
commonality I can see is W98SE. Any ideas?

thanks,
charles.....

Thanks for the response Gary.

I have been through all the "normal" diagnostic processes and I hear
the frustration in your answer just like what I have been feeling. As I
sit here, the only thing I can think of at the moment is that all the
computers
had the same video card and thus the same video drivers. Some had
Zone Alarm and some didn't. The task manager always just had
Explorer and Systray in them. No other low level utilities were installed
like Norton. It even happened to W98SE machines that never were
connected to the Internet and still had been installed: 1- hard disk
zeroed out, 2 - partitioned, 3 - formatted, and 4 - clean installed. I even
installed Linux all the "problem" machines and it didn't do the same
thing. The next time it happens I will present a more complete and
precise set of behaviors and conditions for better diagnosis. Even this
machine which has presented the problem in the past is working fine at
the moment It has been clean installed and the only thing on it not from
the OEM cd is Zone Alarm. When I do a ctl/alt/del the task manager
lists:
Hesitation
Google - Microsoft Internet Explorer
Explorer
Zlclient
Vsmon
and Systay
It has been sitting here for hours and I haven't seen a hesitation on it
yet after sitting down and using it for almost 45 imnutes.

thanks for listening,
charles.......

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
Unfortunately, you report the problem as being infrequent and random. Not
easy to diagnose. My *guess* is some scheduled task that you only happen
to
notice -- something that happens more regularly than you think. Or, it may
be a procedure that is set to kick-in based on some set of conditions.

A list of your background processes would be handy to see. Also, what
precautions do you take against viruses and spyware. We need specifics
here -- brand name, etc., not just "Oh, a couple of these and a couple of
those." I'd normally recommend a "clean boot" diagnostic procedure, but
that
only works well if you have a dependably recurring condition. You do *not*
want to do normal chores with everything disabled in the background, not
for
any length of time.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User

"***** charles" wrote in message
. net...
Hi all,

I have done about a half dozen clean installs on different
machines over the past several months. The problem is
that all of the machines have a 60 second hesitation
problem that occurs randomly and not very often. It
could be when I start IE or when I start explorer. The
machine locks up for 60 seconds during which time the
task bar/start button turns white. Once the time passes
and 98 wakes up again it runs fine until the next time it
goes brain dead. No additional software other than the
original cd is used and I have tried different oem cd's
on different machines and they all do this. The only
commonality I can see is W98SE. Any ideas?

thanks,
charles.....