Random Temporary Application Hangs

[SLORider]

Problem: Random and temporary application hangs ("not responding") that last for a few seconds, then resolve with no crash. Hangs occur with whatever application I might be currently using, but do not affect any other open applications or the ability to use Windows and open new applications.

I have kept Process Explorer open so I can quickly look at CPU usage. I have filtered Process Monitor to one application (Firefox) and watched during a hang, but didn't see anything that stood out.

How does one go about tracing such a brief event to its source??? REMEMBER, this occurs in various applications--not just one--so I see it as a system/driver problem. I just don't know how to find what the cause is because it comes and goes within a few seconds.

Here's a sample of one hang in Firefox (I catch these a lot since it is the application I use most often):

Notice: Thread ID 2716: CPU 12...% (Note that 12.5% = 1/8 = exactly one thread of my hyperthreaded quad-core???)

And, the stack for Thread 2716:

AGAIN, Firefox is not the problem, and I don't think that sqlite3.dll is the problem. Hangs happen in other apps, thus something else is blocking.

thanks!

Edited May 22, 2009 by SLORider

[cluberti]

You can use xperf, from the performance toolkit, to monitor Windows on a level that might tell you what's happening.

[SLORider]

I'm trying to capture an event with:

xperf -on DiagEasy+PROFILE -stackwalk Profile

Problem is, the hangs are not predictable, and are up to an hour apart... I hope this proves worthwhile.

[iceangel89]

i am also having this ... but i noticed sometimes i can go another app and continue but sometimes i cant maybe its explorer.exe so i cant switch apps even if the app is running ... but i also noticed something ... for me its sometimes more than 1 app like my wmp stops playing, Firefox continues to work for a while b4 also hanging ... going to post my dump of explorer.exe in http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=133890 its big so ... i put in Microsoft Skydrive ... 2 40+MB files for just explorer.exe ... i tried creating a full dump but its 4+GB cos i have 4GB RAM ...

[SLORider]

Finally managed to catch a 'hang' in Firefox using xperf:

Seems that all the time is wasted in sqllite3.dll (Same as before), but it's still unclear what is being called below sqllite3.dll --- just a bunch of addresses.

The .etl file is here:

http://slorider.com/gallery/misc/merged.zip

no password.

The time span of interest is 900-930 sec.

Is there a way to find out what DLL/driver/module/function is loaded at the addresses being called by sqlite3.dll?

For example, the address 0x000000006fa4c102 was caught in the stack trace 154 times! Nearby addresses all make up the preponderance of stack traces.