Server Hangs/Freezes for few seconds (frequently)

Hi there,

we've got an SBS2003 which repeatedly hangs for a few seconds - i.e.
everything freezes. This typically takes a few seconds and then I can
continue to work with the machine as if nothing had happened.

It frequently happens, though there is no "fixed" intervall - sometimes it
takes a few seconds, sometimes hours until the next "hang" comes along...

I'd be greatful for any suggestions on how to solve this. Thanks a lot in
advance!

 

My bet is AV, but you could open task manager and sort the processes by CPU
usage - see what's high when it freezes.

 

I did that before I posted that question. Apparently, the "Leerlaufprozess"
(System Idle Process?) is between its usual 85-99%... The AV Process is at
"0%"...

Our AV is Symantec AV Corp. Edition and it worked fine so far.

Any suggestions, what I can do?

 

When the system idle is at 85%, what's taking up the rest? If that doesn't
point you to anything, I'm at something of a loss.

Three options come to mind. If the freeze is happening frequently, that
should make it a little easier to troubleshoot. Option 1 would be to shut
down 3rd party services one at a time until it stops. Option 2 would be to
try a free program called Process Explorer to see if that narrows it down
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml. I've had good
luck with that utility in diagnosing high cpu conditions, and it might work
for this. Option 3 would be to set up performance monitors to try and track
it down. I'm not good enough at that to give specific advice, but you
should be able to find good documentation on performance monitoring at
support.microsoft.com.

 

Hi dave,

thanks for your help. As it appears, the power supply wasn't sufficient. We
swapped it some days ago (300 Watts ==> 420 Watts) and now everything seems
to be OK. Thought you might want to know.

 

Thanks for the update - I actually do appreciate knowing, particularly since
I gave you some useless advice : -) I'll add this to my bag of tricks for
next time the question comes up.