BleepingComputer.com: Hard Drive stops running

Dear trusted BC Mods,

As I type this, my hard drive sounds like a John Deere. Hopefully, I'll finish the message before it decides to fall asleep for a period of time ranging from 20 to 90 seconds. I have already downloaded Process Explorer to investigate if it is a file that is running improperly and thus causing my machine to "fall asleep", and noted that csrss.exe is particularly active and it is also a critical Windows file. That being said, I haven't done anything further as eliminating said file would probably be a regrettable decision. Could this be a factor anyhow, or might it be another issue causing this problem? Also, might it even be hardware incompatibility as the video card is very outdated.

**computer did indeed fall asleep 3 times in the process of writing this message.**

My specs are as follows:

Vista Home Premium 32-bit
AMD 2.1 Dualcore Processor
GeForce 6150SE
2GB RAM
320GB HD

Thanks for your help!

-The Seventh Son

Update your antivirus and scan for viruses. If you've no spyware protection, download, install, update and scan with (not at the same time) Adaware and Spybot S&D.

If that yields no fruit, run your Check Disk set to correct surface errors and defrag.

AVG reports nothing to write home about; I'll defrag it. I must confess I never have before!

csrss.exe is a critical Windows file and doing anything to it could hose your system!

You can use this free utility to check it out and see what's running in a Thread underneath it: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysintern...ssExplorer.mspx

Once it opens, right click on the csrss.exe process that's causing the issues and select "Properties"
Then click on the Threads tab to see what's going on inside of it.
Let us know what you find - it may help to diagnose the issue.

ntdll.dll is running in the csrss.exe thread. Is this normal as well? There are several of these listed. There is also one instance of cdd.dll.

Yep, they're both core Windows files. If nothing else is running there, then I'd have to suggest some independent verification of your antivirus scans.
Try one or two of the free links in this topic to see if it's an infection causing this: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/blogs/usas...?showentry=1252

usasma and Omegawolf,

I'm on my way to work; I'll run the online scans this evening. Thanks in advance for your patience, and thanks for the help you've given thus far.

-The Seventh Son

I decided to run the Windowsecurity Trojan Scan. It found a high-risk mp3, but that was it. the rest were low-risk cookies, as I'm sure are quite common. It might not hurt to mention that even in the middle of this scan, the hard drive froze again several times.

Well, we'll have to go back to basics from here. First, download a bootable hard drive diagnostic from the manufacturer of your hard drive and run the Extended/Advanced/Long test on your hard drive. Links to the most common one's are here: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic28744.html

I've hit another rough patch; after backing up my crucial data (something I've finally remembered to do in cases like this one), I downloaded and ran Western Digital's Diagnostics extended test. It said there were errors that could be repairable, but there was an error with the program and would not let me proceed.

Use the link to create a bootable diagnostic disk and boot from it to test the drive.
That'll give you a better idea of what's going on (as the program runs in memory, rather than from the defective hard drive).

Alright, I downloaded the boot disc, ran the extended test through it. The results showed there were errors on the hard drive, and they had been repaired. Is there anything more you would like me to try to make sure everything is ship-shape?

If it repaired the problems, Windows should be functioning normally.
Keep the disk handy tho', sometimes these sort of issues can be an early warning of disk failure.

If Windows isn't working normally, then we'll need to do some work to fix it.
Let us know what the problems are and we can work from there.

I should probably mention that my computer, along with everything inside it, was bought refurbished (except the RAM, that was new). I hope I won't have to prey upon this infernal thing night and day like a vulture! From what I've learned of the store I bought it from, they offer nothing but BS as advice. If it weren't for you hard workers on this site, I'd go crazy! The video card, according to Wikipedia, was manufactured in the spring of 2004. Isn't this a bit old for Vista?

****EDIT****

The thing is at it again, stopping whenever it feels like it.

And now, once again, it sounds like a lawn mower with a cat stuck in it, only shutting up when it decides to stop running. What can I do now?