BleepingComputer.com: Hard Drive Noises and Deferred Procedure Calls

My system is a Dell OptiPlex 745...it has dual core processor...2.8 Ghz...2 Gb RAM...XP Pro with all current updates.

I've been noticing a lot of folks on various forums lately having trouble with XP in general.

Mine in particular had been making noises every time I move my mouse.

I used Process Explorer to determine that Deferred Procedure Calls were happening during the noises...and these weren't happening a couple of months ago. I haven't gotten an answer as to how to determine what those DPC's were.

I did a check disk several days ago and found no issues. I then did a Defrag (27%)...and it ran good for about 2 hours...then started acting up again.

I got pizzed at the performance...and reloaded XP Pro...then got ALL MS updates.

Still a little noisy.

Ran check disk again...nothing. Ran Defrag again...14% fragmented...so I did that again.

STILL a little noisy...but MUCH faster for sure.

Afraid to download Jave Runtime environment and all the Adobe crap that websites want you to have to force you to watch adverts.

Anyone having similar experiences?

Thoughts and comments MOST welcome!

This post has been edited by David-WI: 16 January 2011 - 04:59 PM

1) XP is NOT prone to problems. It's been around 8 years and is among the most reliable OS's there is.

2) How are you running checkdisk? With XP, the correct method is to boot to the recovery console and run chkdsk /r

TOTALLY agree about XP being pretty stable...but with the problems I had recently...I was starting to wonder.

Stupid question Allan

To use the Recovery Console you have to have a CD with Windows XP on it correct?

My CD is not a factory one...but a burned image. Still...it has saved me a couple of times.

My limited experiences OS isn't helping me any for sure.

This post has been edited by David-WI: 16 January 2011 - 05:22 PM

You can download a recovery console .iso, burn it to cd, and boot to it: http://forums.pcpitstop.com/index.php?/topic/150212-boot-to-recovery-console-wo-xp-cd/

Thanks for that Allan...and sorry for not getting back sooner.

Is there a simple way to find what is driving these DPC's? The noises are driving me crazy