Tom Kogwuonye asks:

I bought a new laptop with the following details: 4GB RAM (installed another 4GB to make it 8GB), 750GB HDD, Core I3, Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SP1, 2 interchangeable graphics, Intel and Radeon. HP DV6 6175CA.

Since I started using it, whenever there is (are) unresponsive program(s) I want to terminate, the Task Manager hardly comes up and if it does, it cannot close the unresponsive program no matter how small the program is. I then installed Task ForceQuit Pro to see if it will be more effective than the Windows Task Manager and still the same result.

When these managers cannot force quit the unresponsive program(s) and I try to restart, it will hang and then I will be forced to shut down by pressing the shut down button with my finger. This I have done like 4 to 5 times. What is the solution and why such a laptop with a huge RAM of 8GB and core I3 cannot terminate unresponsive program(s)?

Browser: Chrome 21
System: Windows
Tagged: close program, computer hardware, microsoft windows, physical memory, ram, task manager, windows 7

12 Answers -

0 votes

Bruce Epper

September 4, 2012

The amount of RAM makes no difference whatsoever when attempting to force a process to end. What matters is how much CPU time the system (kernel) is getting to be able to do what you wish to do. If a process is hogging all of the CPU time and is not well behaved, the system will have very little time to execute a large number of instructions. The only thing you can do is to wait while the system attempts to follow your commands.Your best option is to stop using whatever program is misbehaving in such a manner. In many cases, these programs were written with a single processing thread for everything including the user interface which is why it is not responding when it is in a large or endless loop and it does not cede time to other programs (including the operating system). My guess is that the program you are having issues with is fairly old or written by an amateur programmer. Professionals know that other processes need to run and even in large time-consuming loops, they will insert commands that intentionally slows their own program by ceding processor time to other processes on the system.

Tom Kogwuonye

Even programs like Yahoo messenger?

Is another resource that it needs being locked by another process? You may need to use Process Monitor and/or Process Explorer from here in order to find the culprit.

September 9, 2012

Aditya Roy

One thing i can suggest you is disable error reporting!
I used to face this problem regularly, but after i disabled(through BoostSpeed)
it, the unresponsive programs close at first try.

How do I disable error reporting?

susendeep dutta

Usually it’s written as send crash reports so as to improve the program under the tools or help menu.So,you can untick that.

Regarding checking for errors on RAM,you can use memtest86,an ISO file which needs to be burned in a CD and booted from it.It takes some time to display errors.Another alternative is

Windows Memory Diagnostic -

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

@Tom http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/7863/disable-error-reporting-in-xp-vista-and-windows-7/

ha14

As alternative try
SuperF4
http://superf4.googlecode.com/

xkill
http://suprvillain.deviantart.com/art/Windows-xKill-100737525

perhaps the process depends on another one try LockHunter to figure out which process is preventing the termination
http://lockhunter.com/download.htm

Muhammad Ahmad

First of all you should check your system for viruses and spyware programs. This might help you.

James Bruce

You might want to run a RAM checker app to detect if your RAM has errors; this could be a cause of many issues, app lockups being one.

Where do I download it?

You can use memtest
Here is everything you would need to use it.
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57342679-285/how-to-test-your-ram-in-windows/

Oron

As Bruce points out, the amount of memory is not particularly relevant to issue (other than to rule out lack of memory, that is!). The program which is hanging is the one marked “unresponsive” in the task manager. However, the *cause* of hanging can sometimes be something else, hardware, system software, driver or even another application. You would need to do some detective work to discern that.
Bring up the task manager, and after noting which programs are hanging, switch to the “Processes” tab. Click on [Show processes from all users] and sort the processes by CPU usage (by clicking the “CPU” column heading). Scroll to the bottom of the list and see which process(es) is/are using the most CPU cycles. Now sort by “Memory” and do the same. Figure out which software the process is related to (this is sometimes obvious, and at other times more difficult, if you can’t figure it out, google the name of the process to get information on it).
Beyond this point, you need to use your logic. It may be that a particular application is hanging, and you can test that by using “end process” and observing the result. It may be that reinstalling the application will resolve the problem, or you may need an update. Then again, as mentioned before, the ultimate cause could lie elsewhere, such as with a driver. Set aside some time and patience, and work it through. Good luck!

GrrGrrr

pls check the number of running programs and services. you may have lot of unwanted things running at the same time trying to access the same resource.

Joel Alar

September 5, 2012

Hi Tom, did you try to kill the program from the task manager? please try to select the application from the application tab then right click it then select the go to process then try to kill the process not the application.

Howard Dully

September 6, 2012

Could be processor speed I too have 8gb of RAM and have programs hang because my memory out performs my processor.

ArJhay

Are you running as a System Administrator?
Windows 7 by default disable this account although you are using an administrator account (created user) it may still unable to inherit all access.
Maybe it doesn’t kill the process since you are running on a restricted access account.

Try to enable and used that default Administrator account if that solve your problem.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/507-built-administrator-account-enable-disable.html

IamAshMcLean

If none of this recommendations works, I think you should Restore or Format your Computer, but first back up your stuffs before…

Harshit Jain

Try scanning with good antivirus.