Ghost Console Freeze
I am having a problem with the Ghost console freezing. I have the Ghost Solution Suite 2.5 console (version 11.5.0.2113) installed on a Dell OptiPlex 960 running Windows XP SP3 (specs: Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz w/ 4GB RAM). Everytime I open the console after a reboot the computer freezes for about five to ten minutes (note: the freeze does not occur after logon and logoffs). During the freeze, the hard drive light is solid and the computer is unusable. I tried to examine the processes during the freeze, but the freeze is severe enough to keep task manger from refreshing/displaying the data. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the console, but that has not helped. I have run live update to ensure that i'm using the latest version. The console has hardley been used at this point so there are no inventories and only about 5 managed clients. I have seen some discussions regarding the console's database, but I am unclear as to where to start with that or this issue for that matter. I hope that I have provided enough information. If I have missed something or additional information is needed please let me know. I appreciate your help.
Comments
did you find anything in your
did you find anything in your event logs?
Thanks for the response.
Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything in the Windows event logs. Are there any Sysmantec logs I could look at?
not that i know of
your problem sounds like a process is hung and possibly causing a hardware lock. my first guess as a culprit would be antivirus software, did you try disabling it? also it might be a memory allocation error. windows xp 32bit has a limit of 4gb of ram and running on the edge of that may cause problems, i dont have any evidence to back this up but its an idea.
Still no luck...
I disabled the AV on the computer (Symantec AV Corporate v10.1) and tried it again, but the console froze again. I'm really at a loss on this issue. Thanks again for your input.
Getting worse...
In the past, rebooting the computer would only cause the console to lock for 5 or 10 minutes, but now that i've been testing different solutions it seems to be getting worse. Today the console froze for over an hour. This happened yesterday when I was testing it as well. Both times I had to pull the plug. Granted, the computer does not need to be rebooted often, however I am preparing to roll out our console to our techs and would hate to do so in this condition.
Things to try
You are running XP SP3 on a machine with 4Gb memory. As XP can only access just over 3Gb memory, is the rest unused or is it being remapped in some way? Could you try taking 2Gb out and see if it makes any difference?
Secondly, it may be worth playing around in the BIOS to see if any of the settings relating to AMT and other advanced features may be affecting the console.
Also, are you able to start Task Manager first, and sort on the CPU column so the highest percentage processes are at the top of the process list, then kick off the console - that way you may be able to see which process is taking all the CPU time.
If you have hyperthreading, try turning it off.
If your issue has been solved, please use the "Mark as Solution" link on the most relevant thread.
Still Freezing!
I tried your suggestions:
Unfortunately, opening the console after a reboot still casues the computer to freeze. I had already tried your idea of opening task manager prior to launching the console, but the freeze keeps it from showing/refreshing live information. In the early stages, I had tested the console on a different computer and this issue never occured. Your suggestions made sense and are supporting this bad feeling I have that there is something with the hardware on the new computer that is causing the console to freeze. I really don't want to rebuild the console on another computer, but I may have to.
How about trying a VM?
Perhaps one solution would be to create a virtual machine on your DELL box and run the console from in there.
Set the VM to grab its own IP address rather than sharing the host machine's IP address.
If that works, then at least you don't need to look at different hardware. If it barfs, then chances are that the DELL hardware or BIOS have some issues which are causing the freeze.
One more thought - if you have a copy of Visual Studio 2005 or 2008 kicking about, (or an eval if available??), perhaps installing that and running the debugger while starting the console, might just throw up some pointers.
If your issue has been solved, please use the "Mark as Solution" link on the most relevant thread.
Issue Resolved (workaround)
A VM is a good idea and probably would have worked for me, however I simply captured an image of the current console computer and applied it to another computer (Dell Precision 380) using DeployAnywhere and the console does not freeze like it did on the Dell OptiPlex 960. There is definetly a hardware issue, but I just couldn't narrow it down. I am happy with this solution/workaround. Thanks to everyone who helped.
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