Task Scheduler Puzzle

For a year or so, Task Scheduler woke up the computer at 0200, GenieSoft ran a daily backup, computer went back to sleep until I woke it later in the morning.

A month or so ago, using the mouse to wake the computer would cause a lock up, but the Enter key worked, and then even using the Enter key would wake up the machine, but it would be locked up. A process of elimination found that an older USB printer was the culprit.

Since then, I've constantly encountered Task Scheduler problems. For example,
two days ago, GenieSoft ran correctly; yesterday, although GenieSoft ran correctly, I noted that the task itself, which should have ended after the few minutes that the backup required, did not end until a few hours later, when I woke the machine. Having restarted the computer, this morning, I found (not for the first time) the computer itself awake, the monitor asleep, and the only fix was to use the power switch.

In the Event Viewer, rather deep into the \Windows performance area, I find a set of messages that started at 01:59:50, when the Task Scheduler woke the machine. At 01:59:02, I got this:

The Desktop Window Manager is experiencing heavy resource contention.
Scenario : The Desktop Window Manager responsiveness has degraded.

and:

The Desktop Window Manager is experiencing heavy resource contention.
Reason : CPU resources are over-utilized.
Diagnosis : A sharp degradation in Desktop Window Manager responsiveness was observed.

No further information found, and Task Manager shows only that the task started, nothing more, indicating that GenieSoft never started the actual backup.

I've been in a lengthy discussion with HP, I've reinstalled GenieSoft, and I have not the slightest idea what might be causing the problem (and, thus, how to fix it.) Furthermore, I have no way of knowing if the same sort of Event Viewer messages occurred in the past when the backups worked properly.

Not critical, as I gave up a while ago and reset the task to 1800, when the computer is rarely asleep. However, I'd like to fix the problem(s) if possible, so advice--other than such things as removing hexes, intoning new enchantments, etc.--would be appreciated.

[EDIT] I forgot to state that I cannot edit the Task Scheduler entry outside of the GenieSoft program. I've tried that, and the result has always been a failure for it to work. GenieSoft creates the task the way it needs it to be, apparently, and will only allow changes within the program.

Disable GenieSoft and schedule another task to run. Does it run successfully, without locking up?

lemur said:

Disable GenieSoft and schedule another task to run. Does it run successfully, without locking up?

Click to expand...

Several other tasks are in the scheduler, and they all run correctly. However, none of them is set to run at a time that the computer is usually asleep, so you've given me something to test that had not occurred to me.

As an excuse, as if one were needed (and I don't even have one), so many problems have been going on, such as the computer locked up (the "defective USB printer syndrome") when I would wake it in the morning, that the idea of rescheduling something for sleep time had not arisen.

Shall do same--but even if I do, there's still the inconsitency of all this; for example, the fact that GenieSoft ran more or less correctly for two days recently, and that, over the past several weeks, I recall having five of seven days where GS ran correctly. So, even if I do reschedule another task, I may have to wait for several days to see if that demonstrates any faults.

This is rather like proving a negative. I think maybe I'll do that instead....

Whomever said:

lemur said:

Disable GenieSoft and schedule another task to run. Does it run successfully, without locking up?

Click to expand...

Several other tasks are in the scheduler, and they all run correctly. However, none of them is set to run at a time that the computer is usually asleep, so you've given me something to test that had not occurred to me.

As an excuse, as if one were needed (and I don't even have one), so many problems have been going on, such as the computer locked up (the "defective USB printer syndrome") when I would wake it in the morning, that the idea of rescheduling something for sleep time had not arisen.

Shall do same--but even if I do, there's still the inconsitency of all this; for example, the fact that GenieSoft ran more or less correctly for two days recently, and that, over the past several weeks, I recall having five of seven days where GS ran correctly. So, even if I do reschedule another task, I may have to wait for several days to see if that demonstrates any faults.

This is rather like proving a negative. I think maybe I'll do that instead....

Click to expand...

When was the last time you defragged the disk the fenie-soft is saving to? How much space is left on the HD? when was the last time you defragged the registry

Ken

zigzag3143 said:

When was the last time you defragged the disk the fenie-soft is saving to? How much space is left on the HD? when was the last time you defragged the registry

Ken

Click to expand...

Don't know last time disk (external USB) was defragged; however, I have never seen any errors referring to the disk when I've looked at the Event Viewer Performance diagnostics to try to figure out what the GenieSoft problem is.

Started PerfectDisk, set it to analyze external disk, which reported 8.9% fragmented; it's being "unfragmented" as I write this. 7.2 GB used/601GB unused. Again, I don't believe that the problem lies there--however, anything is possible (except, perhaps, figuring out and fixing the malady, alas...)>

I don't defrag the registry; as far as I know, there's no reason, especially with Vista, to ever touch the registry.

Just before reading your reply, I checked the latest GenieSoft backup, which ran when the compute was awake. The Task Scheduler shows that the task ran correctly, and the Event Viewer shows no entries whatsoever.

As far as I can decipher the many, many Event Viewer entries over the past few weeks, the problem always seems to be related to the amount of time it takes the computer to wake up. The error messages cover a wide range of entries; that is, one day they'll refer to programs a/b, and drivers c/d, etc., and on a different day, a completely different set of supposed problems.

Yet, even then, those errors all seem to take place with in a single second, the delays being listed as x ms, and they all take place just before 0200, which is when GenieSoft was set to run.

This syndrome is far beyond my understanding: I can read the Event Viewer, but that does not mean that I can, using the information it provides, do anything to restore the computer to its previous year or more of successful wakeup/backup/go back to sleep task starting at 0200.

Another possible clue: Computer went to sleep last night, as it should have. There were no tasks scheduled while it was asleep.

When I pressed a mouse button to wake the computer this morning, both the computer and the monitor woke up. Sadly, and not for the first time, however, the cursor was frozen; in fact, everything seemed to be locked up.

I waited a minute or two, to see if the problem would rectify itself, and then used the power button to restart. After the restart, I looked in Event Viewer, and found that, after I woke the machine, but before I restarted it, this error message was logged:

"The Desktop Window Manager is experiencing heavy resource contention."

I wonder if, had I waited longer, the machine would have started to function properly.

I've seen that a number of times recently, without having any idea what it means. I "googalated" the error (gee, other people keep inventing non-words on line, so I feel I ought to be able to do so, even if, had such inanities appeared on papers from my students, my red pen would have been ready and willing.)

Google turned up quite a few links; I've looked briefly at a few, and shall do a further study thereof later. Perhaps I can, finally, find the culprit to the problem(s); I hope that's not just wistful thinking.

Do you have screensaver enabled? If yes, please turn it off to test.

lemur said:

Do you have screensaver enabled? If yes, please turn it off to test.

Click to expand...

Yes, screensaver has always been enabled, and the current settings are what they've long been.

Well, I suppose I should revise the previous sentence, as I just turned off the screensaver. As with other intermittents, it will take several days to see if this makes a difference, but it is certainly worth a try.

Given that the problems have put me into a daze, I don't suppose that waiting for the test results will matter....

[EDIT] With screensaver turned off, I put the computer to sleep, then woke it up. I noticed, as I've been noticing recently, that it took several seconds for the cursor to become active. However, I don't recall if that was also true before the problems started.

I then looked at the Event Viewer, where I found five new error messages, including the two about the Windows Desktop Manager that I've been seeing over the past several weeks. Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing if this was happening before the problems started.

All in all, if nothing else, this has become rather aggravating: BP (no, not British Petroleum, "Before Problem(s)"), everything had been working very well for many months. I have no way of knowing at precisely when the problem(s) arose, other than that they seemed to start when the printer started going bad and causing the computer to lock up; I was able to determine that by unplugging all the USB cables except the mouse, sleep/wake, plug in next cable, retest. When I plugged in the last cable, which was for the printer, I found that the machine would lock upon waking with either the mouse or the enter key. I continue to wonder if that malady, in turn, affected something in Vista that I cannot determine.

Total, complete, and utter frustration: Computer was working, more or less, in regards to sleep/wake a few days ago.

Now, it locks up almost every time: I got home after a few hours. Pressed mouse key, computer and monitor woke up. I typed in my password, computer unlocked, desktop appeared.

I waited five minutes, pressed and held the power switch to restart the computer, as it was totally, completely, and utterly locked up.

I'm beginning to forget what has been tried. Run cmd and enter:
powercfg -a
This will show you the sleep states.
Next going into bios, power mode, and select S1 or S3 (S1=sleep, S3=deep sleep).
If it still locks up, try resetting bios to factory defaults.

* EDIT * s3=hybrid deep sleep

lemur said:

I'm beginning to forget what has been tried. Run cmd and enter:
powercfg -a
This will show you the sleep states.
Next going into bios, power mode, and select S1 or S3 (S1=sleep, S3=deep sleep).
If it still locks up, try resetting bios to factory defaults.

* EDIT * s3=hybrid deep sleep

Click to expand...

I think it is my religion which prohibits me from remembering anything, but I don't remember....

Don't be concerned about not recalling what I've done: I've done so many things that I now have no idea as to what was done when. For example, I know that I've installed the latest driver for my video card, and I have a suspicion that the problems started after doing that (once the printer-caused lockup was eliminated), but I have no actual proof of that.

As for the sleep setting in the bios, I did not find any such option. I know that I've seen many messages over the years about the S1/S3 settings, but I don't what the setting on this computer is, nor how to change it. (powercfg -a indicated that both S1 and S3 are available.)

One thing I do remember is the two very brief tests I've run today:

1. Before leaving, I used the keyboard "sleep" key to invoke sleep. I waited a few minutes, pressed a mouse key, computer woke up properly.

2. After the fiasco I encountered when I got back, I set the Control Panel/Power Options setting for five minutes. Computer went to sleep, I waited a few minutes, pressed mouse key, all was well.

It is almost as though there is some secret timer switch that says, in effect, "If machine has been asleep for longer than x minutes, cause it to lock up after being awakened."

(Speaking of things I've not remembered, one of those is that I've not remembered to let people who have contributed their ideas know that I appreciate their assistance. Therefore, I've enclosed a "thank you" to all in this message.)

Try following these steps:

1) Run a full system scan with Malwarebytes and SuperAntispyware in Safe mode with Networking (so you can access the updates)

2) Run sfc /scannow at an elevated command prompt.

3) Open up Device Manager and install updates for everything - including wireless drivers, network drivers, sound drivers, graphic drivers, printer drivers etc. If you have Intel drivers go to the website and let the addon install so it can scan for anything that needs updating. Reboot as necessary after installing all the updates.

4) Check for any updates to GenieSoft.

5) Check Reliability Monitor for any signs.

6) Download Glary Utilities and run the modules on the first tab - optimize and improve.

7) Download Auslogics Defrag and defrag your hard drives. Reboot, and schedule chkdsk and the memory diagnostic. Reboot again.

8) What antivirus are you using? Do you have SP2 (which might be causing problems)? Have you installed any other software?

Post back your results.

Were you able to reset your bios to factory default?

WAIT A MINUTE! You had a problem with a USB printer, right? Check this out...

Vista computer will not stay in sleep mode due to USB devices

Frostmourne said:

Try following these steps:

1) Run a full system scan with Malwarebytes and SuperAntispyware in Safe mode with Networking (so you can access the updates)

2) Run sfc /scannow at an elevated command prompt.

3) Open up Device Manager and install updates for everything - including wireless drivers, network drivers, sound drivers, graphic drivers, printer drivers etc. If you have Intel drivers go to the website and let the addon install so it can scan for anything that needs updating. Reboot as necessary after installing all the updates.

4) Check for any updates to GenieSoft.

5) Check Reliability Monitor for any signs.


6) Download Glary Utilities and run the modules on the first tab - optimize and improve.

7) Download Auslogics Defrag and defrag your hard drives. Reboot, and schedule chkdsk and the memory diagnostic. Reboot again.

8) What antivirus are you using? Do you have SP2 (which might be causing problems)? Have you installed any other software?

Post back your results.

Click to expand...

1. Full scans have been done.

2.Scannow has been run.

3. All updates installed, including a NIC update yesterday.

4. GenieSoft updates automatically, and is up to date as of yesterda.

5. Reliability Monitor reports no problems.

6. Not done; may do so later today.

7. Hard disk is defragmented automatically by PerfectDisk.

8. Avast! Yes, SP2. Yes, new software, but only for a new printer, and that was long after the problems started.

lemur said:

Were you able to reset your bios to factory default?

Click to expand...

Did not even try, but that option is offered, and I've kept that possibility in mind.

lemur said:

WAIT A MINUTE! You had a problem with a USB printer, right? Check this out...

Vista computer will not stay in sleep mode due to USB devices

Click to expand...

Not exactly needed, as computer is quite happy to stay asleep. Problem is, rather, when it wakes up to run a scheduled task or when I wake it.

Disconnect any USB software and update the printer driver. Then try sleep mode again with no devices.

Frostmourne said:

Disconnect any USB software and update the printer driver. Then try sleep mode again with no devices.

Click to expand...

I've already disconnected all USB devices, and both printers are running current drivers.

I'd disconnected all USB devices, except the mouse, when determining, a month or more ago, what was causing lockups upon waking the computer, and found that it wa the older printer that was at fault.

I rather doubt that it is now another USB-connected device that is causing the newer problem. It could be, of course, but does not seem overly likely. I may have to resort to this test again--but the first time, it was the simple expedient of plugging in one device, putting the computer to sleep, waking it, and repeating the test until the computer locked up every time. As it happened, the last USB cable to be reconnected was for the defective printer.

When you say you've disconnected all USB devices, does this include the mouse (sorry to be obtuse).