On a desktop PC running Windows 7 Pro, I have an application (Thunderbird) that hangs on startup (while using ~50% of the CPU) and never recovers. There's nothing in the events log beyond a notification that the app has hung, and that the reason is unknown. Ordinarily, when Thunderbird behaves in this fashion, it means one of more of the files in its directories have become corrupted. Is there a utility for checking a directory tree under an NTFS filesystem for corruption or inconsistency WITHOUT doing a CHKDSK on the entire C: drive? Thanks! -- Ed

Hi Ed,There seems no such utility to check files under an NTFS filesystem.In addition, the start up hung could be caused by multiple factors, you can consider the following method to troubleshoot it:1. Test in Clean bootThis method will help us determine if this issue is caused by a loading program or service. 1. Click "Start",and type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) in the open box to start the System Configuration Utility. 2. Click the "Services" tab, check the "Hide All Microsoft Services" box and click "Disable All" (if it is not gray). 3. Click the "Startup" tab, click "Disable All" and click "OK". 4. Click "OK" to restart your computer to Selective Startup environment. 5. When the "System Configuration Utility" window appears, please check the "Don't show this message or launch the System Configuration Utility when Windows starts" box and click OK.6. Check whether or not the issue still appears in this environment. 2. I would suggest the Process Monitor v2.8:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspxThe usage could be a little complax, I have post a example of a simple use to monitor an issue:1. Extract the ProcessMonitor.zip to Desktop.2. Go to the Process Monitor folder and double click Procmon.exe.Note: If the Filer window appears, please click Cancel.3. Click File -> Capture Events to stop capturing events.4. Click Edit -> Clear Display.5. Close all other programs to avoid generating unnecessary logs with Process Monitor.6. In Process Monitor, Click File -> Capture Events to start to capture.7. Reproduce the problem.8. As soon as the problem is reproduced, please switch back to the Process Monitor and then click Capture Events to stop capturing.9. Click Save -> choose All Events -> save file type to Native Process Monitor -> Click OK.10.Run the applicaton to view the result, you will see the culprit.

Thanks for your quick reply! I was really looking forward to using Process Manager to try and get a handle on precisely WHERE the app was failing. But alas, no joy. I got as far as step #2 in your instructions below: 2. I would suggest the Process Monitor v2.8: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx The usage could be a little complax, I have post a example of a simple use to monitor an issue: 1. Extract the ProcessMonitor.zip to Desktop. 2. Go to the Process Monitor folder and double click Procmon.exe. ... when a dialog message window popped up telling me the following: Process Monitor: Out of memory: Unable to allocate a memory block of size 7672 The memory amount varies I've seen it as high as 46000 and change. Yet the Process Explorer Sysinternals tool tells me I have 1.7G of available real (physical) memory out of the total 3.4GB that Windows recognizes. And it doesn't seem to show any physical memory usage spike when I run the command. Any idea where I might go from here? The O/S is Windows 7 Pro, 32 bit, and I'm running the command as Administrator. And just in case it might be useful, here's the md5 message digest for the executable I downloaded and am running (as reported by md5deep): 90e67aaaa4dadac16ce032f15727606c C:\cygwin\usr\local\bin\Procmon.exe Never can tell. The download might have gotten corrupted or something. Thanks! -- Ed

and how much of a paging file do you have set or does Windows automatically set the paging file for you (personally I prefer to set the min/max the same giving it sufficient amount so Windows doesn't have to decide what's best for me).MCSE, MCSA, MCDST

Hi,My guess is that both Thunderbird and Process Monitor try to hook into the system at very low levels, and they're somehow interfering with each other. If you want to resolve the high CPU usage upon start up, I suggest reinstall the Thunderbird or narrow down the root cause by using clean boot troubleshooting steps.