Windows 7 printing "io" infinitely in all focused input areas

Question

A few weeks ago, my computer started doing this strange behavior. All I did was click into a window that allowed for user input and the computer began printing "io" over and over again (no error, but surely an I/O problem), infinitely. It happened again a few minutes ago, and I am wondering if this is a known bug (I can't find any information) or if this is the result of some other corruption or virus.

When this happens, the computer actually does not lock up (that is until it runs out of memory), and I can try to get to the "shut down" button, in the start menu. However, if I have high-memory intensive programs running, like Visual Studio (which is almost always open), I am forced to do a hard shut-down.

Any insight on this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! :)

P.S. The System, Security, and Application Windows Logs did not show any information that appeared to be relevant.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, there are a ton of potential reasons for this. If you can force the error within minutes of it switching on, there are ways of narrowing down the cause, but be warned it is not a quick process:

1. Boot to safe mode (hit F8 as machine switches on)
2. In the start menu, type msconfig and hit enter
3. Choose "Services" tab
4. Check the box at bottom that says "Hide all Microsoft services"
5. Hit "disable all"
6. Choose "Startup" tab
7. Hit "Disable/Uncheck all" (cant recall which it says off top of head)
8. Hit OK and reboot computer when prompted.

This is known as a CLEAN BOOT with only core Microsoft services running. Is well worth remembering this for any kind of windows issues that crop up - viruses included.

NB: a fair few programmes will not load up in this mode.

Now you have the fun job of working out where the problem lies: If you find that the computer is still not behaving, you potentially have more serious issues and will possibly need an expert to help fix it for you.

If everything is running fine, its now a case of re-enabling services/start up programmes until you find which is causing the issue - load msconfig again and start checking services/startup programmes one by one, rebooting each time until the issue reappears.

(you can try grouping these to make it quicker - ie enable only services from a-h, reboot, if still ok, do i-r, etc.)

When you think you know where the problem lies, enable everything except the problematic one and check the issue is actually "fixed" if so, you can work out from this "google the name if needed" how to best fix it.