Eclipse freezes in Windows 7

Question

Apparently after aplying some latest updates of Windows 7, Eclipse stopped working properly. It freezes very often for 30 second to 2 minutes. In fact the system also freezes, for example the music that is played in WMP stops, loading web pages stops, etc.

I tried it first with the newest Eclipse Kepler and thought it was only the new version but then fell back to Juno and the same thing happens.

My JRE is Java 7u45 but I also tested it with 7u7 and no changes.

It seems that in the time of freeze some I/O operations are taking place as the hard disk light flickers constantly.

It totally prevents from doing anything both in Eclipse as well as in the system itself.

Has anybody experienced such a problem lately? I have googled it up and all I found were some bug reports for Eclipse and 64-bit version of Windows.

EDIT: I tested it on a different machine with almost the same configuration and it works impeccably. Any idea how I can check on my machine, what causes the problem?

Still it happens only when I run Eclipse I have no other problem with any other application.

EDIT: I ran the Eclipse with -consolelog and here is the stack trace of exception thrown during the freeze.

2013-11-15 12:31:06,480 [main] INFO  c.n.h.c.p.n.NettyAsyncHttpProvider - Number of application's worked threads is 8
2013-11-15 12:32:56,300 [Recommenders-Dependency-Info-Service-0] ERROR o.e.r.i.r.p.ClasspathEntryInfoProvider - Extracing jar information failed with exception.


java.lang.RuntimeException: java.io.IOException: Die Anforderung konnte wegen eines E/A-Gerõtefehlers nicht ausgef³hrt werden
        at org.eclipse.recommenders.utils.Throws.throwUnhandledException(Throws.java:47) ~[na:na]
        at org.eclipse.recommenders.utils.Fingerprints.internal_sha1v2(Fingerprints.java:59) ~[na:na]
        at org.eclipse.recommenders.utils.Fingerprints.sha1(Fingerprints.java:64) ~[na:na]
        at org.eclipse.recommenders.utils.archive.ArchiveDetailsExtractor.createFingerprint(ArchiveDetailsExtractor.java:56) ~[na:na]
        at org.eclipse.recommenders.internal.rcp.providers.ClasspathEntryInfoProvider$3.run(ClasspathEntryInfoProvider.java:247) ~[na:na]
        at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Unknown Source) [na:1.7.0_45]
        at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(Unknown Source) [na:1.7.0_45]
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source) [na:1.7.0_45]
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source) [na:1.7.0_45]
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source) [na:1.7.0_45]
Caused by: java.io.IOException: Die Anforderung konnte wegen eines E/A-Gerõtefehlers nicht ausgef³hrt werden
        at java.io.FileInputStream.readBytes(Native Method) ~[na:1.7.0_45]
        at java.io.FileInputStream.read(Unknown Source) ~[na:1.7.0_45]
        at com.google.common.io.ByteStreams.readBytes(ByteStreams.java:708) ~[na:na]
        at com.google.common.io.ByteStreams.getDigest(ByteStreams.java:760) ~[na:na]
        at com.google.common.io.Files.getDigest(Files.java:642) ~[na:na]
        at org.eclipse.recommenders.utils.Fingerprints.internal_sha1v2(Fingerprints.java:57) ~[na:na]
        ... 8 common frames omitted

!ENTRY org.eclipse.m2e.logback.appender 4 0 2013-11-15 12:32:56.310
!MESSAGE Extracing jar information failed with exception.
2013-11-15 12:34:44,130 [Recommenders-Dependency-Info-Service-0] ERROR o.e.r.i.r.p.ClasspathEntryInfoProvider - Extracing jar information failed with exception.

Answer 1

That German message could indicate serious issues. Encountered similar issues with multiple machines recently.

The checklist was like this:

• Make sure, that files are backed up
• Before further investigation, a quick hard disk health test
  • Check the health diagnostic (SMART) data of your hard drive, using a tool like HD Tune
    • If there are errors, especially the ones related to SSD wear level or pending/replaced sectors, your hard drive is basically saying goodbye
• The file system may be corrupted
  • Check & fix the file system (if required at boot time)
  • Independent of checkdisk results, one could use FSC to verify system files
• Check eclipse configuration
  • Reduce available concurrency and resource allocation settings of indexer plugins in Eclipse to a minimum
  • Disable indexing plugins
  • Test with an out of the box eclipse installation
  • One may delete local maven repositories and other temporary or intermediate storage locations
• Check for IO overload.
  • Have a look at the disk view in the resource monitor (accessible via taskmanager) for identifying IO intensive processes
    • Do you have many files checked out and running something like Tortoise Shell-Extensions?
      • Try to work in Eclipse without the Windows Shell & Explorer: Kill all explorer.exe instances via the task manager (CTRL+Shift-ESC). One can run 'explorer' again from within the task manager, if needed.
        • If no problems occur, remove or reconfigure such shell extensions, reboot and continue as normal (here, I got one problem solved)
  • Disable on access anti virus protection temporarily, perhaps after a full scan
  • Stop and/or Uninstall other IO intensive background processes
• There could be driver problems
  • Try updating or downgrading to a recently replaced storage driver (or the driver shipped with Windows, if possible)
• Boot and test in safe mode (press F8 before Windows splash screen on startup)
  • If you can work without problems here, the problem is most likely caused by services or other software components, something that has been disabled in safe mode (one would need to do further investigation regarding problematic software)
• Check for data transfer errors or other hardware failures
  • Check (pull & plug) the cables
  • Test the disk at other connectors (or better other controllers) or in another computer
  • Copy your working directories onto another physical drive (perhaps an external disk) and see, if you can work there without errors
  • 'offline' memory testing using a tool like: memtest86+

Answer 2

Windows some times have problems with updates, you can try to use the Restore System tool. In most of the times this solve that kind of problems.

See the documentation here http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/system-restore;

Answer 3

In my experience, Eclipse hangs the computer because it is rebuilding some internal search indexes or databases. Slowing down frequently after an Eclipse Software Update or a change to a major version.

I was unable to understand exactly what happens inside eclipse, I think that software update or version change could affect negatively to workspace metadata.

So I found great relief removing the .metadata inside the workspace and reimporting all the projects.

Remember:

• just to be sure don't lose anything, backup your workspace directory before delete .metadata
• close Eclipse before remove .metadata directory

Reimport all projects it is quite easy. All you need to do is select from menu File -> Import -> Existing Projects into Workspace.

I have a Mac, but under Windows should be the same. Then select the root directory of your workspace and import all projects.

Answer 4

As others have suggested, the issue appears to be coming from the Code Recommenders plugin. It may not be a permanent solution, but I would try uninstalling that plugin temporarily and seeing if the problem persists.

Outside of that, I would just try the general PC troubleshooting steps:

1. Restart the computer
2. Reinstall the JDK
3. Reinstall Win 7 and Eclipse (nuclear option)

Answer 5

This issue seems related with Eclipse Code Recommenders. They have just released a new version of this plugin today, check update notes. Maybe you could try to unsinstall or update that module before your IDE gets freezed.

Did you try to use other eclipse installers/versions? I would suggest you to try it with Spring STS IDE, it's just another eclipse with some customizations.