Programs "Not responding"

[skullysquirrel]

I have Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit, and every time I start Ventrilo, xfire, and Battlefield 2: Project Reality, they go into a Not responding mode for about 3-5 minutes then they respond again. While they are not responding I'm able to continue with what ever else but not able to use those programs. Any help on why these are the only programs doing this, and how to fix the issue??

System
phenom ii x4 955
4gb patriot ram
gtx4601gb
asrock amd870 extreme3 mobo
and my hdd is a WD caviar black 640gb

[Wamphryi]

I suspect that your Power Save Settings may be the culprit. Win 7 shuts down the HDD's after a very short space of time. When Programs need the drive it is not there throwing the Program into a not responding state while the HDD powers on again. The programs that avoid this drama are normally in RAM thanks to Superfetch.

Go to Control Panel, Power Options, Balanced, Change Plan Settings, Change Advanced Power Settings, Hard Disk, Turn off Hard Disk after.

Tell the drive to turn off after some hours not minutes. See how that goes.

[skullysquirrel]

The hdd power save was already set to 20minutes, so I set it to 60 minutes just in case and it still continues.