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Can Anyone Tell Me How to Fix This?

by jorchav
6 replies
Hello My Friends,

Operating a 2.4ghz PC with 1 giga of RAM under Windows XPSP2.

Got a rogue program/expanding do-loop/something loose that's driving me crazy!

When I boot up, all runs O.K. Then something starts keeping the CPU busy, doing something unknown. After a few hours the CPU is constantly busy, other programs I am using slow to a crawl. Reboot and the cycle repeats.

Where can I find software to tell me what is going on, which program(s) are actually running and using CPU time?

Or how else can I fix this?...other than designating a new HD as the C: drive, then re-installing all the stuff I want, running the old C: drive as a data drive until I am ready to re-format it, clean it and leave whatever was causing the problem (hopefully) behind?

Any suggestions would be appreciated...

Thanks!
#fix
  • Profile picture of the author Erich
    See if you can get your computer to go here safety.live.com you can run the free online scan. It works pretty well and can take awhile to complete it's task. You can also go into control panel and Add/Remove Programs look for any programs that you don't use or don't know and remove them. Example many "Free Toolbars" have a lot of additional software installed with them some good mostly bad that could be causing problems.
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    • Profile picture of the author quicksilver
      Hi,

      A couple of suggestions.

      1. Check your hard disk is not (over)full
      2. CTL/ALT/DEL and see what 'Windows task Manager' tells you.
      3. Consider buying 'The Ultimate Troubleshooter' at
      AnswersThatWork - PC Tuning & Troubleshooting, HelpDesk, Computer Tips & Solutions. It checks out your system really thoroghly.

      Good luck

      Quicksilver
      The HTML Book, with free HTML code.
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      • Profile picture of the author RonRea
        I've had issues like this before. Try using ActiveScan 2.0. It's an online scanner that detects malware. It's found things Norton and McAfee both missed. You can find it here: ActiveScan 2.0 - A second opinion on the security of your PC
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        • Profile picture of the author ripsnorta2
          Open up your task manager by double clicking ctrl-alt-delete or by right clicking the Taskbar and selecting Task Manager (Win-XP.)

          Go to the Processes Tab and click twice on the CPU column in the table. This will list the tasks by CPU usage.

          You'll likely see the System Idle Process at the top of the list. Don't worry that's normal.

          My wild guess, are you using Firefox with a lot of open tabs and windows?

          I've found FF exhibits the behavior you are describing. It's got a nasty memory leak that eventually causes it to read and write memory to a page file and thrash the disk in the process.

          PS.

          If it's not Firefox and you find another process sucking down your cycles, just Google the process name. I've done that in the past with greedy suspect processes only to find out they are a virus checker or some such thing.
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          Cheers, John

          Codeboss -- Useful Software Tailored For Your Business

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          • Profile picture of the author doylesoft
            Get autoruns from Microsoft. (Free download)

            AutoRuns is a MUST have. It tells you EVERYTHING that automatically loads when your system boots. Unfortunately, viruses and mal-ware are VERY good at hiding. If autoRuns can't help, you may be faced with a re-format. That sucks.
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            Brandon Doyle
            http://doylesoft.com Simple, effective, and affordable software. Knowledge Base software.

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      • Profile picture of the author jorchav
        Thanks for the suggestions, my friends! I tried/followed most of them. Finally, I got to Mike Hayes suggestion:

        Originally Posted by MikeHayes View Post

        Hi,

        A couple of suggestions.

        1. Check your hard disk is not (over)full
        2. CTL/ALT/DEL and see what 'Windows task Manager' tells you.
        3. Consider buying 'The Ultimate Troubleshooter' at
        AnswersThatWork - PC Tuning & Troubleshooting, HelpDesk, Computer Tips & Solutions. It checks out your system really thoroughly.

        Good luck

        Quicksilver
        The HTML Book, with free HTML code.
        1. Hard disk was fine
        2. Task Manager helps, but just tells you which programs are running, not what resources they use.
        3. TUT (The Ultimate Troubleshooter) is the Cat's pajamas! The free version showed me the problems. Four programs (2 from microsoft) that are not really necessary but hog CPU time and memory.

        I took them out of the start-up menu and things improved drastically, immediately!

        Then they started coming back. I kept deleting, they kept coming back!

        Finally I spent the $29.95 to get access to the removal instructions. It was a good investment. They gave me explanations and step-by-step instructions. When I started CPU was running 100% of the time. When I finished, it was 3-15%, with spikes upward as I did things that required it.

        Now I can see not only all the programs/processes running, but the % of CPU time each is taking up and the % of available memory each one is using It's real time readout, refreshed every 10 seconds or so.

        Result:
        I got my computer back! And I learned a great deal in the process. And I now have a tool that shows me exactly what is going on and gives advice on how to make it better!

        Thanks to all! I really appreciate your help!

        And Especially, Thanks to you, Mike! Thanks a million!
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        Malicious links.

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