Tech: Computer behaving oddly

Subject: Tech: Computer behaving oddly
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 May 05 - 12:46 PM

Every so often my computer semi freezes, ie it goes into 'I'm doing something' mode, and the hourglass comes up beside the cursor. Sometimes it comes back after a bit, other times it just freezes, and I have to do a warm reboot. When I press control/alt/delete taskmanager shows 65/66 processes running and up to 46% processor usage. I've looked at the list of processes and most of them mean bugger all to me. I feel as though I have a worm or something but my AV {Norton} doesn't detect anything. I am running Windows XP Home Edition. HELP
Giok

Subject: RE: Tech: Computer behaving oddly
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 19 May 05 - 12:49 PM

Do you have Ad-Aware or some other spyware/malware detector/blocker?

free download and pretty intuitive to use.

or search and destroy spyware blocker.

Subject: RE: Tech: Computer behaving oddly
From: Bill D
Date: 19 May 05 - 01:05 PM

60+ processes is a bit much, I'd think, unless you have a lot of programs that are told to start up with windows. You 'might' have some mal-ware that is doing stuff behind your back and taking up processor time.

There are special programs to look at this activity....you might take a look a Karen Kenworthy's Power Tools especially "Window Watcher" and "Snooper"

It also might just be settings that are performing regular tasks, like cache cleaning, and doing it too often and finding too much to do......so many different possibilities depending on how YOU use the machine.

Subject: RE: Tech: Computer behaving oddly
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 19 May 05 - 01:15 PM

Adware is a possibility. It could even be that you have been hacked.

Have you got all your protection in place? You realy need Antivirus, firewall and something like spybot.

If you look at the processes in task manager, you might be able to spot one that is using much more than the rest. That could also give you some clue as to what is doing the damage.

Subject: RE: Tech: Computer behaving oddly
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 May 05 - 01:28 PM

I'm running Xoft Spy, and Ad-aware, with Norton Anti Virus, also using Zone Alarm. What's svchost? it seems to be running a lot on Task manager. Also when I close down, I get a closing down screen for a programme called Nvidia which I can't find on my computer anywhere.
Giok

Subject: RE: Tech: Computer behaving oddly
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 19 May 05 - 01:32 PM

I think Nvidia will be graphics. Svchost is described here

Subject: RE: Tech: Computer behaving oddly
From: Grab
Date: 19 May 05 - 01:46 PM

Other possibilities are that you've turned on some program option, or run some part of a program, without realising it. The MS "FindFast" thingy will start scanning your hard disk if it thinks you're not doing anything. Anti-virus might start doing an automatic scan. "Scheduled tasks" (see Control Panel) might be running something. Things like that.

When you go to Task Manager, which of the tasks are using that 46%?

Also, have you checked the contents of the Start menu "Startup" folder? On Win98 you can use "msconfig" to see what else is being run, but I don't know what you do for this on WinXP.

Graham.

Subject: RE: Tech: Computer behaving oddly
From: GUEST,Cattail (no cookie)
Date: 19 May 05 - 02:38 PM

Hi John.

Also check that your cooler fan and heat sink are not full of dust,

I took mine off this morning to clean it, but when I put it back on
one of the clips hadn't grabbed the backing piece, when I tried to
boot again it started to boot then hung, it did not do anything else
until I put that clip on again. It's fine now.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Cattail !

Subject: RE: Tech: Computer behaving oddly
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 May 05 - 02:43 PM

Nvidia claims to be the leader in graphics and digital media processors. Hardware and software. People pay for their equipment; do you mean you got it free?
Odd that you would have trouble with it if you didn't install. Pehaps just a stray add.

Subject: RE: Tech: Computer behaving oddly
From: podman
Date: 19 May 05 - 03:09 PM

you can also go to pandasoftware.com and allow them to do an on-line virus scan. It will fix most viruses and inform you of adware. I've used it many times to good effect.

Subject: RE: Tech: Computer behaving oddly
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 19 May 05 - 03:20 PM

Nvidia is probably the graphics card program that controls your monitor display settings.

You should be able to look in "System Information" and find what specific graphics card you're using. If it's not there, you can usually find enough description to work with in Control Panel | Hardware. You most likely will have an Nvidia card unless you paid enough buck$ for something extra-special that you'd know about it.

Most monitor settings can be made in Control Panel | Display, and with some monitors you can use buttons on the monitor to change things. The Nvidia process runs during machine operation to make things happen the way you told them to; and usually has a "control interface" that brings most of the common settings together in one place for changes. Usually if you have a graphics card beyond the bare minimum, you'll have an icon in the System Tray (at bottom right of the screen) to let you open the Nvidia process interface for changes.

WinXP has a whole bunch of "processes" that run during machine idle time. Disk cleanups, indexing, and such - all of which they tell us are good for you. Your AV should scan every new process that opens, and the scan on a new "idle process" that opens up "because the machine wasn't busy" can sometimes take a surprisingly long time and can make it look like the machine is hung up. The "idle process" itself might have closed when a new demand came along, but often the AV will insist on finishing its scan before it lets the process quit so that anything else can happen.

Sixty processes running sounds a little high, although 40 or so wouldn't be surprising. It's possible you have some malware that's using your computer without your permission. An AdAware plus Spybot scan - with current updates to signature files - should find anything unwanted. If both of those show you clean, then you may get some benefit from Start|Programs|Accessories|System Tools|Disk Cleanup and a defrag.

If you've converted from an older OS to a newer one, you may have neglected to update the drive format. Running WinXP or Win2K on a FAT16 drive works, but many of the maintenance functions will be a bit clumsy - and slow. Converting the drive to FAT32 will help some. If you're in WinXP, the NTFS format will be a lot more efficient - assuming you don't have some reason for keeping one of the older formats. It's also necessary to have sufficient free space on your hard drive to let the background processes have room to work. If you drive has less than 10% free, you can expect things to bog down.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Computer behaving oddly
From: My guru always said
Date: 19 May 05 - 03:39 PM

GIOK!!!!!
Sorry to shout but I had EXACTLY THE SAME THING, and what was worse, the processor useage kept rising during each PC access.

I had a year of hell with it till I discovered it was to do with the Anti-virus running all the time. As soon as I disabled the packaged Internet Security & Firewall & enabled Windows XP firewall & Security, everything started working properly again. I had to disable via Windows Services (through administration tools if I recall correctly).

There will be 5 types of svchost, they're Windows programs & should all be running properly when you've got this sorted. Sounds like your set-up is the same as mine, Nvidia is my graphics.

If you do try this, please ensure you enable the Windows Firewall before reconnecting. The Windows XP SP2 security package works well. I also have a tracker on my Startup programs, and Spybot which sorts adware etc. These are all good things to have. Keep checking your task processes though, it's good practice!!

Subject: RE: Tech: Computer behaving oddly
From: mandoleer
Date: 19 May 05 - 03:51 PM

Important thing to remember about anti-spyware stuff is to stick to the free ones - AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy for example. Some of the paid ones are untrustworthy (to be polite) and none do a better job. Get WinPatrol - with that you can find out what's running and what's in your startup. It's free, and you can use it to disable things that are in startup, and it gives more easily understandable info than Ctrl-Alt-Delete does.

Subject: RE: Tech: Computer behaving oddly
From: beardedbruce
Date: 19 May 05 - 04:30 PM

How much memory do you have installed? I recommend 512M with xp...

Subject: RE: Tech: Computer behaving oddly
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 May 05 - 05:57 PM

1Gb of RAM on a 3 Ghz Pentium 4.
G

Subject: RE: Tech: Computer behaving oddly
From: beardedbruce
Date: 19 May 05 - 06:31 PM

That should be enough... though with Xp you never know...

Subject: RE: Tech: Computer behaving oddly
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 05 - 06:59 PM

If you have more than one firewall running you may have overkill on the processes. Since I use the Symantec Personal Firewall I have the Win XP firewall turned off.

Ad Aware

Spybot Search&Destroy

Spyware Blaster

I use these three free programs. They do a very good job when all used together.

SRS