High CPU load, no virusses or spyware

[Rotzooi]

Hi,

I have a notebook running Windows XP SP2 with all available hotfixes. Since
a few weeks I suffer from a high CPU load. There are no newly installed
programs, just Windows Updates. I've scanned with Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta
1, SpyBot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware Professional 1.06, all with the
latest updates available, and with Sophos AV 5.1 and McAfee VirusScan 8.0i
P10, also completely up-to-date. But nothing was detected.

If I look in the Task Manager, there are no processes with a load. But in
the Performance tab the load of the CPU is constantly at 60-80% total CPU
load and 30-40% kernel time. There is also a lot of disk activity and this
is not caused by background scanning of the anti-virus software.

How can I determine which hidden process or application is causing this
inconvenience?


Jeroen

 

[Rock]

Hi,

I have a notebook running Windows XP SP2 with all available hotfixes. Since
a few weeks I suffer from a high CPU load. There are no newly installed
programs, just Windows Updates. I've scanned with Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta
1, SpyBot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware Professional 1.06, all with the
latest updates available, and with Sophos AV 5.1 and McAfee VirusScan 8.0i
P10, also completely up-to-date. But nothing was detected.

If I look in the Task Manager, there are no processes with a load. But in
the Performance tab the load of the CPU is constantly at 60-80% total CPU
load and 30-40% kernel time. There is also a lot of disk activity and this
is not caused by background scanning of the anti-virus software.

How can I determine which hidden process or application is causing this
inconvenience?


Jeroen

Clean boot troubleshooting:
How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560

How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=316434

 

[Ron Martell]

Hi,

I have a notebook running Windows XP SP2 with all available hotfixes. Since
a few weeks I suffer from a high CPU load. There are no newly installed
programs, just Windows Updates. I've scanned with Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta
1, SpyBot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware Professional 1.06, all with the
latest updates available, and with Sophos AV 5.1 and McAfee VirusScan 8.0i
P10, also completely up-to-date. But nothing was detected.

If I look in the Task Manager, there are no processes with a load. But in
the Performance tab the load of the CPU is constantly at 60-80% total CPU
load and 30-40% kernel time. There is also a lot of disk activity and this
is not caused by background scanning of the anti-virus software.

How can I determine which hidden process or application is causing this
inconvenience?

If you have two antivirus programs installed then you should ensure
that only one of them is actually active and memory resident. The
second should only be used as an "on demand" scanner to double check
suspicious files.

In Task Manager - Processes click twice on the CPU column header so
that the process list is displayed by CPU usage in descending order,
with the highest usage items at the top. That may show you something
additional.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[digisol]

CTRL ALT DEL will show you what is running, turn off what your no
using

 

[Gerry Cornell]

HijackThis (Freeware)
http://tomcoyote.com/hjt/

Run HijackThis and post the HijackThis log to the HijackThis
forum here:
http://aumha.net/

You will need to register with Aumha to be able to post.

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Using invalid email address

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Rotzooi" <[email protected]>

| Hi,
|
| I have a notebook running Windows XP SP2 with all available hotfixes. Since
| a few weeks I suffer from a high CPU load. There are no newly installed
| programs, just Windows Updates. I've scanned with Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta
| 1, SpyBot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware Professional 1.06, all with the
| latest updates available, and with Sophos AV 5.1 and McAfee VirusScan 8.0i
| P10, also completely up-to-date. But nothing was detected.
|
| If I look in the Task Manager, there are no processes with a load. But in
| the Performance tab the load of the CPU is constantly at 60-80% total CPU
| load and 30-40% kernel time. There is also a lot of disk activity and this
| is not caused by background scanning of the anti-virus software.
|
| How can I determine which hidden process or application is causing this
| inconvenience?
|
| Jeroen
|

Why are using McAfee Enterprise VirusScan v8.0i and Sophos v5.x on the same PC ?

 

[Rotzooi]

I do not use all mentioned products at the same time, just one at the time.
But after using SysInternal's FileMon I discovered that the extensive disk
access was caused by Router.NT.exe. This executable only used 5% CPU load in
the task manager's process view, but caused the high overall CPU load. After
some google-ing I found out that it belongs to Sophos and it has something
to do with the routing off messages.

I removed Sophos fully and reinstalled without the Enterprise Remote
Management Service. Problem solved. And it looks like this problem was
introduced since Sophos added anti-spyware functionality (can't proof that
however).


Jeroen

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Jeroen

Interesting. Thanks for recording the solution.

--


Regards.

Gerry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~