High CPU usage

[M&K]

I am trying to make a switch from our cable internet to DSL. I have not been
able to configure my SBC DSL connection for use yet. This is why:

Everytime I move my ethernet connection from my cable modem to my DSL modem,
or if I simply disconnect the CAT5 cable from my NIC, my CPU jumps to 100%
and I have to power cycle the PC to bring it back to normal, even if I have
restored the connection.

I have swapped NIC cards. No difference. Spyware was my first thought, so I
have run Spybot, AdAware, and Spysweeper. I have also run a complete virus
scan and Norton found something called Winfetch which I deleted.

I am just about ready to format my hard drive and do a re-install. But if
anyone here can shed some light on this, and save me the trouble, I would be
grateful.

Thanks

m

 

[Leythos]

I am trying to make a switch from our cable internet to DSL. I have not been
able to configure my SBC DSL connection for use yet. This is why:

Everytime I move my ethernet connection from my cable modem to my DSL modem,
or if I simply disconnect the CAT5 cable from my NIC, my CPU jumps to 100%
and I have to power cycle the PC to bring it back to normal, even if I have
restored the connection.

I have swapped NIC cards. No difference. Spyware was my first thought, so I
have run Spybot, AdAware, and Spysweeper. I have also run a complete virus
scan and Norton found something called Winfetch which I deleted.

I am just about ready to format my hard drive and do a re-install. But if
anyone here can shed some light on this, and save me the trouble, I would be
grateful.

Before you take the time to reinstall, unplug the box, leave it
unplugged, go to a computer store, get a ROUTER with NAT, install it
between your the DSL modem and your PC, then wipe/reinstall the system.
By having the router between your computer and the internet you can
safely get started without being directly exposed to all the threats on
the net.

This will let you rebuild the system, install the updates, load the
Antivirus programs, and then configure the router to work with DSL.

 

[DanS]

I am trying to make a switch from our cable internet to DSL. I have
not been able to configure my SBC DSL connection for use yet. This is
why:

Everytime I move my ethernet connection from my cable modem to my DSL
modem, or if I simply disconnect the CAT5 cable from my NIC, my CPU
jumps to 100% and I have to power cycle the PC to bring it back to
normal, even if I have restored the connection.

I have swapped NIC cards. No difference. Spyware was my first thought,
so I have run Spybot, AdAware, and Spysweeper. I have also run a
complete virus scan and Norton found something called Winfetch which I
deleted.

I am just about ready to format my hard drive and do a re-install. But
if anyone here can shed some light on this, and save me the trouble, I
would be grateful.

Thanks

m

While i agree with the part about getting a NAT box and not plugging your
pc directly into the modem, I must say that this should be able to be fixed
w/o a format/reinstall.

I know people that seem to do this every few months, when 90% of the time,
the problem can be fixed.

Did you look thru the event logs ? Have the task manager open to the
processes and then unplug the cable and see what process is doing it. When
you find that out, maybe you can dig a little deeper.

By swapping cards, did you un-install everything that was installed with
the original card, in safe-mode ?

Does Windows 2000 have a safe-mode w/networking startup option (it's been a
while since I've admin'd a 2k box). If so, with that start-up option, does
this still happen when you unplug the cable ?

What about uninstalling the first card, in safe mode, then swapping in the
second card and connecting it to the new DSL modem, THEN starting the
computer and installing the card drivers ?

regards,

DanS

 

[Leythos]

While i agree with the part about getting a NAT box and not plugging your
pc directly into the modem, I must say that this should be able to be fixed
w/o a format/reinstall.

I know people that seem to do this every few months, when 90% of the time,
the problem can be fixed.

I agree, a competent person, one with skill in removal of Viruses and
Worms, one with skill in editing the Registry, etc.... Could remove it
fully without any remnants.

In most cases, people that get infected don't have enough skill to keep
from getting infected, let alone enough skill to remove a virus/worm
completely.

It's safer to assume that anyone ignorant enough (not a slam, against
the OP, just no other way to put it) to get infected does not know
enough to remove it completely without some chance that it's not hiding
somewhere.

A wipe/reinstall from a CD will ensure a clean system in 99.9% of cases.
The router will keep the OP from being infected while doing the install
and updates.

 

[M&K]

Thanks guys.

By the way, I do have a router with NAT setup between my system and the big
bad world.

mm

 

[DanS]

Thanks guys.

By the way, I do have a router with NAT setup between my system and
the big bad world.

mm

<SNIP>

Did you get anywhere ? Since there is a NAT rtr involved already, that
makes thing a little different.

You shouldn't have to do anything to the PC to switch from cable to DSL,
since it's on the OTHER side of the rtr, not that the CPU usage thing
isn't an issue.

The DSL may use PtPOE, which it would tell you in any documentation that
came with the DSL package.

Another stupid question, but you did reboot the router after connecting
it to the DSL modem right ?

One more item about the reformatting/reinstalling thing....many many
times people jump the gun on this one. This box was originally a 98SE
machine which I built in 2000 (?). I then installed XP, as an upgrade
from 98, not a clean install, in October of 2001. There was a few
problems between now and then, but nothing that I wasn't able to fix.
Good, logical troubleshooting skills will go a long way. Software
issue's, a little spyware a WHILE ago, hardware problems like a bad stick
of RAM and a fussy CPU fan controller on the motherboard, were tracked
down and fixed without having to do a format c:.

Keep us up to date....

Regards,

DanS

 

[Leythos]

This box was originally a 98SE
machine which I built in 2000 (?). I then installed XP, as an upgrade
from 98, not a clean install, in October of 2001.

The idea of doing an IN-PLACE upgrade, while it works, leave a lot of
left over crap on a system and in most cases it does not leave the
system in an optimal state. In fact, you can see dramatic increases in
performance by wiping/reinstalling your system every year.

I know this of OT, but you might want to reinstall and see just how much
faster your machine is.

You should also defrag, using a third-party (Diskeeper) defragger every
week, even do the boot-time defrag once a month.

 

[DanS]

The idea of doing an IN-PLACE upgrade, while it works, leave a lot of
left over crap on a system and in most cases it does not leave the
system in an optimal state. In fact, you can see dramatic increases in
performance by wiping/reinstalling your system every year.

I agree. But with other consistant smart maintenance, this can be kept to
a minimum.

I know this of OT, but you might want to reinstall and see just how much
faster your machine is.

I want to, been planning to, even picked up a new 80 gig hd, but.... if
it ain't broken.....

I've also been trying to layout my new install, which is obviously going
to be quite custom, from the start. It really bugs me that M$ thinks I
want my computer a certain way. One of the biggest gripes I have is,
let's call it the 'My' folder's...My Music, My Download's, My Webs, My
This, My That.....which it creates and then re-creates if you delete
them. I just recently found that if you unregister mydocs.dll it stops
Windows from doing this.

You should also defrag, using a third-party (Diskeeper) defragger every
week, even do the boot-time defrag once a month.

I think I ran a full defrag 3 or 4 months ago. Before that, it was at
least a year. To be completely honest, I noticed no difference after it
was run. I was thinking it would make a big difference, but I was
disappointed that it did not. Keep in mind I didn't run any before/after
benchmarks, and it was the M$ defrag, but my perception was no different.

Regards,

DanS

 

[Leythos]

I think I ran a full defrag 3 or 4 months ago. Before that, it was at
least a year. To be completely honest, I noticed no difference after it
was run. I was thinking it would make a big difference, but I was
disappointed that it did not. Keep in mind I didn't run any before/after
benchmarks, and it was the M$ defrag, but my perception was no different.

Since the early days of programming and design, I've abused my systems
to the max, hundreds of new files per day, deletes, etc... I experience
massive fragmentation in most cases. I see a tremendous performance
increase in loading/saving documents, and such after a full defrag.
About 2 years ago I bought and installed Diskeeper and leave it running
in the background so that my files no longer get fragmented.

As for others, many users never utilize the space on their drives, and
while that doesn't mean they wont fragment, it does mean they are less
likely to fragment. For people that have 40+ GB drives and only 8GB of
utilized space, it won't mean much, but to be fair you were talking
about a upgraded machine, something that made it seem like it was used
extensively, which would benefit for defragmentation.

If you use the Windows Built-In defrag tool you are not getting a full
defrag, only a partial - Diskeeper will move Directory entries, page
file, etc.... Windows Defrag only moves file, not the rest of it.

 

[M&K]

Thanks to everyone on their input.

I'm a Net Admin, so I have lot of utils at my disposal to try and keep my
home system running happy.

Unfortunately, I also have two teenage sons that browse websites that I know
are packed with all kinds of cookies and ad ware. My wife is also a devout
internet shopper, so there's a consideration. I gave up on IE a few months
back and went to Firefox for web browsing. But only because a lot of this
stuff is written to slam on IE.

Anyway, my point is, I have found that since everyone at work has their own
workstation, I can predict and treat issues on an individual basis and
prepare for them accordingly. Here at home, I have four people doodling
around on this system and I get a lot of "I swear I wasn't doing
anything!!". The last thing I want to do is play Net Admin here at home
after putting my time in at the office. But......

So, I have spent several hours of my weekend following the troubleshooting
tips outlined here and from what I have learned on the job. And as much as I
would like to figure this thing out, the time has come for me to just dump
the thing and do a clean re-install. I wish I coulda slayed this dragon, but
life is too short.

mm

 

[DanS]

Thanks to everyone on their input.

I'm a Net Admin, so I have lot of utils at my disposal to try and keep
my home system running happy.

Unfortunately, I also have two teenage sons that browse websites that
I know are packed with all kinds of cookies and ad ware. My wife is
also a devout internet shopper, so there's a consideration. I gave up
on IE a few months back and went to Firefox for web browsing. But only
because a lot of this stuff is written to slam on IE.

Anyway, my point is, I have found that since everyone at work has
their own workstation, I can predict and treat issues on an individual
basis and prepare for them accordingly. Here at home, I have four
people doodling around on this system and I get a lot of "I swear I
wasn't doing anything!!". The last thing I want to do is play Net
Admin here at home after putting my time in at the office. But......

So, I have spent several hours of my weekend following the
troubleshooting tips outlined here and from what I have learned on the
job. And as much as I would like to figure this thing out, the time
has come for me to just dump the thing and do a clean re-install. I
wish I coulda slayed this dragon, but life is too short.

mm

What a bummer.