Processes - one is using all my CPU and Virtual Memory

[Jason]

My computer is running dreadfully slowly and often
freezes where the only way forward is to unplug it. I
noticed that in the processes two incidents of
CIDAEMON.EXE were turning up, one took up little memory
and remained the same. The other fluctuated but would at
times use 800MB of virtual memory and therefore crippling
my computer. I have XP home, run anti virus, spybot and
ad-aware. The only thing i have done recently is add a
new DVD writer.

Can anyone help to solve this problem.

Thanks

 

[AndyMac]

CIDAEMON.EXE is part of the indexing service. It indexes the files on your
PC for quicker searching. When it's spiking like this it's normally due to
it trying to index a corrupt file on your disk.

A short term fix is to disable the indexing service.

Longer term fix is to find and delete the corrupt file. If you need help on
this then Google is your friend but the chances are it'll be a file
added/modified by your DVD writer installation.

Andy.

 

[Rocket J. Squirrel]

You are seeing XP's indexing service in action.

The indexing service creates indexes of all your documents -- like the index
of a book -- so you can search for documents containing particular words or
phrases. Very useful for some, but unneeded for many, and it does require a
lot of CPU time. For more information, lookup Indexing Service in the Help
and Support Center.

FWIW, I am very certain that I do not need this feature, so I uninstalled it
from Add or Remove Programs.

Rocky