CPU running 100% all the time

[John Smith]

I have a Dell Dimension 2350 (2.4 MHz) machine. It had been acting
oddly recently. Last week, I downloaded AVG anti-virus and
anti-spam, scanned the harddisk, found some infected files, and
deleted them. I then scanned again and again. All was fine. So, I
turned the computer off.

This morning, I turned on the computer and it was really slow. It
took at least five minutes to see the login screen. If I don't do
anything, few minutes after the login screen appears it turns into
a blue screen saying ticalc.sys is trying to access memory out of
allocation. This happened at least three times. If I log in, I
won't see the blue screen but everything is so slow. I opened the
taskmanager and found that the CUP was running at 100%.

I boot to safe mode, deleted some programs, scanned with AVG
again. All was fine. Boot to normal mode and the CPU was again
running at 100%.

I tried to open the Add/Remove programs control panel 10 minutes
ago, it's still waiting to update the list at this moment.

How do I find out which process is hogging the resources? I
checked the processes list, it seemed fine.

 

[jim]

I have a Dell Dimension 2350 (2.4 MHz) machine. It had been acting
oddly recently. Last week, I downloaded AVG anti-virus and
anti-spam, scanned the harddisk, found some infected files, and
deleted them. I then scanned again and again. All was fine. So, I
turned the computer off.

This morning, I turned on the computer and it was really slow. It
took at least five minutes to see the login screen. If I don't do
anything, few minutes after the login screen appears it turns into
a blue screen saying ticalc.sys is trying to access memory out of
allocation. This happened at least three times. If I log in, I
won't see the blue screen but everything is so slow. I opened the
taskmanager and found that the CUP was running at 100%.

I boot to safe mode, deleted some programs, scanned with AVG
again. All was fine. Boot to normal mode and the CPU was again
running at 100%.

I tried to open the Add/Remove programs control panel 10 minutes
ago, it's still waiting to update the list at this moment.

How do I find out which process is hogging the resources? I
checked the processes list, it seemed fine.

Read here http://www.howtofixcomputers.com/bb/ftopic86671.html
and especially bottom of the page .

 

[glee]

Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to open the Task Manager.
Click the Processes tab.
Click the top of the CPU column, then click it again, to sort the list by
CPU usage
from highest to lowest.
What process is using a high percenatge of the CPU?

You stated that the CPU was running at 100%....what process do you see
there using
that percentage?


Also, use a Clean Boot to try and locate the cause of the slowness.

How to configure Windows XP to start in a "clean boot" state
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

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

 

[John Smith]

I did that. The two processes that have the highest numbers are
explore.exe and taskmgr.exe. Those numbers change all the time.
The highest I have seen is below 80.

 

[Robert]

I have a Dell Dimension 2350 (2.4 MHz) machine. It had been acting
oddly recently. Last week, I downloaded AVG anti-virus and
anti-spam, scanned the harddisk, found some infected files, and
deleted them. I then scanned again and again. All was fine. So, I
turned the computer off.

This morning, I turned on the computer and it was really slow. It
took at least five minutes to see the login screen. If I don't do
anything, few minutes after the login screen appears it turns into
a blue screen saying ticalc.sys is trying to access memory out of
allocation. This happened at least three times. If I log in, I
won't see the blue screen but everything is so slow. I opened the
taskmanager and found that the CUP was running at 100%.

I boot to safe mode, deleted some programs, scanned with AVG
again. All was fine. Boot to normal mode and the CPU was again
running at 100%.

I tried to open the Add/Remove programs control panel 10 minutes
ago, it's still waiting to update the list at this moment.

How do I find out which process is hogging the resources? I
checked the processes list, it seemed fine.

John,

I work at a school and some of our staff have laptops. Last week we released
some updates. They were to do with Office 2003 and some other XP updates..

We had calls coming in from Dell PC users stating the same
problem..Everything had slowed down.

We found the Automatic updates taking forever.... You can disable this
(while you look for the solution like me...) by right clicking on My
computer, selecting manage, selecting services and applications, then
services, and stopping the Automatic updates service. This should give you
your resources back. Remebr to reverse it when you find the solution.....

Robert

 

[Poprivet]

I have a Dell Dimension 2350 (2.4 MHz) machine. It had been acting
oddly recently. Last week, I downloaded AVG anti-virus and
anti-spam, scanned the harddisk, found some infected files, and
deleted them. I then scanned again and again. All was fine. So, I
turned the computer off.

This morning, I turned on the computer and it was really slow. It
took at least five minutes to see the login screen. If I don't do
anything, few minutes after the login screen appears it turns into
a blue screen saying ticalc.sys is trying to access memory out of
allocation. This happened at least three times. If I log in, I
won't see the blue screen but everything is so slow. I opened the
taskmanager and found that the CUP was running at 100%.

I boot to safe mode, deleted some programs, scanned with AVG
again. All was fine. Boot to normal mode and the CPU was again
running at 100%.

I tried to open the Add/Remove programs control panel 10 minutes
ago, it's still waiting to update the list at this moment.

How do I find out which process is hogging the resources? I
checked the processes list, it seemed fine.

You still have a lot of malware; Reinstall from scratch is going to be your
quickest option to get back up and running.

HTH
Pop`

 

[Bill Blanton]

explore.exe or explorer.exe? There's a big difference.

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/explorezip.html

http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/virusencyclo/default5.asp?VName=TROJ_FLOOD.BI.DR&VSect=T

 

[glee]

Some of us are having a problem getting our replies to post to your
thread, *apparently* due to Chinese Traditional characters in your
encoding. I cannot successfully post to this thread using Outlook
Express, nor can some others I am in contact. I have to reply to your
thread using Opera's newsreader. Only Google Groups appears to be showing
all the replies correctly.

That said, MVP Bill Blanton has replied to you but it is not appearing
except in Google Groups.
He wrote:

<quote>
explore.exe or explorer.exe? There's a big difference.

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/explorezip.html

http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/virusencyclo/default5.asp?VName=TROJ_FLOOD.BI.DR&VSect=T
</quote>

 

[Poprivet]

That's strange; they're fine here. XP Pro SP2+, OE6. A check of his post
Headers reveals NO Chinese character settings. Interesting.

Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; delsp=yes; charset=iso-8859-15
Where do you get the Chinese stuff from?

Pop`

 

[Bill Blanton]

I (XPSP2-OE6) see the OP's header as;
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Big5
A Chinese encoded char set.

When I do a reply "to group" to one of John Smith's posts, I get a request to
install the "Chinese Traditional" language pack.

 

[Poprivet]

Ah, I see! I also looked at the wrong post for the Headers. Not my day I
guess.
Anyway, that can happen with many languages and shouldn't be any problem
to IE/OE. At least it never has been for me or for anyone else that I'm
aware of. I worked for many years with a Japanese translator doing tech
writing and never during that time did I encounter any problems by not
downloading the language paks either. Actually, you don't WANT those packs
anyway.

Sorry for the waste of time. I DID find the right post and you're right,
but I didn't try to reply to it; dinnertime was announced, and, well ... <G>

Pop`

 

[Bill Blanton]

Something about your setup is apparently different. You're the only
one in the thread that had a successful reply to the OP using OE.

This isn't specific to OE, and focuses on "mailto", but touches on the problem.
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2007/02/12/International-Mailto-URIs-in-IE7.aspx
A google on Big5 also shows it can be problematic.

I wonder why the english speaking "John Smith" from -4.00 GMT is posting
with Chinese encoding?