PC is constantly churning

[John \(alias Victor Meldrew\)]

Hi - Any ideas about this please?

My WinXP PC is constantly churning away to itself: it has been doing this
for months and, whatever I try, doesn't cure it. I suspected malicious
software but the Windows malicious software tool doesn't find anything (I
have just tried again). Doing a Ctrl-Alt-Del and clicking on the
Applications tab doesn't show any programs running. Running Anti-Virus
(Norton), RegCure and Ad-Aware doesn't find anything either. Oh dear - a
right bind!

Would appreciate any help ...

Cheers,
John
(alias 'I don't believe it!' Victor Meldrew)
- to reply, omit the "zy"

 

[Pete Puma]

Hi - Any ideas about this please?

My WinXP PC is constantly churning away to itself: it has been doing
this for months and, whatever I try, doesn't cure it. I suspected
malicious software but the Windows malicious software tool doesn't find
anything (I have just tried again). Doing a Ctrl-Alt-Del and clicking
on the Applications tab doesn't show any programs running. Running
Anti-Virus (Norton), RegCure and Ad-Aware doesn't find anything either.
Oh dear - a right bind!

Would appreciate any help ...

Cheers,
John
(alias 'I don't believe it!' Victor Meldrew) - to reply, omit the "zy"

Is your XP set to index the hard drive? Uncheck that box and find "Locate" instead.
Are you file sharing without knowing it?

What else have you tried?

 

[Pete Puma]

Hi - Any ideas about this please?

My WinXP PC is constantly churning away to itself: it has been doing
this for months and, whatever I try, doesn't cure it. I suspected
malicious software but the Windows malicious software tool doesn't find
anything (I have just tried again). Doing a Ctrl-Alt-Del and clicking
on the Applications tab doesn't show any programs running. Running
Anti-Virus (Norton), RegCure and Ad-Aware doesn't find anything either.
Oh dear - a right bind!

Would appreciate any help ...

Cheers,
John
(alias 'I don't believe it!' Victor Meldrew) - to reply, omit the "zy"

Oh--posted too soon--how about defragging in the background, that's a likely culprit...

 

[John \(alias Victor Meldrew\)]

Forget to mention that I've also tried Norton Systemworks: 'Norton
WinDoctor'.


Cheers,

 

[John \(alias Victor Meldrew\)]

Hi Pete

Many thanks for your thoughts - I'll study them more carefully when I get
back from a day out today.

Cheers
John

 

[Curt Christianson]

Hi John,

All of the suggestions thus far are legitimate possibilities for the HD
activity you describe. One can't be too careful when it comes to malware.
One companies products may simply catch one the other missed.

I personally would add these two (and have):
Spybot Search and Destroy (this is a brand new addition v. 1.5.2
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html and the other one would be :
Windows Defender
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Be sure to check each applications"up-to-date" status. Many times a fresh
download does not include the most recent definitions.
--
HTH,

Curt

http://dundats.mvps.org/
http://www.aumha.org/

 

[John \(alias Victor Meldrew\)]

Hi Curt

Many thanks for your ideas on this. I hope I'm not rejoicing too soon (!)
but I think it JUST possible that, through a flook action on my part, the
problem may have been solved. I don't use my WinXP Pc that much these days
so it may be a little while before I can be sure. In any event, I will, of
course, report back.

Thanks again - and here's hoping ...

John

 

[John \(alias Victor Meldrew\)]

Hi Curt

Many thanks for your ideas on this. I hope I'm not rejoicing too soon (!)
but I think it JUST possible that, through a flook action on my part, the
problem may have been solved. I don't use my WinXP Pc that much these days
so it may be a little while before I can be sure. In any event, I will, of
course, report back.

Thanks again - and here's hoping ...

John

 

[John \(alias Victor Meldrew\)]

Hi Curt

Many thanks for your ideas on this. I hope I'm not rejoicing too soon (!)
but I think it JUST possible that, through a flook action on my part, the
problem may have been solved. I don't use my WinXP Pc that much these days
so it may be a little while before I can be sure. In any event, I will, of
course, report back.

Thanks again - and here's hoping ...

John

 

[John \(alias Victor Meldrew\)]

Hi Folks

Well, it DOES look as though the churning problem might have been
vercome - as I mentioned earlier, I took a flook action: here's what I did
.....

Did a 'Start, Control Panel, Scheduled Tasks'.

Though I didn't know why they were there or what exactly they did, I
recognized two of the Tasks as being related to software I knew I had
i.e.:-
Task "RegCure Program Check" (I have RegCure);
Task "Symantec Drmc" (I have Symantec's Norton SystemWorks).

For each Task, I did a right-click on 'Name' (of Task) then, on the
drop-down list, chose 'Properties'. Then I clicked on the 'Settings' tab.
In both cases, an item 'Stop the task if it runs for __ hours __ mins' had
been set to a very high figure - from memory I think it was 72 hours. I
changed these to "5 mins".

I tried things out this morning and, though there is still occasional
activity, its nothing like as much as it has been.

SO, here's hoping!

Many thanks to Pete and Curt for their help (I have taken the precaution of
keeping copies of their messages - just in case!!)

Cheers,
John
(alias 'I don't believe it!' Victor Meldrew)
- to reply, omit the "zy"