Something Is Running In The Background but I Can't find it

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G

Guest

Hi,

I have a new Dell PC with Windows XP professional all connected to a
Wireless Router and Wirelss Printer.

Everything has been running very fast until a few days ago, when I started
hearing sounds in my hard drive like something was running even though I was
only at my desktop not doing anything at that moment. The system is also
running somewhat slower. I assume there must be a program loading or running
but can't find out to troubleshoot this. I have down some things on my own,
like disable the MacAfee Virus Scanner / Firewall; and run Adaware and
Spy-Bot to check for spyware. I even when into the running processes window
and for the most part, can pretty much account for most of the applications
or processes that are running (I looked up what each of them met). So, where
can i go from here?
 
Frank said:
Hi,

I have a new Dell PC with Windows XP professional all connected to a
Wireless Router and Wirelss Printer.

Everything has been running very fast until a few days ago, when I started
hearing sounds in my hard drive like something was running even though I
was
only at my desktop not doing anything at that moment. The system is also
running somewhat slower. I assume there must be a program loading or
running
but can't find out to troubleshoot this. I have down some things on my
own,
like disable the MacAfee Virus Scanner / Firewall; and run Adaware and
Spy-Bot to check for spyware. I even when into the running processes
window
and for the most part, can pretty much account for most of the
applications
or processes that are running (I looked up what each of them met). So,
where
can i go from here?

Did you do something (like install a program, etc) a "few days ago"? Look
back, and see. if you did, uninstall it, do a system restore ro right before
that install (it is possible that it will show up in SR as that installed
item).

Other than that, try also turning off indexing service.

Start/Run and type (no quotes) "services.msc", and hit enter. Scroll down to
Indexing Service, right click on it, choose properties. Click to "Stop" the
service, and in the "Startup type" drop down box, choose "Disable", and OK
out. See if that helps.
 
Frank said:
Everything has been running very fast until a
few days ago, when I started hearing sounds
in my hard drive like something was running
even though I was only at my desktop not
doing anything at that moment. The system is
also running somewhat slower. I assume there
must be a program loading or running but can't
find out to troubleshoot this. I have done some
things on my own, like disable the MacAfee
Virus Scanner / Firewall; and run Adaware
and Spy-Bot to check for spyware. (snip)


Given that you've checked all the normal things, have you also checked to
see if Windows Update or the auto update feature of some program is trying
to download and install in the background? If so, this would certainly cause
disk activity and decrease performance somewhat. Many forget to check this
and I've never seen an MVP here even mention it.

Stewart
 

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