Strange slowdown problem

[Cervino]

I have win XP SP2 with the latest updates and I'm using ESET NOD32
antivirus/antipsyware sofware, and sit behind a hardware firewall. It's been
running fine for 2+ years, but recently I've noticed that after I boot up, if
I open up windows explorer and leave it running for several minutes, my
computer will start running very slowly. Checking the task manager,
explorer.exe will show up as consuming 97-98% of the cpu activity. I've run a
full system antivirus/antispyware scan, run Microsoft's malicious software
tool in its deepest scanning mode, and nothing turned up. I defragmented my
disks and then the system ran fine for a week even with two or more windows
explorer instance open.

Then today the same slowdown symptoms reappeared. Did all the scans again,
checked if disks needed defraging (they didn't). As long as I reboot and
don't start up windows explorer, the computer never slows down.

Are there any other software problems I should investigate? Or is there
perhaps a hardware problem that could cause such symptoms?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Roger Rabbit]

We found Nero 7 Essentials capable of causing this problem on some systems.
Ahead has an updated version, you need your original key to install it.
www.ahead.de.

 

[Gerry]

Are you leaving your computer on 24/7?

How much RAM memory?

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

You should be able to gather more information from Task Manager. With
the Processes tab open select View, Select, Columns and check the boxes
before Peak Memory Usage and Virtual Memory size. What are the figures
for the 6 processes using the largest amounts?

Open Disk Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report and
click on Save As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents
Folder and post a copy. Do this before running Disk Defragmenter as it
is more informative.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp to
Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Cervino]

That could be it! I just put Nero 7 Essentials on a couple weeks ago and the
slowdown problems started after that. I'll check into this.

 

[Cervino]

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, after uninstalling Nero 7
Essentials and using cccleaner to clean up what Nero's uninstaller left
behind, I'm still experiencing the symptoms.

 

[Cervino]

Thanks for your reply. In answer to your questions, yes I run my computer
24/7 and always have. Ram is 4GB.

Under Taskmanager, Commit Change:
Total: 404,990 - 405,200
Limit: 4,030,016
Peak: 444,724

PMU and VM size for the six largest programs:
Firefox.exe 79,852 64,300
ekrn.exe 39,448 26,614
svchost.exe 33,120 17,500
Overclk.exe 15,132 8500
kodaksvc.exe 11,220 15,284
nsvcip.exe 8952 5944

All of the above are reporting essentially 0% CPU usage as explorer.exe is
reporting 98-99%

I'm waiting for disk cleanup to finish gathering and removing all restore
points but the latest one. Since the machine is running terribly slowly, it's
taking awhile. Since I had already defraged my disks a few days ago, there
wasn't much in the analysis reports aside from the disks not needing
defraging. I also used cccleaner to clean up a bunch of broken links in the
registry and clear out other problems.

 

[Gerry]

Firefox can be problematic. This link is an interesting one:
http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/20...-usage-high-cpu-usage-whats-up-with-this-now/

Are you using Hibernation? Does Firefox ever get closed given the
computer is on 24/7?

Overclk.exe
http://www.techspot.com/startup/3600/

Overclocking is not a topic I am familiar with. Interestingly you have a
choice of loading it at start up or later. How are you using it?

kodaksvc.exe
The Spycops are trying to decide whether this file is malware. Have you
installed Kodak Easyshare?

nsvcip.exe
http://www.spyany.com/files/nsvcip_exe.html
You have two Firewalls!

Leaving your computer on 24/7 is not to be recommended.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~