Computer Question

[brice618]

Alright, my computer just started acting really odd. The symptom is when watching movies it will "skip" like a cd player. This only happens when the movies are early on, loading I assume. Also it happens when watching youtube vids, as they load. Also a little bit on music. I had let my hard drive get to almost full capacity so I cleared it out thinking maybe it was dipping into my paging file and not finding anything to use. This didn't fix the problem. I haven't refragged yet (will tonight) and I would like to not reformat if I don't have to. At any rate trying to open files runs the CPU usage up to 99 percent. Page file doesn't get used.

I am trying to watch Trackheads "april pow" movie right now and watching the cpu usage is at 100% and not dropping at all.

WTF??? Am I going to have to reformatt? I haven't ever had any problems like this until now. Does it sound like hardware to you guys?

Meh, I can browse web and such easily but I doubt it would hold up to much else.

What do you guys think?

Edit to say: after watching April pow once through with it skipping the whole time it worked just fine.


also the specs on my machine are

2ghz pentium m
1gig ram
512 radeon x700
60 gig 7200 rpm hd

(this is a gateway laptop)

[Tuckerman]

Do you have any other programs/processes running in the background that could be consider recourse hogs? Is your temp file full? Goto "start" "run" in the box type "%temp%" and delete all the files that it will let you delete. Report back how many files there were. There should be no more than say 10.

[wi3dzmin]

Clicked on any greeting cards lately?

[PowTron]

Run Ad-Aware and Spybot for cheap (free)...could possibly have some background programs running that you are not aware of. Also, if everything is completely clean and free, have you noticed a slow down on your browsing and other things, even though it can still access the web?

If the machine is good, and it is only on streaming video or posted video (youtube, TGR, etc), check with your ISP and tell them to speed the gerbils up at the head end and get you your speed you desire.

Go to www.speedtest.net and run a few tests to check your connection...

[Sensisnow]

Is there any way you could copy/paste your running processes? Sounds like you probably have some sort of malware eating up your system resources.

[brice618]

No greeting cards. Shouldn't be any viruses.

Its really odd, the System Idle Process takes up 99 on the cpu when i'm not running anything. I don't know if thats out of the ordinary, I haven't ever given it much attention to check. I don't see anything that looks out of place. Other than that.

The temp had about 350 megs of files in it. From mostly internet (98 percent) and some photoshop. There were a lot of files in it.

[brice618]

Run Ad-Aware and Spybot for cheap (free)...could possibly have some background programs running that you are not aware of. Also, if everything is completely clean and free, have you noticed a slow down on your browsing and other things, even though it can still access the web?

If the machine is good, and it is only on streaming video or posted video (youtube, TGR, etc), check with your ISP and tell them to speed the gerbils up at the head end and get you your speed you desire.

Go to www.speedtest.net and run a few tests to check your connection...

Its not the interweb that is the problem as it does it on files that are already on the HD, I have run adaware already (a week ago). I guess i'll try spybot too.

[PowTron]

Its not the interweb that is the problem as it does it on files that are already on the HD, I have run adaware already (a week ago). I guess i'll try spybot too.

Ok, I wasn't too clear on if it was internet or on-board videos as well.

Spybot will help a tiny bit, but if you already ran ad-aware, and it is pretty much clear, then as some others have mentioned, SOMETHING has to be eating up that processor...

or, in a very RARE event, the processor itself could be ready to take a dirt nap...how new is it? Call Gateway, learn how to understand Pakistani, then tell them your issue...good luck!

[brice618]

The computer 2 years old. So it shouldn't be dieing yet. I did have to get the motherboard replaced a few months ago.

[brice618]

started checking them one by one with ones that look suspicious...


skypePM.exe
itunes.exe
wbalance.exe
sac-desktopalert
ipodservice
firefox
skype.exe
taskmgr.exe
daemon.exe (daemon tools not virus)
aim6.exe
ituneshelper.exe
qttask.exe
jusched.exe
acrotray.exe
vptray.exe
ccapp.exe
explorer.exe
ati2evxx.exe
spbbcsvc.exe
arubaservice.exe (vpn software)
applemobiledevice.exe
ccevtmgr.exe
aawservice.exe
alg.exe <worm>
ccsetmgr.exe
svchost.exe (5 of them)
ati2evxx.exe
lsass.exe <worm>
services.exe
winlogon.exe
csrss.exe <worm>
smss.exe
spoolsv.exe
rtvscan.exe
defwatch.exe
system
system idle process

[Sensisnow]

svchose.exe (5 of them)


Is this svchose.exe or svchost.exe?

The latter is normal, but svchose.exe is a trojan!

[brice618]

host* sorry fixed it.

[wi3dzmin]

netstat -ano

Generally a good way to see if you are whoring yourself to the world if that's what you are thinking.

[brice618]

cmd line i'm guessing... i'll check it.

[brice618]

how is 27? seems like a lot

[Tuckerman]

Also sort your processes by mem usage and see who using the most of that 1 gig. I would kill itunes unless your listing to music while watching movies.

[wi3dzmin]

how is 27? seems like a lot

Huh? You should see a table of active connections to/from your machine.

My thoughts are trying to reinstall stuff that's slow or run with different software. I doubt an owned box would ever sit at 99&#37; idle.

[brice618]

http://www.briceharris.net/connections.jpg

[fonixmunkee]

started checking them one by one with ones that look suspicious...

alg.exe <worm>

svchost.exe (5 of them)

lsass.exe <worm>

csrss.exe <worm>


None of these are worms, you are OK. They are system processes.

If you are sure you are adware/spyware/virus free, I'd try some tweak guides out there. Shutting off services that run by default on WinXP but aren't required help free up a lot of resources. I've used this one for ever: http://www.beemerworld.com/tips/servicesxp.htm

Good luck!

EDIT: Also, get rid of the SAC desktop alert...install the Firefox extension instead. I emailed the SAC people twice about a huge memory leak in their application that comes and goes randomly. I finally just uninstalled it.

Also, do a Start -> Run -> "msconfig" and disable the Qttask.exe, acrotray.exe, and jsched.exe from starting up. They are useless.

[fonixmunkee]

http://www.briceharris.net/connections.jpg

This looks fine...I see some AOL connections, some web traffic (probably you reading this thread!), and then the normal Win XP shit. Do you have a Half-Life or Counter-Strike server running on your box? That's usually what 27015 is...

...and you were on YouTube when this screenshot was taken.

[brice618]

no hl servers running, thought i used to. and yes i was on youtube looking at snr's girlfriends videos. :fmicon:

[brice618]

did all of that and still doing it. albeit less, but for it to come up out of nowhere and be so bad just doesn't make sense.

[fonixmunkee]

Brice: not sure what else could be doing it. I know over time, Win XP just gets shitty on me and the only thing I can do is reload. I know it's not what you want to do, but you've tried everything else. I wish I had more input...I'm sure someone smarter than me might be able to help more in that regard.

Have you tried a different media player? Not sure what you are using (I hope not Windows Media player or any bundled media players), but try Windows Media Player Classic or VLC...see if that helps.

[PowTron]

The computer 2 years old. So it shouldn't be dieing yet. I did have to get the motherboard replaced a few months ago.

Well, getting your motherboard replaced already, and the computer is ONLY 2 years old, should prove that other hardware could possibly be crapping out on you as well...;)

In any event, re-install XP and good luck. If that doesn't work, realize how shitty Microsoft is in general, and go Linux or MAC...enjoy!

[brice618]

I know, I have started to do linux a few times, but I have several programs that I need to use that linux won't support (cad, photoshop, and 3-d modeling stuff). So until I get a MAC i'm stuck. Defragged last night and still no change. It feels like its running out of either ram or processing power. Maybe both, but it hasn't ever done this before, and definitely shouldn't be.

Yeah its not the media player or really anything software (beyond maybe windows and general deterioration of it) related, as its taking probably 5 to 7 minutes just to boot up.

[hemas]

Yeah its not the media player or really anything software (beyond maybe windows and general deterioration of it) related, as its taking probably 5 to 7 minutes just to boot up.

Run some registry-cleaners... MS is shitty in that respect, even though you remove a program with it's installer etc. Windooza will often still leave a lot of shite in the registry...

[wi3dzmin]

hd is dying me thinks.

[brice618]

i think you may be right wi3dzmin

[Odin]

Start backing up your stuff.

[brice618]

I already have. The registry didn't help anything. Though it did find a lot of crap.

[brice618]

there is now a beeping and clicking coming from the vecinity of the HD ... i think its going to crap. everything is backed up... guess its time to find a new one.

[fonixmunkee]

I think you fucking jinxed me, Brice. Guess what my computer started to do today after I got back from the weekend...:mad:

[brice618]

I think its safe to say its my HD. I can watch movies off the CD-ROM with no glitches. which makes sense... only uses a little ram and mostly processor

Sucks ass doesn't it fonix!

[RShea]

What brand hard drive is it? Most of the major companies (Seagate, Western Digital are the 2 biggest) have their own hard drive testing and diagnostics program. Download it from the brands web site and run on your system - as per their instructions. If it is not a brand that has one (Toshiba and a few others do not) then run the Hitachi (Drive Fitness Test) or Seagate's version (Seatools) as they will test any brand drive and report back good or errors encountered.

[brice618]

Its a hitachi, i will run the drive fitness test
thanks!

[brice618]

ran it and had janked sector other than that it was ok though. I fixed the sector and still nothing, I'm guessing the mechanical parts of the HD are dieing.

[brice618]

Update:

New HD fixed it. Thanks for the help guys!

[fonixmunkee]

Update:

New HD fixed it. Thanks for the help guys!

Guess I know what I'm buying today...thanks for letting us know what the solution is...and congrats to w1z for figuring it out!

[fonixmunkee]

Hey Brice (and anyone else)

I found this free hard drive testing and repair utility. I used it, and sure as shit, it said "your hard drive is fucked." You should of heard the noises going from my drive; squeaking and sounding like it was going to take off. It's repairing my drive right now.

Anyway, see if this can maybe save your old HDD if you still want:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk