syfer

Well that didn't last long - it's back to the same problem again I tried stopping services as per your suggestions and got it down to four: http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac112/r..._shutdown_2.jpg ...You can see the error I got when I tried to stop RasMan. TapiSrv came up saying that the service depended on RasMan and could not be stopped (as you said), so have a catch-22 there. Windows Time indicated in Services that it was stopping, but never did. I appreciate your assistance and will keep investigating...

Googling led me to try deleting my host file, as it had over 100,000 entries (I'm using Hostsman). The current size is now 15,000. This seems to have "fixed" the problem for now, but I'll have to use it for awhile to be sure. I recently updated my audio & video drivers, but will check others and will also try stopping Services again using your suggestions if the problem returns. Thanks for referring me to the Hotfix. It looks like it does address the problem, although the percentage of CPU that svchost.exe uses isn't gradual. When it starts happening - and it might be immediately after resume or it might be 10 minutes later - it always hits 85-100% all of a sudden. I don't see a mention of the Hotfix in Service Pack 3; maybe it wasn't included. There's no working download link for the Hotfix either, so apparently you have to contact Microsoft to get it. Well see if the hosts fix sticks. I'll keep you posted... B)

Thanks for responding. There are 23 services in that process. I was able to stop all but 10 of them, but there was no change in CPU usage. XP won't let me stop the rest - I assume that they are essential to the OS: http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac112/r...ot_shutdown.jpg

CPU usage goes to 100% whenever my machine resumes from standby. Opening most apps then takes about 10-35 seconds. Rebooting drops CPU usage to 6% or less and everything is back to normal. It remains that way until the machine goes back into standby and is awakened again. Event Viewer shows no warnings or errors. I have Process Explorer installed and I can see that svchost.exe is using 85-100% of the CPU on resume, but I'm not well versed with PE so I'm not sure where to go from there. My system: CPU: AMD 64 3000+ Motherboard: Asus A8N5X HD: 160 Gb Seagate ST3200826AS Video Card: Asus/GeForce 6600GT Ram: 1 Gb OS: XP Home SP3 Any help is appreciated...

LLXX - Follow-up... after studying my motherboard's User's Guide, the BIOS utility setup appears to be correct after all, so I guess I would have to admit that this was "much ado about nothing" on my part. Thank you for all your help... Sorry about that - syfer

Reflash the BIOS with the newest version from the manufacturer's site. That should remove any virus residing in the BIOS. Before I do a flash, I'm wondering if I just need to make sure that all of my BIOS defaults have been reloaded from my motherboard software on my original MSI cd. Does that sound like a possibility? - Thanks

OK... WAIT A SECOND! You were right! I had been using Webroot "Spy Sweeper" off & on with my system. While running it to scan my back-up files on a DVD, the elusive "Internet Explorer is not currently your default browser - Would you like to make it your default browser?" suddenly popped up. I answered yes. Keeping in mind what you had posted about your MS anti-spy program, I shut down Spy Sweeper. Now each browser in turn was asking to be the default browser... it was working again! Apparently Spy Sweeper WAS running in resident status in my previous tests and I had somehow overlooked this. One of it's options - "IE Security Sheild" - was blocking the default browser queries. As soon as I disabled it the queries returned. THANK YOU!!!

No, I meant I performed a complete Clean Install of XP sp2. After that I tried installing just IE6 and Firefox - no Anti-virus, no Anti-spyware programs, nothing. Both still load without asking for the default browser. Sorry, I don't know what you mean by "check point" settings (please refer to my list of what I have already done). - Thanks

I have posted this query to several newsgroups and forums over the last week. So far, no one has been able to provide a solution... My AMD64 system was infected by several tojans & viruses from "Spy Sheriff". I was able to remove everything, but now IE 6 won't ask to be the default browser. (this worked fine before the malware attack). A number of options that used to be there also appear to be missing from my BIOS setup listing, including the "Built-in Virus Protection". Here is what I have already tried without success: -Virtually every combination of "...should check to see if it is the default browser" in both IE6 and Firefox, both before and after rebooting. -Every possible combination of settings in Add/Remove Programs > Set Program Access and Defaults, both before and after rebooting. -"Reset Web Settings" in IE6 -Changing URL file associations in File Types for both IE6 & FF. -Clicked on Add/Remove Windows Components, then selected Internet Explorer and clicked Next (possible clue: this worked once; Explorer asked to be the default. After rebooting it stopped working. Repeating the process now has no effect.) -Ran sfc /scannow. (BTW, in my first install it didn't report any errors. Now it always asks for my XP disk to copy files to the DLL cache whenever I run it.) -Downloaded and ran reg fix from windows.mvps.org/reg/: IE_Default_Browser.reg -Typed command shmgrate.exe OCInstallReinstallIE in Run box, hit enter. -Edited reg key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ http \ shell \ open \ command, replacing the existing (default) value to the text "something.exe". Rebooted. -Tried running IEFIX: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/iefix.htm -Downloaded and ran the following registry fixes from kellys-korner-xp.com: stbrws14.exe (#88: Set Default Browser In Windows) defaultbrowser.reg (#106: Lock Default Browser) checkassoc.reg (#247: Set IE to Check for Default Browser -Undid all reg fixes above, then tried each one again after rebooting. -Removed and reinstalled Firefox, once with earlier version, once with latest version. -Changed registry to reflect that IE6 was not installed, then reinstalled IE6. -Performed Repair Install (twice) -Repeated ALL steps above after each Repair Install -Performed Clean Install (why didn't this fix it???) Please NOW in Microsoft Windows XP section, use [TAGS] in your topic's title. See rules --Sonic