Help! program running in the background

[meggsie04]

Im running XP home, computer is 12 months old, 80hd and 1g ram. Recently I started having problems, freezing, windows not closing down. Slow booting and shutting down. When trying to bring up a web page its painfully slow.

A tech has spent hours on it, run everything you can think of and still cant find the problem. Every time I try to log onto a web page, the CPU graph on task manager goes crazy, flat lining at almost 100% and it doesn't come down. All steps to clean the system have been taken, that we can think of anyway.

Has anyone experienced this??, or have any idea's or suggestions to make..

[Krakatu]

Hi Meggsie,

It has been my experience that when a computer takes too long to boot or shut down, it is because a service is hanging somewhere. Look at your event logs. One option is to clear all your event logs and then reboot your system, anything that hangs should be dumped into the log file

Edited July 26, 2008 by Krakatu

[CoffeeFiend]

Download process explorer, run it, and take a screenshot. This way we'll see what's pegging the CPU.

[MIKE MANE 60]

If you have a look at "Processes" in Task Manager and see what is using 100% CPU you are going to be well on the way to finding out what the problem is. I'm thinking your Tech is not quite as Tech as he/she is making out, or charging you a lot of money ! XP is very easy to fault find and fix. If someone is telling you different, - beware !

First step when this sort of thing starts to happen is:- Backup all of you data in case you get a complete crash. (CD's, DVD's or external disk etc;)

Once you have done that, have a go at getting it back to "Factory Settings" if you have a disk supplied with the PC.

Or completely re-install XP if you have an original copy.

Sounds a bit drastic maybe, but with your level of understanding at the moment I can see you getting ripped off by a con artist, or for ever more bouncing back and forth on this forum (or others).

We could start talking about MSCONFIG, Safe Mode, Selective startup, and many other things to help you but I think it would perhaps be time consuming, and perhaps a little difficult for you. I am not talking down to you in this situation, but as you have had to turn to a "Tech" to help you out I am taking it that your level of computer understanding is not that great.

Sometimes someone will come along, - make a suggestion, and it will fix the problem (Lucky shot) so keep a watch on here for any other cures for your problem. It can happen.

All the best of luck Meggsie.

[CoffeeFiend]

If you have a look at "Processes" in Task Manager and see what is using 100% CPU

Task manager doesn't show a LOT of stuff (like services, hardware interrupts, etc), that's why I suggested Process Explorer (it's easily 100000x better).

I'm thinking your Tech is not quite as Tech as he/she is making out

Ya, no kidding. Finding a pegged process isn't rocket science. A tech who can't do this is in the wrong field. But then again, incompetence is everywhere.

That Process Explorer screenshot would show us exactly what's sucking all the CPU power (alt-printscreen, paste in mspaint, save as png, upload on imageshack.us, paste link here).

[eyeball]

+1 for process explorer

[JedMeister]

+1 for what crahak said!