Something is causing major slowdown problems

Whiggles · 10-01-04, 04:03 PM

I really hope someone can help me with this, because this is something like the fifth time I've had this problem in as many months, and on every occasion the only fix has been a complete reformat, which I REALLY want to avoid this time.

This happens without warning and once it's started it seems to be permanent. I suddenly get huge amounts of slowdown in pretty much everything. Every five seconds, my CPU usage spikes to around 50% (in the Task Manager the System process is shown as being the culprit) and everything slows to a crawl. Screen savers, games, the works. Just about the only thing that doesn't seem to be affected is video playback (AVIs, DVDs and so on all work fine). System restore doesn't work, rebooting doesn't work. Removing video drivers doesn't work. The problem doesn't appear in Safe Mode.

Generally this has seemed to correspond (roughly, ie. within the same 24-48 hours) of the installation of new software. In this case I have recently installed 3DMark2005 and the demo of Evil Genius. Last time it seemed to be UT2004 but after my previous reformat I was able to install UT2004 with no problems. Therefore I'm not even convinced that it's something I'm installing any more.

I've run several spyware and adware scanners, including Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy, and they report no problems. Nothing untoward in the Device Manager or in MSConfig's Startup tab.

To give you some idea of the problems I'm having, my CPU usage, when the system is idle, looks like this:

Has anyone got any suggestions AT ALL, because this is driving me mad and I'm sick of constant reformatting.

Maniac · 10-01-04, 04:12 PM

if you are using xp then do the "three finger wave" (ctrl alt delete for n00bs) and check the processes tab and see what it using the most memory, if it isn't something that looks important... zap it and see if you can find the source.

If not xp then I don't know

Lollan · 10-01-04, 04:20 PM

Is your heatsink overly warm?

/cue Blindf8th

Whiggles · 10-01-04, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maniac

if you are using xp then do the "three finger wave" (ctrl alt delete for n00bs) and check the processes tab and see what it using the most memory, if it isn't something that looks important... zap it and see if you can find the source.

Like I said, there's nothing untoward in the processes. It is the SYSTEM process that is consuming all the CPU power.

Maniac · 10-01-04, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whiggles

Like I said, there's nothing untoward in the processes. It is the SYSTEM process that is consuming all the CPU power.

Ahhh, sorry, overlooked that.

do a start/run/msconfig and disable everything that you dont need as the one thing that safemode does is disable EVERYTHING in that startup tab

Babel-17 · 10-01-04, 05:49 PM

Maybe it's "System Process Idle Tasks"?

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system...benchmark.mspx

http://boards.slackercentral.com/sho...ess+Idle+Tasks

http://boards.slackercentral.com/sho...ess+Idle+Tasks

Whiggles · 10-01-04, 06:11 PM

Problem solved, by the looks of it! I ran a few more spyware detectors and eventually a program called Spy Sweeper found a handful of possible problems after doing a thorough scan that took around half an hour. Deleted those and the problem almost instantly disappeared. I've now rebooted several times and it hasn't come back, so touch wood everything is back to normal.

Svperstar · 10-01-04, 06:13 PM

Are you running any kind of software firewall?

Thank god I have a real router now, but last time I used Zone Alarm, after I uninstalled it, my cpu usage was pegged at least 50% and it would shoot up to 99 from time to time. This was in the system proccess. Reinstalling ZA and removing again fixed the problem.

Babel-17 · 10-01-04, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whiggles

Problem solved, by the looks of it! I ran a few more spyware detectors and eventually a program called Spy Sweeper found a handful of possible problems after doing a thorough scan that took around half an hour. Deleted those and the problem almost instantly disappeared. I've now rebooted several times and it hasn't come back, so touch wood everything is back to normal.

Congratulations! Sounds like a good proggie.

Lollan · 10-01-04, 11:40 PM

Spysweeper always finds a bunch more than Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D for some reason, we run it here at work... its pretty good.

Whiggles · 10-02-04, 04:53 AM

Yeah, I'm very tempted to cough up $30 for the full version.

Whiggles · 10-05-04, 04:19 PM

The saga runs and runs, folks. Today, the problem cropped up again (after installing the "Kult Heretic Kingdoms" demo), and this time no amount of Spy Sweeper scanning would fix the problem. I followed your advice, Maniac, and disabled everything in MSConfig then re-enabled everything one at a time. Turns out that the problem lies with the Print Spooler, which makes absolutely no sense to me since I've had this printer for nearly a year now and used the same drivers right from the beginning.

Babel-17 · 10-05-04, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whiggles

The saga runs and runs, folks. Today, the problem cropped up again (after installing the "Kult Heretic Kingdoms" demo), and this time no amount of Spy Sweeper scanning would fix the problem. I followed your advice, Maniac, and disabled everything in MSConfig then re-enabled everything one at a time. Turns out that the problem lies with the Print Spooler, which makes absolutely no sense to me since I've had this printer for nearly a year now and used the same drivers right from the beginning.

Searching for network printers enabled?

Btw, use caution but here's a good link.

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Whiggles · 10-05-04, 05:40 PM

Blackviper's site is a great resource - I refer to it often. Short of keeping the Print Spooler service disabled when I'm not using it, I don't see what else I can do. It certainly makes no sense to me at all why this is happening, given how long it functioned without any problems.

Babel-17 · 10-05-04, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Searching for network printers enabled?

Open any explorer window and click on "Tools" and then "Folder options" or in Control Panel click on folder options.

Click on "View".

Uncheck "Automatically search for network folders and printers".

See if problem goes away.

Whiggles · 10-05-04, 06:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Babel-17

Open any explorer window and click on "Tools" and then "Folder options" or in Control Panel click on folder options.

Click on "View".

Uncheck "Automatically search for network folders and printers".

See if problem goes away.

I'm afraid that's no go. Disabled "Automatically search for network folders and printers", re-enabled the Print Spooler service, rebooted. Immediately the slowdown problems returned. Turned off Print Spooler, rebooted, slowdown gone.

Babel-17 · 10-05-04, 07:23 PM

Weird stuff ...... I don't have a printer installed ...... hmmmmm, I just now noticed two things.

1) Like other services print spooler can be set to "manual" in administrative tools. See if that setting stops the cpu spikes while still allowing your printer to be used as needed.

2) In administrative tools I see that print spooler has the option to interact with desktop.

I'm thinking that "2)" could be kicking in a SP2 issue, assuming you have SP2 installed.

You might need SP2 drivers for your printer or maybe you can safely disable the option.

Good luck.

Babel-17 · 10-05-04, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whiggles

I'm afraid that's no go. Disabled "Automatically search for network folders and printers", re-enabled the Print Spooler service, rebooted. Immediately the slowdown problems returned. Turned off Print Spooler, rebooted, slowdown gone.

I forgot to mention, did you check that "Automatically search for network folders and printers" stayed disabled after rebooting and after you re-enabled the Print Spooler service?

That might be a default setting that gets kicked back on.

Trayal · 10-06-04, 01:01 AM

This is a long shot, but do you have indexing service enabled by any chance? If it is on, it may be trying to index the files from newly installed applications on your system. It is notorious for being a resource hog. If you haven't already, turn it off and see what that does for ya.

Whiggles · 10-06-04, 04:45 AM

Okay, this is hilarious. I turned on my printer this morning after re-enabling the Print Spooler, and it churned out 50 pages of complete garbage -- line after line of random ASCII characters. Seemingly pleased with itself after getting all that crap out of its system, the CPU spikes stopped and so far have not reoccurred. I'm guessing this must date back to a failed print of some sort, but quite why it only chose to rear its ugly head last night is a mystery to me, given that I haven't printed anything for days.

Oh well, problem solved (again) for now. Thanks for the help, guys!

10-01-04, 04:03 PM	#1
Whiggles Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Glasgow, Scotland Posts: 296	Something is causing major slowdown problems I really hope someone can help me with this, because this is something like the fifth time I've had this problem in as many months, and on every occasion the only fix has been a complete reformat, which I REALLY want to avoid this time. This happens without warning and once it's started it seems to be permanent. I suddenly get huge amounts of slowdown in pretty much everything. Every five seconds, my CPU usage spikes to around 50% (in the Task Manager the System process is shown as being the culprit) and everything slows to a crawl. Screen savers, games, the works. Just about the only thing that doesn't seem to be affected is video playback (AVIs, DVDs and so on all work fine). System restore doesn't work, rebooting doesn't work. Removing video drivers doesn't work. The problem doesn't appear in Safe Mode. Generally this has seemed to correspond (roughly, ie. within the same 24-48 hours) of the installation of new software. In this case I have recently installed 3DMark2005 and the demo of Evil Genius. Last time it seemed to be UT2004 but after my previous reformat I was able to install UT2004 with no problems. Therefore I'm not even convinced that it's something I'm installing any more. I've run several spyware and adware scanners, including Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy, and they report no problems. Nothing untoward in the Device Manager or in MSConfig's Startup tab. To give you some idea of the problems I'm having, my CPU usage, when the system is idle, looks like this: Has anyone got any suggestions AT ALL, because this is driving me mad and I'm sick of constant reformatting.

10-01-04, 04:12 PM	#2
Maniac Registered User Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Right Behind You Posts: 19,439	if you are using xp then do the "three finger wave" (ctrl alt delete for n00bs) and check the processes tab and see what it using the most memory, if it isn't something that looks important... zap it and see if you can find the source. If not xp then I don't know __________________ BMCLOL!

10-01-04, 04:20 PM	#3
Lollan Resistance is futile! Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 43,660 Blog Entries: 1	Is your heatsink overly warm? /cue Blindf8th __________________ struttin down da hood in my brand new flip-flops bustas won't know what hit 'em when da bomb drops coke in my pants and a fistful of rsi ain't no thang to lay 'em down when i stroll by homeys should invest in a linux-distro their windows be all fogged with nasty shit fo sho watch em scatter as i switch into freak mode cus they ain't got shit for anti-virus code got no time to talk gotta run from da cops slippin and fallin cus of my goddamn flip-flops my goddamn flip-flops uhuh uhuh

10-01-04, 05:49 PM	#6
Babel-17 "Say what?" Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: New York, USA Posts: 14,467	Maybe it's "System Process Idle Tasks"? http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system...benchmark.mspx http://boards.slackercentral.com/sho...ess+Idle+Tasks http://boards.slackercentral.com/sho...ess+Idle+Tasks __________________ “No matter how imperfect things are, if you’ve got a free press, everything is correctable. Without it, everything is concealable.” "It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting." Tom Stoppard

10-01-04, 06:13 PM	#8
Svperstar Registered User Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Prescott, AZ Posts: 4,712	Are you running any kind of software firewall? Thank god I have a real router now, but last time I used Zone Alarm, after I uninstalled it, my cpu usage was pegged at least 50% and it would shoot up to 99 from time to time. This was in the system proccess. Reinstalling ZA and removing again fixed the problem. __________________ "Look at those heroic Americans!" -Cop [16:34] <Lolla1> Kevin, you are simply a better human being than I am in every way, and being inferior to you, I desperately need your assistance. [16:34] <Lolla1> And I want to suck you cock.

10-01-04, 06:11 PM	#7
Whiggles Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Glasgow, Scotland Posts: 296	Problem solved, by the looks of it! I ran a few more spyware detectors and eventually a program called Spy Sweeper found a handful of possible problems after doing a thorough scan that took around half an hour. Deleted those and the problem almost instantly disappeared. I've now rebooted several times and it hasn't come back, so touch wood everything is back to normal.

10-01-04, 11:40 PM	#10
Lollan Resistance is futile! Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 43,660 Blog Entries: 1	Spysweeper always finds a bunch more than Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D for some reason, we run it here at work... its pretty good. __________________ struttin down da hood in my brand new flip-flops bustas won't know what hit 'em when da bomb drops coke in my pants and a fistful of rsi ain't no thang to lay 'em down when i stroll by homeys should invest in a linux-distro their windows be all fogged with nasty shit fo sho watch em scatter as i switch into freak mode cus they ain't got shit for anti-virus code got no time to talk gotta run from da cops slippin and fallin cus of my goddamn flip-flops my goddamn flip-flops uhuh uhuh

10-02-04, 04:53 AM	#11
Whiggles Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Glasgow, Scotland Posts: 296	Yeah, I'm very tempted to cough up $30 for the full version.

10-05-04, 04:19 PM	#12
Whiggles Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Glasgow, Scotland Posts: 296	The saga runs and runs, folks. Today, the problem cropped up again (after installing the "Kult Heretic Kingdoms" demo), and this time no amount of Spy Sweeper scanning would fix the problem. I followed your advice, Maniac, and disabled everything in MSConfig then re-enabled everything one at a time. Turns out that the problem lies with the Print Spooler, which makes absolutely no sense to me since I've had this printer for nearly a year now and used the same drivers right from the beginning.

10-05-04, 05:40 PM	#14
Whiggles Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Glasgow, Scotland Posts: 296	Blackviper's site is a great resource - I refer to it often. Short of keeping the Print Spooler service disabled when I'm not using it, I don't see what else I can do. It certainly makes no sense to me at all why this is happening, given how long it functioned without any problems.

10-05-04, 07:23 PM	#17
Babel-17 "Say what?" Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: New York, USA Posts: 14,467	Weird stuff ...... I don't have a printer installed ...... hmmmmm, I just now noticed two things. 1) Like other services print spooler can be set to "manual" in administrative tools. See if that setting stops the cpu spikes while still allowing your printer to be used as needed. 2) In administrative tools I see that print spooler has the option to interact with desktop. I'm thinking that "2)" could be kicking in a SP2 issue, assuming you have SP2 installed. You might need SP2 drivers for your printer or maybe you can safely disable the option. Good luck. __________________ “No matter how imperfect things are, if you’ve got a free press, everything is correctable. Without it, everything is concealable.” "It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting." Tom Stoppard

10-06-04, 01:01 AM	#19
Trayal Registered User Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 4,087	This is a long shot, but do you have indexing service enabled by any chance? If it is on, it may be trying to index the files from newly installed applications on your system. It is notorious for being a resource hog. If you haven't already, turn it off and see what that does for ya. __________________ "We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself." - Carl Sagan

10-06-04, 04:45 AM	#20
Whiggles Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Glasgow, Scotland Posts: 296	Okay, this is hilarious. I turned on my printer this morning after re-enabling the Print Spooler, and it churned out 50 pages of complete garbage -- line after line of random ASCII characters. Seemingly pleased with itself after getting all that crap out of its system, the CPU spikes stopped and so far have not reoccurred. I'm guessing this must date back to a failed print of some sort, but quite why it only chose to rear its ugly head last night is a mystery to me, given that I haven't printed anything for days. Oh well, problem solved (again) for now. Thanks for the help, guys!