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Momentary Pauses aka Sudden Processor Spikes 2

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TheTuna

TheTuna

Programmer
Dec 13, 2002
544
US
For two days now, my laptop (Presario 900 running XP Home) has been getting 100% processor spikes for about a second and a half. During these spikes, the mouse freezes, which is very irritating.

I suspected spyware/malware and ran Spybot S&D (fully updated) and discovered the biggest flood of spyware/malware I've seen to date. I connected these with 3 screensavers downloaded from Download.com. Upon removal, there were a few that required a re-boot to fully clean. Did that. Then ran Ad-Aware (fully updated) and discovered another 42 items requiring removal. Removed them as well. Ran SpyBot one more time just for fun. It found one more hit. Removed it and rebooted again.

Ran a virus scan (Norton) and found nothing wrong, but my Norton subscription is expired, so I might be missing something.

I fully expected to have successfully resolved the problem, but low and behold, it's still doing the same thing.

So, I checked HiJack this and found and removed 3 pests that I've run into before.

Long story short, I'm still getting these spikes, which even pause MP3's, and I can't resolve it. Any ideas?

Also, a quick check of network settings revealed XP firewall had been disabled, which I didn't do...

[fish] No Dolphins were harmed in the posting of this message... Dolphin Friendly Tuna!

Ever feel like you're banging your head against a tree? I did, so I cut down the tree.
 
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I agree with you VBAinChicago... Norton is a hog. Thanks for the link, downloading now.

[fish] No Dolphins were harmed in the posting of this message... Dolphin Friendly Tuna!

Ever feel like you're banging your head against a tree? I did, so I cut down the tree.
 
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Thanks for the link... the virus scanner discovered 5 viri instances, and removed them.

Alas, the CPU spikes persist. Any other ideas?

[fish] No Dolphins were harmed in the posting of this message... Dolphin Friendly Tuna!

Ever feel like you're banging your head against a tree? I did, so I cut down the tree.
 
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Well, assuming your system is bug-free, uninstall any crap in there that you don't need (WeatherBug, etc). Then look for some XP tweaks to turn off any processes you don't need. A good site is
I also turn off Indexing of my drives, as well as any scheduled tasks. I'd rather defrag my system myself than have Windows look and decide if now is a good time (usually right in the middle of burning a CD or DVD) :)

--Greg
 
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How often does the spike happen?

Have you recently installed any new apps?

I would also suggest checking (if you haven’t already) the device manager to make sure all your hardware is functioning properly.

Also, might not be a bad idea to check the processes that are running on your pc. If you don’t recognize one, “google it” to see if it should be there.

One last thing – boot in safe mode and see if the problem still happens.


VBAinChicago
For Fun -
 
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It still feels like there must be some form of malware... I don't have weatherbug or anything else like that installed. Nothing new has been added in a while (other than the aforementioned screensavers, which are gone).

Thanks...

[fish] No Dolphins were harmed in the posting of this message... Dolphin Friendly Tuna!

Ever feel like you're banging your head against a tree? I did, so I cut down the tree.
 
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Here's a dumb one.....

Do you have a CD in your CDRom drive? That can take a lot of cycles if it's getting read errors....

How about a network card? Is it running at 100 speed? You might try turning it down to 10 and see if that resolves it... I've seen issues where network traffic corruption caused by bad cables or inductance from flourescent lights has caused all kinds of weird problems, but throttling the network card down to 10 fixed it. (Yes, I know, until I got around to replacing the cable. I know what you were thinking!) :)

--Greg
 
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Well VBAinChicago, I haven't noticed a consistant interval on the spikes, seems like every few minutes or so, but sometimes longer. I don't see anything out of the ordinary in my process list either.

Will boot in safe mode and see what's up.

Thanks again

[fish] No Dolphins were harmed in the posting of this message... Dolphin Friendly Tuna!

Ever feel like you're banging your head against a tree? I did, so I cut down the tree.
 
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Greg, the CD ROM drive is disfunctional, and empty. This has been a problem for quite some time.



[fish] No Dolphins were harmed in the posting of this message... Dolphin Friendly Tuna!

Ever feel like you're banging your head against a tree? I did, so I cut down the tree.
 
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I'm tentatively speculating that the problem is solved. AppServices.exe as installed by IOMEGA which came with an external Iomega cd burner I purchased. That little pest is gone, and so far, the problem is too.

Thanks again for all the efforts.


[fish] No Dolphins were harmed in the posting of this message... Dolphin Friendly Tuna!

Ever feel like you're banging your head against a tree? I did, so I cut down the tree.
 
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Hmmm... so it *did* have to do with a CDRom. <wink>

Just my $.02

--Greg
 
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No, actually, it ended up that the mouse was faulty. I forgot to mention that the problem remained persistant until i plugged in a new mouse.

How that could be causing processor spikes I don't have a clue... but still, if I plug in that mouse, the problem returns.

[fish] No Dolphins were harmed in the posting of this message... Dolphin Friendly Tuna!

Ever feel like you're banging your head against a tree? I did, so I cut down the tree.
 
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I have had a similar problem, and while it appears to be many things, the cause is likely your NIC driver and settings. Especially true if it is a 3Com network card.
I do not have all of the sources of how I tracked this problem down, but hopefully knowing what you are looking for will lead you to the answers.
On my particular NIC, a 3com 3C920 Integrated (also in a laptop) I found in the advanced settings (Device manager/properties/advanced tab) there is a property for "Software Cable Detect" set by default to Auto. I disabled this, and the problem went away.
Hope this helps as this is by far one of the most annoying problems I have ever experienced.

jb
 
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Norton does use up alot of resources so I prefer not to use it this is why i am constantly making back ups and dating them!
 
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