S....l....o....w

Hey, I just installed windows xp not a month ago, and now whenever I watch any of my movies on my computer, or visit certain websites it screws up and goes very slowly, I can't exit programs without using alt+ctrl+del command, and my CPU usage goes up to 100% and won't come down untill I 1.Use alt+ctrl+del command and shut down the program that sais "not responding" 2. An error shows up and I have to click it before the lag will clear up. Why is it doing this, perhaps a virus?

Try to answere me this:

- What causes my CPU usage go to 100% when it did not do so in Win2k
- If it is likely to be a computer virus at work

Any help is very appreciated, sadly for how often I have been posting lately I only post about 1\4 of my problems here on the forum, thankfully most of what I mess up I can fix.

It may be some sort of malware.

Ok click that tab when you are at 100% CPU usage. See for me I'm at 100% cause I run folding at home and it's designed to use 100% cpu usage so if you click that it sorts your services by what is using the most CPU usage at the time.

When you find this is happening do that so you can tell us what service is using all of your processing power and we can find out what it is and how to fix it.

okay, well that is why it is going slowly, I found that it was firefox, when I try to access certain internet sites, but all of my friends can access them and I cannot, which means my comp must be messing up somehow, but I have absolutly no idea why or how. It also happens when I try to play video, even with the player suggested above, which I d\led and tried, but then it did the same thing fire fox did. I also tried using a different browser {Just regular IE} and it did the same dang thing to me. I don't understand what I'm not doing right, it would seem to me I am doing all the right things. Maybe I should just reinstall windows xp, but then who is to say I wont have the same... or worse problems. I guess I'm trying to say "what is causing it to mess up and lag so badly?"

Have you run a virus scan and checked for malware like BrutalDrew suggested, and if so...what were the results? If you don't have a scanner installed, Symantec offers a free online security check...

Symantec Security Check
http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/default.asp?langid=ie&venid=sym

...as does Trend Micro:

HouseCall
http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

No offence redduc, but I'm not putting anything like that on my computer, it just doesn't look that safe to do, and I wouldn't be able to figure it out I'm pretty sure. I may be able to find a copy of norton anti-virus, I know I bout it a while ago. as for virus scanning, yeah I did Spy Bot S&D. But can you really call that a thorough virus scan? It came up with a few things, didn't fix it though. I'm pretty much at a loss here. If it was a virus, why would it only effect my media player? I'm begining to suspect it may just be just my media player. I'm going to try to uninstall and then reinstall it, hopefully that will work.

I really don't see the problem in running an online virus scan, especially since Symantec and Trend Micro are both reputable companies. AFA installing anti-spyware tools like SpywareBlaster, Microsoft AntiSpyware, or Spybot S&D...I don't understand why you would be leary about running any of those programs. If you don't feel comfortable running an online scan, there are a number of free versions of popular scanners available like AVG, Avast, and others....most of which you can find at MajorGeeks here:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads29.html

In addition, we're only throwing out suggestions here. Without knowing anything about your system, other than you're running XP, myself and others can only hint at what the problem with your system might be. Both BrutalDrew and TalRW offered up excellent suggestions, but I can't see that you followed up on any of their advice, and if you did...I don't see any mention of it in your reply (other than your mention of running Spybot S&D at one time, which BTW isn't a virus scanner). You would also benefit more by at least making note of your system specs, including what hardware is installed. You could also include things like whether or not your system is overclocked, RAM timings, voltages, etc. Include in your summary what software you have installed, including any service packs, program updates, version numbers, etc.

Including such things in your post as 'when the problem started' would also be beneficial. I can offer up another suggestion to you re: troubleshooting, and that is to check the Event Viewer logs for any critical errors...

Start | Run | Type eventvwr.msc and click OK | Highlight "Application" and "System" independently in the LH pane | Right click any error message(s) (critical errors are in Red), and select "Properties" | Write down a couple of the latest critical error messages exactly as they appear under the "Description" field, and post them in this thread. If you don't feel like writing them down ...when you right click an event and select "Properties", an "Information Properties" window will open. In the upper RH corner of the window is a button (just below the up/down arrow buttons) that when pressed copies the details of the event to the Clipboard. You can then paste the Clipboard contents of the logged error(s) in this thread.

Also, open the System Information tool by typing msinfo32 in the Run box | Expand "Components" | Highlight "Problem Devices", and look for any problems that might be listed there.

Edit: You may also want to check out this sticky in the Networking forum...

Spyware/Malware & Security
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=379516

Gunther said:

No offence redduc, but I'm not putting anything like that on my computer, it just doesn't look that safe to do, and I wouldn't be able to figure it out I'm pretty sure. I may be able to find a copy of norton anti-virus, I know I bout it a while ago. as for virus scanning, yeah I did Spy Bot S&D. But can you really call that a thorough virus scan? It came up with a few things, didn't fix it though. I'm pretty much at a loss here. If it was a virus, why would it only effect my media player? I'm begining to suspect it may just be just my media player. I'm going to try to uninstall and then reinstall it, hopefully that will work.

Click to expand...

"Current security efforts suffer from the flawed assumption that adequate security can be provided in applications with the existing security mechanisms of mainstream operating systems." ~NSA

Application security is a joke... security must be accomplished at the OS level.

Restrict administrative accounts from running untrusted applications and isolate/restrict standard users in a manner that prevents the virus from being able to propigate.This has the advantage of being immune to new viruses and trojans while requiring no upgrades.

The only systems that benefit from AVs are those with poor architecture that allows random processes unmitigated access, like the Windows (SUE)line Single User Edition.


I don't use any AV and neither does my work and we've never had a problem.

I'd suggest you reinstall and lock it down to the TFM