[tohann]

Hey all,

I recently upgraded my laptop to have 1gig RAM (from 256mb). Everything was working great, it was recognized and was noticably faster. I was told to change my pagefile to reflect this change so I did that. I up'ed it to 1.5 times the amount of RAM. I don't 100% if it's related, but my CPU has been running at 100% for the last couple of days and it's dog slow. I tried resetting the pagefile values back to what they were before I changed them (as well as various other values) and nothing works. I ran Windows Defender and Ad-Aware and my virus scan and got nuttin'. This is very frustrating.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Trent

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In your Taskmanager if you choose Processes tab and click on CPU twice it will sort by % of usage.

Try and track what is using up high percentage in those procesess.Write it down and post back.

Also when you find it right click and hit "End process".Dont worry the next time you start up it will load again.

Note : System Idle process is normal to be 99 you will see it flicker on and off so that should not be it.



TakeBK

[TakeBK]

In your Taskmanager if you choose Processes tab and click on CPU twice it will sort by % of usage.

Try and track what is using up high percentage in those procesess.Write it down and post back.

Also when you find it right click and hit "End process".Dont worry the next time you start up it will load again.

Note : System Idle process is normal to be 99 you will see it flicker on and off so that should not be it.



TakeBK

[dagger]

Just to be sure, check the HDD- free space and if it needs a cleanup from temp files and such. Also analyze the drives for frgamentation. It just may be why the system is slow.

[tohann]

In your Taskmanager if you choose Processes tab and click on CPU twice it will sort by % of usage.

Try and track what is using up high percentage in those procesess.Write it down and post back.

Also when you find it right click and hit "End process".Dont worry the next time you start up it will load again.

Note : System Idle process is normal to be 99 you will see it flicker on and off so that should not be it.
TakeBK

What's odd is that there isn't one single process that's "running away". There seems to be a different top process every refresh. Sometimes it's explorer.exe, sometimes it's firefox, sometimes it's iexplore, sometimes it's idle processes. (By the way, this happens whether I'm connected to the internet or not.) Unfortunately, there isn't just one that's always at the top. And more often than not, the topmost process has about 30-40% of the CPU, and the next highest process has 20-30% and next highest may have 20-something%. It just seems like all the apps are working harder than they should. That's why I was working with the pagefile a lot in my initial attempts to fix it.

[tohann]

Just to be sure, check the HDD- free space and if it needs a cleanup from temp files and such. Also analyze the drives for frgamentation. It just may be why the system is slow.

Odd that you mention this. After I installed the RAM I noticed was getting kind of low on HDD free space so I uninstalled some programs and deleted some big files and there is now about 3.5gig free on that drive. I also defragged it after doing the clean up. When that was all said and done it was still running fine.

Since I thought space could be a problem, too, I moved the pagefile over to another partition on the drive that had 20+gig free. This didn't help at all.

I just can't get past the fact that the problems started occuring right around the time I moved the pagefile around, but I can't prove 100% that they're related.

[TakeBK]

Did you try ending firefox and iexplorer to see where it went.

Do either have a High memory usage in the Task Manager?

Also is it running 100% right off the bat on start or only after you open a few things?

I am not to familiar with laptops as far as installing RAM(How much you have to take apart and configuration) but how many sticks did you install to get to the 1 GB and how many slots does the mobo have ?

If it is one 1GB stick does your motherboard support it?

Make and model of the laptop.

TakeBK

[tohann]

Did you try ending firefox and iexplorer to see where it went.

Do either have a High memory usage in the Task Manager?

I exited both programs and the CPU was still pegging at 100%. Neither had insanely high memory usage in the Task Manager. It seemed pretty average.

Also is it running 100% right off the bat on start or only after you open a few things?

It's running at 100% right off the bat even before I do anything.

I am not to familiar with laptops as far as installing RAM(How much you have to take apart and configuration) but how many sticks did you install to get to the 1 GB and how many slots does the mobo have ?

If it is one 1GB stick does your motherboard support it?

The install was surprisingly easy. I had never done this on a laptop before so I didn't know what to expect. I removed a panel on the bottom of the laptop and there were two seats for RAM right there. I originally had 1 256mb stick, and the other seat was empty. I popped the 256 out, dropped two 512's in there, put the panel back on and booted it up and it was awesome.

Make and model of the laptop.

It's a Sony Vaio that's about 3-4 years old. I can get the model number tonight if you'd like as I'm at work right now.

Thanks for your help so far! This has been really frustrating because it was running so well with the new RAM and now it's so dog slow it's pretty much unusable.

Trent

[tohann]

It is a Sony Vaio, model number PCG-GRZ610

[computerwiz12890]

Sometimes the index.dat file on the computer becomes corrupted or too full and for some oddball reason causes 100% at what appears to be random. See if this helps:

Download CCleaner from http://www.snapfiles...t/ccleaner.html

• Install it. Then start the program.
• In the area designated as "Cleaner Settings", Make sure the Windows tab is the selected tab.
• Under the category of "Internet Explorer", UNcheck all boxes except for the first two boxes (Temporary Internet Files and Cookies) and the box called Delete Index.dat files.
• UNcheck the box next to the category called "Windows Explorer."
• Under the category of "System", UNcheck Empty Recycle Bin.
• At the top, click on the tab that says Applications.
• UNcheck EVERYTHING! If there is a category called "Firefox", then leave the Cookies option checked.
• Now click on Analyze. When it is done analyzing (it could take several minutes since this is your first time using ccleaner), click on Run Cleaner.

After it is done deleting the junk files, including index.dat, restart your computer. After it has restarted, see if the problem still occurs.

Edited by computerwiz12890, 30 March 2006 - 09:53 PM.

[tohann]

Hey computerwiz,

I installed and ran that program and it only found about 289mb worth of stuff to delete. I rebooted and it was still as slow as ever. Nothing changed.

Also, I have the indexing service turned off, so wouldn't the index.dat file be gone already?

Thanks for your reply,
tohann

[computerwiz12890]

That's true...

Please download filemon. After downloading, unzip it to your desktop.

Before we get started, I want you to be familiar with the Capture button so you can find it quickly when we do this. Open Filemon. Note the button at the top that looks like a magnifying glass. Pressing that button will stop Filemon from recording (capturing) the activity of your computer. That is the button you will be pressing when I say to.

Now exit out of Filemon. Exit all non-essential programs (the ones in the taskbar next to the clock. Do this by right-clicking on them and selecting exit or close.) Now we will use Filemon.

We are going to do this fairly fast: Open Filemon when your CPU is at 100%. Let the computer sit for about 10 seconds. Quickly return to Filemon and click on the magnifying glass button at the top. Now click on File > Save as... and save the log to your desktop. Attach that log to your reply to me. Do Not post it out, since it is rather long. Compress it if it is over 50 KB.

[tohann]

Alright, here's the update.

I've tried to recreate the problem for the last couple of days, but I can't get it to behave exactly like it was before. Perhaps the Cleanup utility helped? Anyway, here's what it's doing now. When I first boot up it works great. The CPU is down around 10% and below like one would expect. As soon as I jump on the internet (via my wireless network) the CPU shoots to 100% and just hangs around there until I close my browser. The internet is slow, the computer is slow, etc. This happens with IE or Firefox. When I close the browser, the CPU goes down to about 20% and then varies between 20-90%. This Filemon log was taken after I closed the browsers and the CPU was jumping between 20% and 90%. This is when I'm not doing anything except watching the Task Manager. Again, this isn't the exact same behavior, but it's still not quite right.

Thanks!
Trent

Attached Files

•  Filemon_20060401_141200.zip   10.5KB   100 downloads

[computerwiz12890]

It looks like your problem is coming from digstream.exe

This is what I found about digstream.exe

digstream.exe is a process that comes from the ESPN website.

From what I can tell, digstream.exe continually accesses trent@go[1].txt and trent@go[2]txt. Navigate to the C:\Documents and Settings\Trent\Cookies\ folder using My Computer. When you get the Cookie folder, delete everything in it. (cookies are unimportant and can sometimes even be used against you)

If that doesn't solve your problem, try this: If you know what program that ESPN thing is, try removing it and see if the problem still occurs. If you have no idea what program that is talking about, let me know. I'll do some more research.

Edited by computerwiz12890, 01 April 2006 - 02:45 PM.

[tohann]

I unistalled the program (ESPN Motion) and it has helped, but it's still a little groggy. It was actually a program I installed to help enhance espn.com around a year ago and then disabled because I didn't really care for it. Odd that it's acting up now. Internet browsing has improved, but the CPU is fluctuating between 60% and 100% while browsing. When the computer is not being used and I'm just sitting here watching it, it's now fluctuating between 20% and about 40% usage. Anything else in this new log file jump out at you as being wrong?

This one was taken again when no browsers were up or other non-essential programs running.

Thanks for your help and research thus far. It seems like we're getting there.

Attached Files

•  Filemon_20060401_154000.zip   7.83KB   85 downloads

[computerwiz12890]

yes, we're getting there. We may take it one program at a time, but we'll get there.

Now I see SSSvr.exe as being the problem. Here's what I found about it:

Description: SSSvr.exe is a process associated with the VAIO Media Music Server from Sony. File SSSvr.exe is located in a subfolder of "C:\Program Files".

Important: Some malware camouflage themselves as SSSvr.exe, particularly if they are located in c:\windows or c:\windows\system32 folder. Thus check the SSSvr.exe process on your pc whether it is pest.

See where that file is located. If it is located in the correct folder, which will be somewhere in Program Files, then it is okay. However, if it is in the correct location, then it appears that program has either become corrupted, or is just being a pain in the butt for some strange reason.

If it is the legitimate one, and you know what program it belongs to, try removing it. But before you do, please create a restore point:

To create a system restore point, go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore

Edited by computerwiz12890, 02 April 2006 - 03:29 PM.