[darthpayback]

Hello, been having lots of strange PC problems lately. My CPU usage constantly jumps from ~2% to ~44% (it just says System in the task manager). My printer randomly prints out blank pages with little smiley faces in the top corner. Some programs (like iTunes) take forever to load. I can hardly play games online anymore because the lag is so bad, and it never used to be this way. CS, DoD, especially BF2, and I used to be able to play them with no problems. My FPS online is usually around 9-11 in CS and DoD. Single player games make crazy cracking and popping sounds, but not always. Audio CDs and iTunes both play with no problems - only sound issues are in games.

I thought it was some kind of virus or malware, but I have already been to your forums and a wonderful lady there told me that I should post here because she can't find anything wrong. I have a 1.8 ghz Dell, WinXP, 1 gig RAM, ATI Radeon x850 vid card, Soundblaster Audigy ZS. I put a secondary hard drive and the new ATI card in last sping, and most of my problems seemed to have started last summer and have got worse since then. I keep all my drivers up to date, except for my sound card, everytime I try and install new drivers from Creative they screw up, so I go back to the ones from the install CD.

Here is my Hijackthis thread:

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I appreciate your time, hopefully someone can help me!

Matt

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The only thing that bothers me is the printer, if you have the software for it or it can be downloaded, uninstall it and disconnect it from the PC

Click start then run, type prefetch then press enter, click edit then select all, right click any file then click delete, confirm delete

Click start, all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, then from system tools, run disc defragmenter.

Click start then run, type sfc /scannow then press enter, you need the XP CD and Windows File Protection will show a blue onscreen progress bar, when the bar goes, reboot

Click start then run, type chkdsk /f /r then press enter, type Y to confirm for next boot, press enter then reboot.

Windows will appear to load normally then either the monitor will show progress or the screen will go blank, do not disturb this.

This will take an hour or so before it gets to the desktop.

Download and install Tune Up 2006 Trial

Run Tune Up Disc Clean Up

Run Tune Up Registry Clean Up

Click Optimize and Improve to run Reg Defrag, which will take a few minutes and need a reboot. You should disable the antivirus programme to run this and check it is running after the reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to optimize the computer, select computer with an internet connection from the drop down menu, this also requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to accelerate downloads, select the speed just above your actual connection speed, this requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to run system advisor

Re-install the printer

[Retired Tech]

The only thing that bothers me is the printer, if you have the software for it or it can be downloaded, uninstall it and disconnect it from the PC

Click start then run, type prefetch then press enter, click edit then select all, right click any file then click delete, confirm delete

Click start, all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, then from system tools, run disc defragmenter.

Click start then run, type sfc /scannow then press enter, you need the XP CD and Windows File Protection will show a blue onscreen progress bar, when the bar goes, reboot

Click start then run, type chkdsk /f /r then press enter, type Y to confirm for next boot, press enter then reboot.

Windows will appear to load normally then either the monitor will show progress or the screen will go blank, do not disturb this.

This will take an hour or so before it gets to the desktop.

Download and install Tune Up 2006 Trial

Run Tune Up Disc Clean Up

Run Tune Up Registry Clean Up

Click Optimize and Improve to run Reg Defrag, which will take a few minutes and need a reboot. You should disable the antivirus programme to run this and check it is running after the reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to optimize the computer, select computer with an internet connection from the drop down menu, this also requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to accelerate downloads, select the speed just above your actual connection speed, this requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to run system advisor

Re-install the printer

[darthpayback]

I am stuck at work for a night or two, probably won't get to try this until Wednesday. Hope you don't mind...

[Retired Tech]

No problem

Hope it goes well

[darthpayback]

Still working on it...I'll post back by this weekend. Thank you for your patience!

[darthpayback]

Ok, I went ahead and finally had time to complete your instructions. When I had the printer uninstalled, my CPU usage went to 0% and stayed there. Now with the printer reinstalled it fluctuates between 0% and 25%, but not as often as it used to. I haven't had the smiley face print out problem yet today, but sometimes it didn't happen for a day or two. Have to let you know how that goes!

I have two other questions for you: awhile ago, my wife changed the name and picture at the top of the pop-up menu when you hit start (I have XP) from my name to both of our names. Ever since then, when the PC starts I have to click on a user icon (the same picture she changed to) for WinXP to finish loading. I never had to do that before. I have no password set-up...Windows would just load straight to the desktop when I turned it on. How do I get this back?

My second question is in regards to my sound card, and I am not sure I'm in the right forum for this. I updated my drivers a year ago or so, and I don't think I did it right. Ever since then all my game lag has been associated with sound, and some games have random sound pops in them that should not be there. I have tried to fix the issue but I find their driver installation to be a pain. Is there any way you or someone in aother forum can help me totally uninstall my drivers and then reinstall the latest greatest ones? I have a Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS.

Thanks again!!

Matt

[Retired Tech]

If the name isn't important, try changing it to how it was

If you visit creative.com and choose software auto update, the pop up blocker needs to be off, it will want to run an active X control, but will show you the updates, which will remove the existing versions for anything it updates

http://www.creative.com/support/

Creative software will only update an existing installation so, uninstalling everything would leave you having to re-install it to update, so you might as well see how auto update goes

[darthpayback]

Ok, I had this problem before. Pop-up blocker under IE tools is turned off, but when I try to launch the autoupdate nothing happens. The small window on the creative site never loads, it just goes blank (white), and then under task manager the page is listed as not responding. I am not sure what I am doing wrong here...

Also, with regards to Windows startup, my wife likes the new name and picture she gave it (go figure, lol). Is there some way to keep that and still disable the icon that I need to push to continue starting XP? I checked under users in the control panel and she didn't create a new one, she just modified my old one.

Thanks again for your help!

[Retired Tech]

Look at, user accounts, change the way users log on, see if both options are ticked, click apply and reboot if you change anything

Have you recently installed .net framework

The auto update usually gives the bar across the top to install the active X then you need to check for updates again

[darthpayback]

Looked at the way users log on, only the top option was selected. I unchecked it, but then when I reboot it wants my password...

Hmm, not sure if I recently installed .net framework. I might have from windows update, how would I know?

The auto update doesn't do anything except go blank. The little green bar at the bottom of the IE window fills up totally, but then nothing ever happens, and when I go into task manger it says that two instances of the page are not responding.

[Retired Tech]

Both options should be ticked

Run Microsoft Update, it will offer a service pack if you have it, or you can view installation history, it only affects log on if you install it without the service pack

Are you able to use manual update at creative

[darthpayback]

Well, I just checked the manual downloads, and there was a new driver there from Jan 06 that I had not tried yet. It says that it will automatically delete any old drivers and then install the new ones. I downloaded it and I'm going to try it out.

One question for you - the top PCI slot is used by my ATI X850 graphics card. The next slot down is my Soundblaster Audigy card. I checked in the setup and they are both using the same IRQ. Could that be a problem? I don't have any yellow exclamation point conflicts under device manager.

[Retired Tech]

I have the soundcard, graphics card and network adapter on the same IRQ