[computeranarchy]

Hey all, this is my first post so please be gentle. I'm trying to figure out a problem with a pc I'm working on. The OS is Windows XP Home. The problem is the system runs as slow as molasses and it's a pretty new system. Before I get into all the specs I think I know what the problem is but I'm not sure how to further troubleshoot. I opened the task manager and it appears there is an unstable process.

The image name is: System
The User Name is: System
CPU Usage: 0-99
Mem Usage is always 28K

I'm thinking it may be hijacked or something. Can anyone offer some guidance on how to proceeed? Does anyone recommend any particular software to scan the system for malware and the like? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

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system is a required process.

99 percent is way high, except at startup, but something else may be using it.

[gerryf]

system is a required process.

99 percent is way high, except at startup, but something else may be using it.

[computeranarchy]

It remains anyone from 0-99 even when the computer is idle. It usually hangs out at around 80% constant with random drops to 2%. How can I determine if something else is using it? Thanks for the help!

[gerryf]

It's not if. it is

At the very least you will have 10 or 12 sub processes going in system...

The very best way is to download process explorer from sysinternals and run it.

You will see all the subprocesss along with the cpu usage. The subprocess may not report its cpu usage properly though, so don't worry if all is at 0 cpu

You could also post a hijacklog in the malware forum

[computeranarchy]

I'll try that and let you know. Thanks again!

[computeranarchy]

Hey, I ran the process explorer. Here are the results



As you can see, my system process is eating over 90% of my resources. The only non system process is the AOL process. Could that be it? How can I determine which process is causing the problem? Is there anything on there that doesn't seem right? Is it worth it to even keep trying or should I just concede defeat and reinstall the OS? Let me know what you think. Thanks!

[computeranarchy]

Well I've reinstalled windows fresh and I'm getting the same problem. Does anyone think it could be hardware related? A system process is just eating up all of my processing power. Is there any chance it could be memory or the cpu itself? Any help in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[computeranarchy]

Doesn't anyone have any ideas?

[Deyth[Combine]]

I was just helping a friend troubleshoot this same exact problem. The fastest way to get this to stop would be to go into msconfig and disable all services. I left him to identify which service it is by trial and error but you can leave DHCP enabled for internet usage.

[deamos]

do you have Trend Mirco Virus scan and service pack 2 installed? Today they issued a virus signature update that hosed all the machines at my office in this same manner, if this is the problem, then
start up in safe mode
right click "My Computer" and select manage
go to services
find the two Officescan services and disable them,
your computer will work fine after this, use avast or something in the mean time,
avast has a free version that you can use till trend pulls their head out.
-George

[Rockpick]

do you have Trend Mirco Virus scan and service pack 2 installed?  Today they issued a virus signature update that hosed all the machines at my office in this same manner, if this is the problem, then
start up in safe mode
right click "My Computer" and select manage
go to services
find the two Officescan services and disable them,
your computer will work fine after this, use avast or something in the mean time,
avast has a free version that you can use till trend pulls their head out.
-George

YES! George, I think you've hit my problem on the head.

SP2 and Trend Micro installed on my machine and it's maxing the CPU usage to 99+% on SYSTEM.

I've done what you mentioned however; I'm not able to locate any 'OFFICESCAN' services.

Would this be a part of your network protection? I'm a home user and have a single copy of PC ILLIN installed. Could I simply disable the Trend Micro services and try again out of Safe Mode?

THANKS A MILLION!

RP

[Eriboll]

Rockpick,

Trend Micro have posted the solution on their web site - http://kb.trendmicro...olutionId=24264

Alas for me, I found this forum too late and after spending hours trying to resolve the problem decided the quickest way was to reformat C: and reinstall Windows! Fortunately mine is a new computer and there isn't much to reinstall.

[Eriboll]

This problem also affects OfficeScan Corporate Edition - http://kb.trendmicro...olutionId=24263

[Rockpick]

Rockpick,

Trend Micro have posted the solution on their web site - http://kb.trendmicro...olutionId=24264

Alas for me, I found this forum too late and after spending hours trying to resolve the problem decided the quickest way was to reformat C: and reinstall Windows!  Fortunately mine is a new computer and there isn't much to reinstall.

Thanks Eriboll... Bummer on your format. I was walking up to the edge of doing that myself... I sure am glad that George posted his problem or I think I would've been in your boat...

Thanks again folks!

RP

[KestrelLabs]

Aarrgh! ... I wish I had seen this post a couple days ago. Two of us wasted about 16 man hours trying to figure out what was wrong with our computers at work. I spent over an hour on the phone with Dell tech support (in India, of course), did constant reboots into safe mode trying to undo or restrict processes, used system restore to different points in time, etc.

The kicker is that the other ten computers in our place didn't seem to notice, because they were already shut down for the weekend and I'm guessing they were able to grab the Saturday (4/23) patch from Trend brfore the CPU ramped up to 99% and bollicksed everything up. On my computer, we pulled the network cable (thinking that a virus was on the loose) to protect the rest of the network, and it never talked again to Trend until I let it do so a couple minutes ago.

Did we all go to sleep on Thursday only to have Symantec/Norton buy Trend on Friday??!?!?!

THANKS TO EVERYONE ON THIS SITE!!