[kboogie13]

Every night at 2200, the computer slows down drastically. The hard drive sounds like something is running/checking or doing updates; but I can't find anything on the system that is scheduled at that time. When I reboot the computer, it stops.

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recheck you scheduled tasks or any services running on your system.
there should be something trying to run/execute during that time. IMO.

I hope you find id

[inapaler]

recheck you scheduled tasks or any services running on your system.
there should be something trying to run/execute during that time. IMO.

I hope you find id

[Deon]

Hiya kboogie13 and welcome to GeeksToGo.

I've written a quick script to see if there appears to be any scheduled tasks running.

1. Find some file somewhere that will do what you want it to do [edited out at staff request ]
2. Run the file, it will ask you to press a key to continue.
3. It will then open a Notepad document, copy and paste this into a reply here.
4. It will also keep a copy of the file on your desktop called "sch.txt"


Cheers,
Deon

Edited by Deon, 09 November 2009 - 08:35 AM.

[kboogie13]

It is not working. The following information is what I get:

This will check your Scheduled Tasks
Press any key to continue...
'schtasks' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

any other advice?

[Deon]

How odd.
Are you using Windows XP?

[kboogie13]

I am using Windows XP, Service Pack 3.

[Deon]

Alright then, we'll try a different test - Schtasks should be included on XP, not sure what's with that.

1. Find some other file somewhere else that will also do what you want it to do [edited out at staff request ]
2. Run the file, it will prompt you to continue
3. It will open a notepad document, copy-paste it here

And as before, it'll keep the log file on the desktop.


Let me know how that one goes

Deon

Edited by Deon, 09 November 2009 - 08:37 AM.

[kboogie13]

Results:

There are no entries in the list.

[Deon]

I'm beginning to think it may be malware causing the problem.

When it next occurs:
1. Open task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del)
2. Click the "Processes" tab at the top
3. Click the 'CPU' tab above the list of running processes. You might have to click it more than once so the arrow is facing down
4. Note down what the top 2 or 3 are.
5. Click the 'Memory' tab next to it. Again, click it the necessary number of time to ensure the arrow is pointing down
6. Again, note down what the top 2 or 3 processes are.

This will hopefully give us an insight as to what exactly is the program that is using up all those resources and slowing you down


It's almost 10pm where I am, but you might be in a different time zone, so I'll wait for your reply

Cheers,
Deon

[kboogie13]

I actually live in Germany, so tonight at 10pm I will try it and post it. It won't be for almost 10 hrs from now.

[Deon]

No worries

[kboogie13]

For some reason it is not doing it tonight. I did look at the CPU and Memory tabs right at 2205.

The CPU top 3 are:

System Idle Process
Rtvscan.exe
firefox.exe

The Memory top 4 are:

firefox.exe
Rtvscan.exe
explorer.exe
RTHDCPL.exe

I looked up Rtvscan.exe and it has to do with Symantec. I researched it on the system, and there is an administrator scan, that is locked, set to go at 10 pm every night. I don't know how to unlock it, but I am figuring that it might be it. I may just have to buy a new protection program and delete that one. Don't know. Any suggestions?

[rshaffer61]

My personal suggestion is to uninstall all Symantecs
Get either Avira or Avast for your anti virus protection.
Both are free and a smaller footprint on the system.
This in turn causes less system resources to be used which in turn can help with speed and over all stability.