[syncro]

Hello,
I found the thread: Services.exe slowing down Win XP laptop
and I seem to have the same problem. No resolution was made for that issue in that thread.

The helpful post from rockmilk stated "no not run ccleaner's registry" cleaning utility. !!!!I have done this many times!!!! I have never heard NOT to use that for any reason until now, and I'm wondering if it may have started this CPU spiking problem which I have had for a long time.

Extensive analysis with help from folks at bleepingcomputer.com - Services.exe CPU activity varying / high - turned up way too many applications on start-up. I have not systematically gone through and disabled all of them as advised. Guess I need more instructions on how to do that.

I did find another forum where this issue was solved by stopping the, and I quote, ""ifrmewrk.exe" which is part of Intel ProSet Wireless."

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How does it behave if you boot to Safe Mode with Networking? If better then something is starting at boot that is causing the problem.

Advanced startup options - XP
Advanced startup options - Vista
Advanced startup options - Windows 7

Use msconfig to determine what is causing the problem

These are good tutorials on using msconfig in XP, Vista or Windows 7:
How to use msconfig in Windows XP
How to use msconfig in Windows Vista
How to use msconfig in Windows 7

Click on Start then Run, type msconfig and press Enter.
Click on the Startup tab, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Reboot and see if it runs better.
If yes then use msconfig to enable several items at a time till you find the culprit.

If no, start msconfig and click on the Services tab.
Check the Hide All Microsoft Services box, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Again, do a regular boot, see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable services till you find the culprit.

Once you've found the culprit, uninstall it or find out how to eliminate it from your system. Simply disabling it in msconfig is a temporary fix at best.
Enable everything else you disabled.

[Ztruker]

How does it behave if you boot to Safe Mode with Networking? If better then something is starting at boot that is causing the problem.

Advanced startup options - XP
Advanced startup options - Vista
Advanced startup options - Windows 7

Use msconfig to determine what is causing the problem

These are good tutorials on using msconfig in XP, Vista or Windows 7:
How to use msconfig in Windows XP
How to use msconfig in Windows Vista
How to use msconfig in Windows 7

Click on Start then Run, type msconfig and press Enter.
Click on the Startup tab, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Reboot and see if it runs better.
If yes then use msconfig to enable several items at a time till you find the culprit.

If no, start msconfig and click on the Services tab.
Check the Hide All Microsoft Services box, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Again, do a regular boot, see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable services till you find the culprit.

Once you've found the culprit, uninstall it or find out how to eliminate it from your system. Simply disabling it in msconfig is a temporary fix at best.
Enable everything else you disabled.

[syncro]

Thank you, Rich. I will take these steps and see what I can find out. Really appreciate the direction.

I have disabled many items. I narrowed the excessive CPU activity to one - three entries and they are also now disabled. I'll just run it for a while like this before I try to uninstall anything.

Thanks again. Great tutorials you suggested on msconfig.

Edited by syncro, 17 October 2012 - 10:42 PM.

[Ztruker]

Glad to hear it helped. Can you post what processes/services were causing your problem? Might help someone else.

[syncro]

Okay. Good point, and I thought of that. I am not sure, however, which one of these three may be most responsible, or even if they are the main ones. All of the services cpu activity appears to be stopped, but there is still a surge every 25 seconds or so. I just cannot tell what is causing it, and the overall level of surges is much lower.

So, these three seemed to be involved, and they are all related to the Intel, on-board graphics in my toshiba M400:
igfxpers
igfxtray
ifrmewk

I'm really curious about the one with no filename! It's highlighted in the snip image #3 I've attached. I disabled it among all the others shown un-checked in the attached images.

Attached Thumbnails

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• 

[Ztruker]

Hard to say what the blank entry is but disabling it seems a good idea to me.

igfxpers is for Intel graphics, not needed
igfxtray is for Intel graphics, not needed
ifrmewk is for Intel wireless, not needed

I would suspect ifrmewk as the probably cause but that's just a guess.

Thanks

[syncro]

Hey, thanks again, Rich. I checked every entry against the database referred to in the link you provided ( Paul "PacMan" Collins' huge "Startup Applications" list ) and that concurs these are User choice items. Still working fine with all those items unchecked.

One thing that site pointed out was MS recommends use of "autoruns" to reconfigure start-up options, not to use msconfigs. Now that I've disabled them in msconfig they don't appear in autoruns. Any harm in just leaving as is? It would be lots of work to find them and probably risky (for me) to uninstall each of these applications if I can find them.

I'm looking at my task manager and I am seeing rundll appear and disappear in my list of processes. Also, services is surging to 20, 30 or 40% every 25 seconds or so...

[Ztruker]

Look at what's running with Process Explorer. Maybe it will give you a clue as to what is driving services like that.

I'd leave things the way you have them now, disabled via msconfig.

[syncro]

Great tool - Process Explorer! Thanks. I found the HP network printing program (uninstallable part of a wireless printer software installation - ugh) and java update service (jqs...) were both in need of disabling! Used the Autoruns program to find and unchecked them. All is well now.

[Ztruker]

That's good to hear, glad you got it worked out.