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farmerjohn

6 Posts

7382

October 2nd, 2006 21:00

Dimension 8400 and Norton 2006 CPU 100%

If my computer is left on for say 24hrs, in windows task manager CPU usage is 100%. It's usually the msmsgs.exe, but I also notice that there are 6 of svchost.exe. 3 belong to "system", 2 to "network service" and 1 to "local service". When I end task msmsgs it's usually some thing that belongs to Norton that max's out the system. I then need to restart the computer. Upon shutting down there are a number of process' running that need to shut down; bacstray, dialog, thorconnwndclass, cthelper, defalert,connections tray, hidden fax window to name a few. What's happening when the machine is left on to cause this?

x_lab rat

2K Posts

October 2nd, 2006 22:00

I can't outright say, not being a student (or a fan) of Norton security products, but it will help the software/antivirus group diagnose if you do this first:
 
Open the Norton settings page and turn off everything.  It will argue with you, don't listen.  Disable 'run on startup' if you can (that's two reasons I'm not a fan of Norton--it argues with you, and it can't always be controlled).  If it insists on starting, rightclick the icon then 'close' (it will argue with you again).  To where while the computer is running, the Norton icon is not in the systray.  Now do as you did, leave it on 24 hours, and see if the problem still exists.
 
Report the results of this test in the software or virus/antivirus section and someone who really knows those programs can help you.

Message Edited by x_lab rat on 10-02-2006 06:56 PM

emald

3 Posts

October 2nd, 2006 23:00

Hello. I also have an 8400 and Norton and also see the cpu usage scream up when the screen saver initializes. I have used a sysinternals software (free) that shows more information on each process, in fact I have many of their programs which have made my machine alot more friendly. As to the running while idle, Norton, on my machine, uses quite a bit of cycles to do it's homekeeping and searching. Also running is the screen saver and a few other tasks in the background, most system housekeeping chores.
I have found also that quitting msm will stop alot of background cpu use. I am not sure what msm is doing but didn't like it so used the sysinternals, again, program "autoruns" to investigate and stop unwanted background programs. Worked great. Thats Sysinternals. In fact here is my bookmark:

http://www.sysinternals.com/

They have many programs which will allow you to deduce whats happening in the background. Hope this helps, it's what I did for the same basic problem.

HieroPosche

2 Posts

October 3rd, 2006 03:00

One thing you can try is to run msconfig from the run command in your start menu.  Go to the startup tab and uncheck any of the obviously useless processes. Then, and this is the time consuming and very annoying part, go through the rest of the listed processes and google each one and you will find webpages that tell you whether or not you need this process running and a brief overview of what it does. You can then decide for yourself what processes to keep running and which one's to take off. Make sure you know it's ok to dissable them though as dissabling the wrong processes can cause system instability and may cause certain programs to stop functioning properly.  As for where to get msconfig... My laptop already had it in the system32 folder, my desktop didn't, so I just copied it. But I'm sure with a quick google search you can find an easy download.
This is the method I've used to clean out my pc's and though it takes a long time it's foolproof and it's permanent,
 
Hope that helps.

RoHe

10 Elder

 • 

44.3K Posts

October 3rd, 2006 19:00

As suggested, grab free copy of Process Explorer from www.sysinternals.com. Run PE and on toolbar select Options>always on top. When CPU usage creeps up toward 100% look in PE window to see exactly which process is using the CPU time (aside from System Idle process). That will help you identify the problem. If it's Updater, then the Microsoft Automatic Updater is the problem. Updater apparently starting causing high CPU usage on some systems after one of the recent Microsoft updates (grrrr!).

If updater is the problem, you'll have to change its settings from Automatically download/install to notify only. When you get the notice in the tray by the clock, you can click it and choose what updates you need and allow them to download and install. That's the only solution for CPU use by Updater that I've heard.

For shutdown issues, try installing User Profile Hive Cleanup Service (uphclean.exe) free from Microsoft, here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1b286e6d-8912-4e18-b570-42470e2f3582&displaylang=en
Once installed, it's part of XP and does its thing automatically in the background, so you never have to do anything else after installing it.

Ron

Message Edited by RoHe on 10-03-2006 01:08 PM

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