I have a soyocomputer P4VGMV1.0 1.0
2Gb Installed Memory. and a 2.27 ghz Intel Pentium 4 cpu.
It has 8 kb primary memory cache and 512 kb secondary memory cache
I am running Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (build 2600)
All hot fixes up to date etc.
Virus protection is Avira. And Windows Defender.

Whenever I boot up and logon it takes about 5 minutes before I can do anything. The task manager is running at full throttle.

I have been going through Task Manager, stopping processes one by one to see if I can find the culprit but it just seems to run the same amount of time no matter what.
I think I may have something set wrong and is running on startup or something has not been uninstalled correctly and is running at startup.

I have a google toolbar on IE7 and per Belarc Advisor
Google Updater Version 2.2.824.5515.beta *
GoogleToolbarNotifier Version 2, 0, 301, 1654 *
are both installed.

I thought I had uninstalled Google Updater through Add/Remove programs.Obviously not. Per "Add/Remove programs" I only have Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer installed. But shouldn't that only run when IE7 is activated?

I have attached a screen capture of my Task Manager from this morning to see if anyone can help. I'm not sure whether it will be any good because of the size limitations.

2 things I have done recently but it has made no difference whatsoever.
I have removed my swap file and am running straight from memory. I have 2gb.
I uninstalled AVG anti-virus and AVG Anti-Spyware, because I thought they may be hogging the memory, and replaced with Avira and Windows Defender.

Also, how can I tell which svchost.exe is associated with which application. In task manager I only ever see one svchost battling away at 99 - 100% during this time
but I don't know what its doing. I don't see any other usage of memory or cpu by anything else.
Any help, as always is greatfully received.

Attached Images

Task_Manager.jpg (65.5 KB, 4 views)

Is your machine using wireless networking?
One of the SVCHOST's on my machine does the same when connecting to my wireless network, but doens't usually last that long.

Also, try installing Process Explorer. It will give you much more information on running processes and may show which SVCHOST is responsible.

Did you only install Windows Defender after removing AVG ? Or was it already installed? Only asking as I just ust read this and this.

I am hardwired to an Actiontec modem/router.

I have installed Process Explorer and that has given me a whole new learning curve to negotiate.

This is what I found:
the svchost that is hogging resources is PID 1128 (is the PID the same on all machines?? ) Its description is Generic Host for Win32 Services. Its working with 175 dll's.

At this time, there are 4 other svchosts, PID 908, 980, 1160 & 1248. They are accessing a lot less dll's. 55, 44, 37 & 54 respectively so the culprit is running as much as these 4 put together..

But does it need to?

Having checked the dll's on PID 1128, there are libraries that are being accessed needlessly (to my way of thinking) for instance there a 9 dll's for RAS. I do not have remote access enabled. I'm sure there are a load more that I don't understand.

I removed both AVG's then installed Avira then Windows Defender. I read somewhere that they were less resource hungry.
thanks.

Hello,you may want to do the prwework link below my in my signiture and post results back on your thread.

I downloaded everything as per instruction.
went to safe mode and run AVG

At this stage, I missed a step and I don't think it has anything to do with what happened (or didn't happen) next. I did not run the SUPERAntiSpyware but went straight into the clean up.

I then rebooted into normal mode went to read the next step and realised I had missed a step. So I rebooted back into safe mode.

I am now in safe mode and I tried to run SUPERAntiSpyware and got an error message
"the system administrator has set policies to prevent this installation."

I was logged in as myself and I do have admin rights.

Unperturbed, I switched user and logged in as admin but was unable to access my files. "access denied"

Ok. Switched users back to myself and put a copy into all users desktop and switched users back to admin. tried to run SUPERAntiSpyware and got the same error message
"the system administrator has set policies to prevent this installation."

Now I know there is something wrong, I am logged in as system administrator so what's wrong. How do I change the admin rights?

its time to defer to you guys again

thanks

Computer Management:
Right click 'My Computer' and select Manage.
In the Computer Management console, click Local Users and Groups.
Right click the user you want to change.
It should be self explanatory from there.

I just looked at both myself and Administrator.

Right click on Administrator and the description reads "Administrators have complete and unrestricted access to the computer/domain"
He is a member of Administrators.

Right click on myself. Same description as Administrator however I am a member of Administrators, Debugger Users & Users. Don't know why I should belong to more groups than the Administrator.

Whatever.

I still don't see where I can change any priviledges. It looks like they are already set.