Stressed CPU?

red_ice

I just built a 2.6 AMD about 2 weeks ago and its been running nice and smooth without fail - the odd crash here and there but thats just windows XP, ill change to 2k again soon enough.

Anyway - i 'bought' a game from the internet via kazaa and when i unzipped it the machine started to act wierd. My processor is under alot of stress and i cant figure out why it is. I took 2 screen shots of the task manager showing what processes im running and the stress my cpu is under.

Ive tried running an online virus scan and its not showing anything at all. In system properties its telling me that my machine is still running at 2.08, i looked there to see if it was still going at the right clock speed.

So everything hardware-wise seems fine - it has to be something eating up the cpu. any ideas?

http://members.boards.ie/red_ice/help.JPG
http://members.boards.ie/red_ice/help2.JPG

Oriel

You're best off getting a decent Antivirus software for a start (not from Kazaa, mind you). Try parting with some money for it. If you're still to tightfisted, then you might want to at least download one from a decent website.

After running an update to make sure your virus defs are up to date, if things still seems clear viruswise, try AdAware 6.0 to scan for Spyware or something like that. Though I doubt that any spyware program will take up so much processor time, as you're not supposed to know that they are running.

El_MUERkO

If its only a few weeks old you wont have that much stuff on your computer so I'd advie you to format, start from scratch, download every windows update there is and all the latest drivers.

If you've built a new PC you probably got free antivirus software with your mobo, you stick that on and update to the latest virus definitions.

Get Zone Alarm and Adaware on as well.

Now if your goign to use kazaa use kazaa lite but to be honest there are a many better file sharing methods (Bit Torrent, mldonkey) that are less likely to contain virus's.

MrPinK

AVG is a great free virus scanner, better than most of the commercial ones available imo. Just be sure to keep it up-to-date, and don't get any more software from kazaa. Reinstalling isn't a bad idea tho.

2k isn't any more stable than XP btw, they both have the same kernel. XP is a little resource hungry, but probably the best OS that MS have made so far

Canaboid

It would have been useful to show us what service is hogging cpu in the 2nd pic instead of all the ones using nothing.

GMT.EXE is not a good thing to have running on your PC.

Enjoy Life and Have Fun

red_ice

Originally posted by MrPinK
AVG is a great free virus scanner, better than most of the commercial ones available imo. Just be sure to keep it up-to-date, and don't get any more software from kazaa. Reinstalling isn't a bad idea tho.

2k isn't any more stable than XP btw, they both have the same kernel. XP is a little resource hungry, but probably the best OS that MS have made so far

Thats the online scan i used and it came out clean!

I ran 2k on my last athlon and never got any problems. To me it just feels better, be it more manly or something stupid like that, i just love 2k!

Im running home edition on my laptop (p4 2.4) which has loads of problems related to xp, and im getting the same lark with this machine aswell!

imo 2k > xp, but thats off the subject.

Back to the problem, when my machine is idle, the CPU is running at 2% - 6% which im happy with. As soon as a program starts it shoot to 100%

Oriel

Post a complete list of all the programs that you have installed.

MadKevo

Originally posted by Canaboid
It would have been useful to show us what service is hogging cpu in the 2nd pic instead of all the ones using nothing.

...which you can do by clicking on the CPU column to order according to usage, clicking it again is necessary to get descending order.
Me curious too!
MK

Carnate

XP HOME edition?

Yuck.

I have Win2k sp3 /XP Pro latest sp on 5 pc's here at home and

only with the one crash CPU fried. Have had no problems.

IMHO u have 1 of 2 problems the Mobo is faulty or you have a

Virus.

As to the CPU being understressed, you may also have a Trojan

working in the backround, Which always spells BAD news.

Best advice as was posted earlier, Reformat, and install a GOOD

Virus Checker and Zonealarm(free one), if yah can, go the

professional Ver.

Hope This helps.

Canaboid

Originally posted by Canaboid
GMT.EXE

BigEejit

gmt - gmt.exe - Process Information
Process File: gmt or gmt.exe
Process Name: Gator Spyware Component
Description: The Gator Spyware Component is installed with Gator and is started when you open Gator
Common Errors: N/A
System Process: No

usually this is a well behaved app (even if it is spyware), i would have thought that it would not be responsible for using 100% cpu time ... use adaware to clear it

jesus_thats_gre

You should be able to see most of the Gator stuff in your program files directory. There will probably be other stuff too, simple enough to remove.

As for the Win2K and Xp lark, the two are basically the same. I have had 4 machines with XP, two of which upgraded from Win2K, and have no problems at all. On another LAN we have 6 XP machines, all used up to 8 hours a day and never have any problems either. The only person I know with XP probs is a mate with a built Athlon machine. Maybe its not XP, maybe its some dodgy component that you put in your machine.

napalm@night

Go to microsoft and downlaod their latest security patch someone discovered a hole for them in xp, xp pro, 2k , 2k server...etc about every microsoft os every built....one of the issues that can devlop(although there can be a few others) is the hole if in your pc is infected starts crawling effects worked for me anyway its not a virus as such although its defined as a worm....it merely uses your ie connection to scan for other pcs that it can infect and sends a msg to microsoft telling them to stop building crap oss' and to stop taking everybodys money. I'd recommend everybody to download it home users are most at risk they say.....

red_ice

well, its sorted now, ive reinstalled xp. On first boot i got the win32Blaster worm!

I really do have the luck of the irish!

Anyways, all sorted now, all my relivant files are stored on my second HDD

Just so you know, its xp pro im running here, home edition on the laptop and win2k on the 1.2 athlon. win2k > all for some reason - has to be the manly aspect of it ;p

red_ice

A friend of mine had the same problems, i just saw it on the security boards

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=109670

the fix...

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=109894

Looks like it was this that was causing the problems.

Thanks for the help lads - looks like that format was totally irrelivant

conZ

Get ad-aware 6.0, then hit 'check for updates'. Then download the latest version of RegVac.

Download them anyways, before you get more problems.