CPU Usage

[rockingrodders]

I am using a Sony Vaio PCV-RX203 Desktop, windows XP home edition, 120GB hard drive (45% used) 1024MB RAM. Use BT Yahoo Broadband 8MB Max download speed, usually running at about 3MB when tested.
I have Norton running, windows defender, and use No Trace daily.
Sometimes all works fine, at other times everything slows down, web pages load slowly and often lock up. When this happens Windows Task Manager shows 100%CPU usage.
Any suggestions as to why this is happening?
Also Java Script keeps turning itself off? When I go onto Internet Explorer, Tools, Internet Options, Scripting is still enabled.
Again any suggestion?

 

[Igorian]

Have a look in task manager to see which process is hogging the CPU

START>RUN and type taskmgr in the box and click OK.

When task manager opens, click the Processes tab and then click the CPU tab twice to put usage in descending order.

Have a look at the processes and you will probably see one at 100% or with a very high value. Post the results.

Also, Norton is a Hog!

 

[rockingrodders]

Thanks Igorian. Sods law its been running okay today, though not much usage. Will wait for the problem to re-occur then post the results

 

[rockingrodders]

The problem seems to be coming from MsMpEng.exe which is something to do with Windows Defender I believe.
Its showing 31464k RAM usage but according to microsoft this should only be 14032bytes.
Any suggestions gratefully recieved.

 

[Igorian]

Uninstall and re-install it or use a different product. If you Google this, you will see other have had the same issue.

 

[rockingrodders]

Okay thanks for that, will try reloading it.

 

[rockingrodders]

Hi, I have removed Windows Defender whilst I was reading some reports on it and I am now wondering is it worth reloading it. There seems to be lots of problems with it not working correctly and mainly not doing what it claimed to do, i.e. remove spyware.
Any recommendations of other products that do the same thing and actually work?
I came across one called Spyzooka. Anyone any knowledge of this product?

 

[Igorian]

Spybot is, in my opinion, a good freebie. I'm sure others here will point to their favourites.

 

[rockingrodders]

Downloaded Spybot. Part of this program has a thing called TeaTimer.exe that uses up more CPU than my original problem. Hence no improvement.
Is this normal?

 

[cjard]

you don't have to install teatimer.. and it can be removed without affecting spybot (but you lose some protection functionality)

some people do report problems with it, others have no issues at all.. I seem to recall that it is a regular complaint. see here:
http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=30994

 

[rockingrodders]

Thanks for that cjard.
Seems to me that with so many people reporting a similar problem its not really working properly. Who wants to wait 5 minutes for their pc cpu usage to settle down every few minutes? That's the problem I am trying to eliminate when I removed windows defender.
Also how do you turn the teatimer off?

 

[cjard]

Thanks for that cjard.
Seems to me that with so many people reporting a similar problem its not really working properly.

It depends what you mean by "not working properly" - here's an app that checks things against circa 90,000 known threats. It's going to take some time, as I've found recently in creating a program to check 300 gigabytes of files for duplicates. The tricks necessary to make it a viable scan time are considerable.

Who wants to wait 5 minutes for their pc cpu usage to settle down every few minutes?

Typically, because A Watched Pot Never Boils and also Things That Take A Long Time Are Bad noone wants a sluggish computer. If you can accept that teatimer and defender are both doing a massive amount of work and that has a knock on, then you may be prepared to wait.

Personally, I don't run any virus or malware software; my computer usage/setup habits tend to mean that the computer doesnt get infected with anything. If you need the software, install it. If you don't, don't. I'd certainly advocate for most the people that I know, that having software protecting their computer is better than leaving it to their intuition but if you'd prefer a responsive computer that is open to infection, watch it carefully.

Also how do you turn the teatimer off?

It's probably in the settings of Spybot, or the settings of TeaTimer. Look for the icon near the clock.