moved - Page 2

Vikesrock8411 · 01-18-2006, 01:06 PM

Alright it's now most likely a hardware problem so I am going to ask you to post in the hardware section to see what they think.

Here's a link to the Laptop section in the Hardware forum:
http://www.techsupportforum.com/forum108/

Copy and paste the text from inside the box below at the end of a post describing your issue. It is a quote from me describing the things you have already tried so you don't end up repeating things.

Good luck!

PHP Code:


			
[quote=Vikesrock]

This issue is definitely not malware related. I have also had ridofit run [b]chkdsk /r[/b]. We have tried creating a new profile and it did not improve boot time. The problem is also not the computer trying to connect to the wireless network, as boot time was not affected by removing the wireless card and preventing explorer from searching for the network.

Heres a link to his thread if you want to see what was tried:

[url=http://www.techsupportforum.com/hijackthis-log-help/85382-moved-post444674.html][/quote]

ridofit · 01-19-2006, 10:38 AM

Thanks so much Vikesrock8411! You had me perform some great stuff that I have learned a lot from. Problem is re-posted per your recommendation.

Ridofit

jhonne · 01-24-2006, 03:06 AM

All,

I've also got an IBM (Lenovo) thinkpad that suddenly started running very slowly, I've found that going to task manager and killing the process logmon.exe seems to pretty much resolve the problem. While this is a preinstalled application, I am slightly concerned that it may get easily infected by the EBlaster keyboard logger, perhaps the security gurus can shed some further light...

ridofit · 01-25-2006, 09:55 AM

johonne, thanks for your interest in my problem. I would like to do as you suggest but don't know how to "kill the process logmon.exe." What is the command for? WAnd were do I find it and how do I delete? I don't even know what Task Manager is or how to get to it. Can Logmon.exe be reinstalled if it doesn't do the trick? I am low on the geek-scale (as you are no doubt are realizing as you read this) so am not sure what logmon.exe does on the PC in the first place. What prompted you to single this command out as
the reason for your PCs slowness? - ridofit.

jhonne · 01-28-2006, 03:48 AM

OK, Logmon.exe is some program that is automatically run at start-up, it seems to be part of the 'client security' package that is pre-installed on current Thinkpads. I don't really know what it does but I have a call open with Lenovo (IBM) to try and find out.

Task Manager is a core Windows component that allows you to see all of the software processes running on your PC - there are many underlyinging processes that make 'Windows' happen before you even run a user application like Word or Excel.

In Windows XP, you can find task manager by right-clicking on an empty area of the task bar (the thing with the start button on the far left). The menu that appears will give you the option of running 'Task Manager'.

When it loads you will see a number of tabs, Applications which shows you the user programs is the first tab and then Processes which shows the underlying programs that make up Windows and your applications.

Click on the Processes tab, you will see a column based list running processes, the 3rd column by default is ' CPU' and this shows how much CPU power is being used by any program at any point in time. If you click on the CPU heading the list will be sorted by which programs are using the most CPU from lowest to highest. Click on the CPU heading again to change the sort order from high to low.

You will usually see at the top of the list a process called 'System Idle Process' this is always present and represents the amount of CPU not being used by anything else - nothing to worry about here.

Below this the list is likely to be continually moving as different applications use bits of CPU time. However in my case, immediately below System Idle Process, the program 'logmon.exe' seems to be continually present using a consistent 20-30% of CPU time.

To kill a process, click on its name and then press the 'End Process' button, you will be asked to confirm and then the process should vanish from the list. In some cases (where a process is badly behaved and does not respond to Task Manager trying to kill it) you may need to repeat this several times.

I wouldn't advocate randomly killing processes because they are using up CPU time, after all any program you choose to run will use up CPU.

Generally speaking if the PC is responding slowly, have a look in TM for something using consistently high CPU, try searching for the process name on google to see what it is related to if you can't work out which program it is associated with by its name.

Killing a process doesn't delete anything, it just stops the program from running, many programs are automatically loaded at startup so for example, if I kill logmon.exe now, it will be run again the next time I start Windows.

There is a program available called 'security task manager' which will allow you to kill a process and prevent it being started next time Windows is run but I would suggest that if you do find that logmon.exe behaves in the same way as it does for me, I would contact your support helpline to get further advice.

Weez · 01-28-2006, 06:20 AM

Im having this exact same problem. Ive been having it for the past month. When i use IBM's rescue and recovery program to restore from a backup the unit works fine and runs fine but inevitably whithin a day or 2 it starts again. I am almost certain logman.exe IS involved with the problem in some way. It uses anywhere from 3% to 30% cpu cycles while watching it and im equally sure Access Connections is part of the problem. Do either of you use AC on your thinkpads? if so, does it take a month to load now?

jhonne · 01-28-2006, 04:10 PM

To be honest I try to avoid all of the IBM software, this is my third thinkpad and the first two I uninstalled all of the access connections etc etc because it played hell with my wireless.

This time I thought I would use all the pre-installed stuff because of the new client security/encryption tools.

I do recall a colleague of mine complaining that his thinkpad (of 2 years ago) would pause every now and then for upto 10 seconds... its a major disappointment because the machoines are quite high spec.

I did have a concern that there might be a virus/spyware on the machine especially after reading that logmon.exe can be infected by the Eblaster trojan.......

ridofit · 01-29-2006, 11:45 PM

jhonne: thnks for all the info on this. Great write-up on Task Manager! It appears I have 66 running processes with no applications open. My total memory is 764Mb. 360Mb of that is used before I open anything (!) Longmon.exe uses but 0.6% of that. tmpbxy sucks up 35% - whatever the hell that is. The next biggy is svhost that weights in at 10%. Then IEXPLORE.EXE 7.6%; QCTRAY 3.6% followed by QCWLICON 3.35%. The remaining processes average about 2% each.

If I open IE (explorer.exe) it uses 7.2%. MSWord takes 1.26%. Don't know what all this means but it sure looks like logmon plays a minor roll in my notebook. If I deactivate all startup stuff (via msconfig) the time to boot remains the same - far too long. My Notebook was superfast, now is much slower. IBM software helper stuff has proven completely useless at troubleshooting the reason so far, this despite the fact the machine seems to be stuffed with IBM processes.

Pulling the Belkin wireless card makes no difference to execution speed.

I've been cleared by the super-techs on this website for malware and viruses. They did not find anything untoward.

I'm at a loss to understand why there is not some MS-standardized routine one could run that would check speed of operation against a standard- ridofit

- ridofit

jhonne · 01-30-2006, 06:17 AM

No worries - 66 processes is if anything a low number, there are many many subcomponents in Windows (i have 90 process right now and only 2 applications open), likewise memory usage can be misleading as Windows automatically 'swaps' inactive memory space out to a file on the hard disk to free up RAM for active applications and also locks memory for its own use. 768Mb of RAM is a pretty reasonable amount and means that speed issues are unlikely to be memory related unless you are running Photoshop with large pictures or something memory intensive.

Out of the processes you mention, I would suggest checking out what tmpbxy is by typing its name into google, when I did this it found no match but suggested tmproxy - was your spelling a typo? This is part of your Antivirus software if my spelling is accurate.

SVCHost is a core windows function, leave it alone!

iexplore.exe is Internet Explorer

Of the two QC processes you mention, at least one is an icon in the system tray (the bit on the right hand side of your task bar), again searching on google tells me this is an IBM application.

You are best looking at the task manager process list once the machine has settled down, not immediately after boot up as many processes load and unload at boot time.

I would also take a look if there is a sudden slowness to see if anything is eating up your CPU/memory - look at the performance tab of task man for a quick overview of utilisation.

Unfortunately this is the nature of today's PCs - the O/S is designed to provide a base for the user to install any variety of applications on any number of pieces of hardware and Microsoft can't monitor ever single system change ....

In my experience, the only machine that doesn't suffer from these problems is a Mac simply because most of the best software is written by Apple and all the machines are made by Apple therefore everything can be tested together...

Perhaps try installing Security Task Manager (again search on Google) - this might show you some dangerous processes, take care though as it only highlights process that could be dangerous, it does not check on their background so you will find that some of the legitimate IBM stuff shows up as bad even though it isn't.

If you really want to get rid of the IBM software then go to Control Panel and Add Remove Programs and simply remove the IBM components....

Enjoy

ridofit · 01-30-2006, 03:23 PM

Thanks again for the information. You are most knowledgeable. tmpbxy was a typo. As you suggest should have been tmproxy.exe (Trend Micro PC-Cillin).

One last shot: with all items disabled in the msconfig startup table the machine still takes ages to boot, as does the intial opening of IE or OE.
Is fact this significant?

Subsequent openings of these applications are more normal therefore the problem is not troubelsome enough to impair regular use.

I just wished I knew what happened to cause this otherwise brilliantly fast - even compared to my desktop Dell behemoth - little notebook with its great keyboard & UltraNav device.

ridofit

jhonne · 02-03-2006, 01:21 AM

Hmmm... I'd be a little careful with removing all of your startup items - some of them may actually be there to help other applications load quickly or may even be required for certain functions to work - their absence may actually slow your PC down.

I tend to find that my machine is always very slow for the first few minutes after bootup - this is usually because Windows is still loading a load of processes in the background. After this however, the only slow prog to load in Microsoft Excel (I don't know why!) - make sure everything has settled down (ie HDD light is no longer blinking furoiusly) before you start running applications, this will give you a better idea of how quickly they start up.

Some apps will load slowly the first time but subsequent windows will open much more quickly (Internet Explorer is a bit like this)

But if you are really concerned, backup all of your data and rebuilt the machine - you can do this by rebooting and pressing the blue 'Access IBM' or 'ThinkVantage' button which will give you option to restore the factory setup.

ridofit · 02-09-2006, 08:36 PM

Thank you for the advice. I'm going to take it and stick with what I have. I rarely reboot anyway, so am not too concerned. I think at some point I did have a malware problem that the various cleansing runs the great geeks over in hijackthis logs hosed out the syste. Intial loads do take longer, after that speed is near as fast as it was. Thks again.

01-18-2006, 01:06 PM	#21 (permalink)
Vikesrock8411 Analyst, Security Team Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 3,065 OS: Windows XP	Alright it's now most likely a hardware problem so I am going to ask you to post in the hardware section to see what they think. Here's a link to the Laptop section in the Hardware forum: http://www.techsupportforum.com/forum108/ Copy and paste the text from inside the box below at the end of a post describing your issue. It is a quote from me describing the things you have already tried so you don't end up repeating things. Good luck! PHP Code: [quote=Vikesrock] This issue is definitely not malware related. I have also had ridofit run [b]chkdsk /r[/b]. We have tried creating a new profile and it did not improve boot time. The problem is also not the computer trying to connect to the wireless network, as boot time was not affected by removing the wireless card and preventing explorer from searching for the network. Heres a link to his thread if you want to see what was tried: [url=http://www.techsupportforum.com/hijackthis-log-help/85382-moved-post444674.html][/quote]

01-24-2006, 03:06 AM	#23 (permalink)
jhonne Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 5 OS: XP	Possible cause of the issue All, I've also got an IBM (Lenovo) thinkpad that suddenly started running very slowly, I've found that going to task manager and killing the process logmon.exe seems to pretty much resolve the problem. While this is a preinstalled application, I am slightly concerned that it may get easily infected by the EBlaster keyboard logger, perhaps the security gurus can shed some further light...

01-28-2006, 03:48 AM	#25 (permalink)
jhonne Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 5 OS: XP	Finding logmon.exe OK, Logmon.exe is some program that is automatically run at start-up, it seems to be part of the 'client security' package that is pre-installed on current Thinkpads. I don't really know what it does but I have a call open with Lenovo (IBM) to try and find out. Task Manager is a core Windows component that allows you to see all of the software processes running on your PC - there are many underlyinging processes that make 'Windows' happen before you even run a user application like Word or Excel. In Windows XP, you can find task manager by right-clicking on an empty area of the task bar (the thing with the start button on the far left). The menu that appears will give you the option of running 'Task Manager'. When it loads you will see a number of tabs, Applications which shows you the user programs is the first tab and then Processes which shows the underlying programs that make up Windows and your applications. Click on the Processes tab, you will see a column based list running processes, the 3rd column by default is ' CPU' and this shows how much CPU power is being used by any program at any point in time. If you click on the CPU heading the list will be sorted by which programs are using the most CPU from lowest to highest. Click on the CPU heading again to change the sort order from high to low. You will usually see at the top of the list a process called 'System Idle Process' this is always present and represents the amount of CPU not being used by anything else - nothing to worry about here. Below this the list is likely to be continually moving as different applications use bits of CPU time. However in my case, immediately below System Idle Process, the program 'logmon.exe' seems to be continually present using a consistent 20-30% of CPU time. To kill a process, click on its name and then press the 'End Process' button, you will be asked to confirm and then the process should vanish from the list. In some cases (where a process is badly behaved and does not respond to Task Manager trying to kill it) you may need to repeat this several times. I wouldn't advocate randomly killing processes because they are using up CPU time, after all any program you choose to run will use up CPU. Generally speaking if the PC is responding slowly, have a look in TM for something using consistently high CPU, try searching for the process name on google to see what it is related to if you can't work out which program it is associated with by its name. Killing a process doesn't delete anything, it just stops the program from running, many programs are automatically loaded at startup so for example, if I kill logmon.exe now, it will be run again the next time I start Windows. There is a program available called 'security task manager' which will allow you to kill a process and prevent it being started next time Windows is run but I would suggest that if you do find that logmon.exe behaves in the same way as it does for me, I would contact your support helpline to get further advice.

01-19-2006, 10:38 AM	#22 (permalink)
ridofit Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 27 OS: XP	Thanks so much Vikesrock8411! You had me perform some great stuff that I have learned a lot from. Problem is re-posted per your recommendation. Ridofit

01-25-2006, 09:55 AM	#24 (permalink)
ridofit Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 27 OS: XP	johonne, thanks for your interest in my problem. I would like to do as you suggest but don't know how to "kill the process logmon.exe." What is the command for? WAnd were do I find it and how do I delete? I don't even know what Task Manager is or how to get to it. Can Logmon.exe be reinstalled if it doesn't do the trick? I am low on the geek-scale (as you are no doubt are realizing as you read this) so am not sure what logmon.exe does on the PC in the first place. What prompted you to single this command out as the reason for your PCs slowness? - ridofit.

01-28-2006, 06:20 AM	#26 (permalink)
Weez Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 1 OS: XP	Im having this exact same problem. Ive been having it for the past month. When i use IBM's rescue and recovery program to restore from a backup the unit works fine and runs fine but inevitably whithin a day or 2 it starts again. I am almost certain logman.exe IS involved with the problem in some way. It uses anywhere from 3% to 30% cpu cycles while watching it and im equally sure Access Connections is part of the problem. Do either of you use AC on your thinkpads? if so, does it take a month to load now?

01-28-2006, 04:10 PM	#27 (permalink)
jhonne Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 5 OS: XP	To be honest I try to avoid all of the IBM software, this is my third thinkpad and the first two I uninstalled all of the access connections etc etc because it played hell with my wireless. This time I thought I would use all the pre-installed stuff because of the new client security/encryption tools. I do recall a colleague of mine complaining that his thinkpad (of 2 years ago) would pause every now and then for upto 10 seconds... its a major disappointment because the machoines are quite high spec. I did have a concern that there might be a virus/spyware on the machine especially after reading that logmon.exe can be infected by the Eblaster trojan.......

01-29-2006, 11:45 PM	#28 (permalink)
ridofit Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 27 OS: XP	jhonne: thnks for all the info on this. Great write-up on Task Manager! It appears I have 66 running processes with no applications open. My total memory is 764Mb. 360Mb of that is used before I open anything (!) Longmon.exe uses but 0.6% of that. tmpbxy sucks up 35% - whatever the hell that is. The next biggy is svhost that weights in at 10%. Then IEXPLORE.EXE 7.6%; QCTRAY 3.6% followed by QCWLICON 3.35%. The remaining processes average about 2% each. If I open IE (explorer.exe) it uses 7.2%. MSWord takes 1.26%. Don't know what all this means but it sure looks like logmon plays a minor roll in my notebook. If I deactivate all startup stuff (via msconfig) the time to boot remains the same - far too long. My Notebook was superfast, now is much slower. IBM software helper stuff has proven completely useless at troubleshooting the reason so far, this despite the fact the machine seems to be stuffed with IBM processes. Pulling the Belkin wireless card makes no difference to execution speed. I've been cleared by the super-techs on this website for malware and viruses. They did not find anything untoward. I'm at a loss to understand why there is not some MS-standardized routine one could run that would check speed of operation against a standard- ridofit - ridofit

01-30-2006, 06:17 AM	#29 (permalink)
jhonne Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 5 OS: XP	No worries - 66 processes is if anything a low number, there are many many subcomponents in Windows (i have 90 process right now and only 2 applications open), likewise memory usage can be misleading as Windows automatically 'swaps' inactive memory space out to a file on the hard disk to free up RAM for active applications and also locks memory for its own use. 768Mb of RAM is a pretty reasonable amount and means that speed issues are unlikely to be memory related unless you are running Photoshop with large pictures or something memory intensive. Out of the processes you mention, I would suggest checking out what tmpbxy is by typing its name into google, when I did this it found no match but suggested tmproxy - was your spelling a typo? This is part of your Antivirus software if my spelling is accurate. SVCHost is a core windows function, leave it alone! iexplore.exe is Internet Explorer Of the two QC processes you mention, at least one is an icon in the system tray (the bit on the right hand side of your task bar), again searching on google tells me this is an IBM application. You are best looking at the task manager process list once the machine has settled down, not immediately after boot up as many processes load and unload at boot time. I would also take a look if there is a sudden slowness to see if anything is eating up your CPU/memory - look at the performance tab of task man for a quick overview of utilisation. Unfortunately this is the nature of today's PCs - the O/S is designed to provide a base for the user to install any variety of applications on any number of pieces of hardware and Microsoft can't monitor ever single system change .... In my experience, the only machine that doesn't suffer from these problems is a Mac simply because most of the best software is written by Apple and all the machines are made by Apple therefore everything can be tested together... Perhaps try installing Security Task Manager (again search on Google) - this might show you some dangerous processes, take care though as it only highlights process that could be dangerous, it does not check on their background so you will find that some of the legitimate IBM stuff shows up as bad even though it isn't. If you really want to get rid of the IBM software then go to Control Panel and Add Remove Programs and simply remove the IBM components.... Enjoy

01-30-2006, 03:23 PM	#30 (permalink)
ridofit Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 27 OS: XP	Thanks again for the information. You are most knowledgeable. tmpbxy was a typo. As you suggest should have been tmproxy.exe (Trend Micro PC-Cillin). One last shot: with all items disabled in the msconfig startup table the machine still takes ages to boot, as does the intial opening of IE or OE. Is fact this significant? Subsequent openings of these applications are more normal therefore the problem is not troubelsome enough to impair regular use. I just wished I knew what happened to cause this otherwise brilliantly fast - even compared to my desktop Dell behemoth - little notebook with its great keyboard & UltraNav device. ridofit

02-03-2006, 01:21 AM	#31 (permalink)
jhonne Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 5 OS: XP	Hmmm... I'd be a little careful with removing all of your startup items - some of them may actually be there to help other applications load quickly or may even be required for certain functions to work - their absence may actually slow your PC down. I tend to find that my machine is always very slow for the first few minutes after bootup - this is usually because Windows is still loading a load of processes in the background. After this however, the only slow prog to load in Microsoft Excel (I don't know why!) - make sure everything has settled down (ie HDD light is no longer blinking furoiusly) before you start running applications, this will give you a better idea of how quickly they start up. Some apps will load slowly the first time but subsequent windows will open much more quickly (Internet Explorer is a bit like this) But if you are really concerned, backup all of your data and rebuilt the machine - you can do this by rebooting and pressing the blue 'Access IBM' or 'ThinkVantage' button which will give you option to restore the factory setup.

02-09-2006, 08:36 PM	#32 (permalink)
ridofit Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 27 OS: XP	Thank you for the advice. I'm going to take it and stick with what I have. I rarely reboot anyway, so am not too concerned. I think at some point I did have a malware problem that the various cleansing runs the great geeks over in hijackthis logs hosed out the syste. Intial loads do take longer, after that speed is near as fast as it was. Thks again.