[wolfwiser]

Hi I wonder if you can advise how I can detect if there are any software/hardware conflicts on my PC.

After I have booted up, all is well for about an hour until the mouse starts to get jerky and the sound stuttters. I have removed all spy/mal ware with adaware and ccleaner, ran a Kaspersky scan but cant find anything.

In device manager there are no yellow ! signs. I guess its a conflict, but dont know. My 3.0GhZ P4 prescott runs at around 58°C (everest) when usually it was much cooler. In admin tools > performance the graph plot of the processor is very spikey, even when its doing nothing. I can't find a event on task manager that reflects this processor usage.

Also from time to time my motherboards sound mangement program pops up out of nowhere as though I'd plugged a new jack into one of the speaker/heaphone ports....

Any help would be appreciated.

:4-dontkno

 

[hwm54112]

Check drive transfer mode:

start>rite click my computer>properties>hardware tab>device manager>expand ide controller>rite click on primary ide channel>properties>advanced settings>

Transfer mode should be DMA if available
Current Mode should be dma not PIO

 

[Kalim]

If there's hardware conflicts they will be in Event Viewer under the properties of each device.

 

[wolfwiser]

thanks guys, the setting are all as you staed above and there are no conflicts showing. Its strange as it does not seem to happen every time I boot up, if I run adaware I remove a couple of detections, reboot it works fine. If I reboot another time, this is when the system starts to play up. I'm starting to think its some malware hiding somewhere - maybe within RTHDCPL.EXE (realtech sound) which also controls my sound settings (i.e. the program that pops up). If so I cant seem to find it....

Any ideas?

The performance graph for my processor runs just like a heart monitor (i.e. spikes at around 35% at regular intevals) even when the system is doing nothing.

 

[Geekgirl]

RTHDCPL.EXE is a non-essential process, you can try removing from startup. Also look on line for an updated driver for your sound

 

[Kalim]

Open up Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del), click the Processes tab and then click the CPU heading twice.

Which 3-4 processes are coming to the top with the most CPU usage?

 

[hwm54112]

The regularity of intervals might be due to taskmanager>view>update speed - may not be an accurate "real time" reading

Coincidentally, my CPU usage was remaining at 45 - 60 % while "processes" totals were only using 3-4 %. (system Idle process= 97%.)

This just started on my computer - thought it might be an MS update. Uninstalled IE 7 - everything is back to normal (cpu useage 3% process list 3%. (I don't use IE)

This may be unrelated to your issue - we have to support IE7 at work, one customer had an outlook issue (but not webmail), another had a webmail issue, another appeared to have router issues (couldn't access router setup). Even though all settings were correct, issues remained until IE7 was un-installed.

 

[Kalim]

That spot on with my experiences of IE7 too. Two more users here were experiencing weird behavior pointing in all directions and was finally resolved by reverting back to IE6.

 

[wolfwiser]

Thanks, I've tried the advice about cpu usage and tried to check the most processor hungry but cant seem to find the culprit. I've printed a list of all processes so I'll just go through and find out what each does and try to eliminate the problem.

Just as an aside I noticed that the problem started immediately after opening IE7. I've tried un and then re-installing IE7. Thought I'd got it but then the problem just happened again at random (though interesting about outlook as that was open at the time).

I will just have to log when the problem starts, strange as all is well today!

Cheers for the thoughts, though no further forward...

:upset:

 

[Kalim]

Hi
You can try this and see if it makes anything better:

Disable unwanted startups

- Press: Winkey+R
- Paste: msconfig
- Press: Enter
- Click tab: Startups
- Keep: the AV and firewall entries enabled
- Disable: 100% unused or extra entries
- Unsure about the start up: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/

Then restart and see how that goes. If it was process, the problem will now disappear.