Weird thing that happen to my pc, can anyone help?

[runningmovies 0]

I have had this problem for a while. If i leave my computer alone after a min. or two it start acessing something but I don`t know what it is. It does this even if I shut down all progarms running inclued one run in the background. I used a progarm that comes with windows called System Monitor. I left my pc alone and the % of the processor be used was around 30-50 then a few min after leaving it alone it jump up to 100% and stay there. It also sound as if it was acess the hard drive. This all stop when I when I move the mouse on type. As far as I can tell there is no progarm doing this, but I could alway be wrong, and I have scan for virus but found none.I`am not sure if it could have any inpact on play games but I still want to stop it. If anyone has had this and tell please let me know.

My system is as follow:

P4 1.6 gig

1 10 gig hard drive

1 15 gig hard drive

52x cd rom

8x/4x/32x cd-r/rw

3.5in floppy

unknown motherboard with built in sound, video, and ethernet card(which I don`t use)

ati Radeon 8500 64mb ddr ram

sound blaster pci 512

zoom 56k pci faxmodem

[theavonlady 2]

What anti-virus program and version are you using and do you have the AV's latest virus definition updates?

[jawk2 1]

calm down....

did u disable the economy function with plugged thing (modem, joystick), the sleep states and other thing that come along with the Windows default setting *personnally theese are the first thing i modify in my PC*?

It's frequent that Microsh**t insert some prog that scan if there's an activity, and System monitor is very bad made.... and another thing try this:

use a 3rd tool prog that measure "real" CPU activity (rambooster can be fine)....

just open a window and drag this windows in speedy circle with the measure progz visible.

Well u ll see how the CPU activity is made with windows

a good joke

[runningmovies 0]

I`am using Norton AntiVirus I`am not sure with version it is. I know It`s and older one it came with a soyo motherboard(an older board not the one am using now), and I do have latest virus definition updates it update as of 5/9/02.

[ALDEGA 0]

It's probably system restore, making a backup. Which version of windows are you using?

jawk, sysmon is not a bad tool. The only shortcoming is that it doesn't allow you to see cpu usage for each invidual process. Something which TaskManager (in WinNT) does allow.

[runningmovies 0]

I am using Window 98se and I download rambooster it showed the same thing System Monitor showed.

[ALDEGA 0]

Win98 doesn't have system restore, so it's gotta be something else. Anything running in the background?

[Mister Frag 0]

Any number of processes could be responsible.

The Windows Update feature will cause both disk and network activity, if Office is installed, the indexer may be scanning for documents, and if you allow Windows 98 to manage the virtual memory, the kernel will periodically resize the swap file. The later can be cured easily by specifying the same (reasonable! value for both the minimum and maximum size of the swap file.

[runningmovies 0]

even if I hit ctrl-alt-del and closed out everything but Explore and systray it still does it.

[Mister Frag 0]

I understand that. You can't kill the virtual memory manager, and it will periodically resize the swap file.

Try this: go to the Control Panel -> System -> Performance -> Virtual Memory, and indicate that you want to manage the virtual memory swap file yourself. Now set the same size for the minimum and maximum size of the file. Make sure you use a reasonable size, I'd say at least 512MB.

After making the change, Windows will remind you that making this change may leave your system in a non-working state. Ignore the warning, and allow your system to be restarted. Following the reboot, see if the problem has disappeared.

It would also be a good idea to defragment the permanent swap file with a disk optimizer that is capable of doing so -- Norton SpeedDisk is one that can.

[ALDEGA 0]

"even if I hit ctrl-alt-del and closed out everything but Explore and systray it still does it" - Note that in Win98 you can't "kill" processes (at least not all), you only "kill" "tasks". In WinNT you have the ability to see all processes, and "kill" them if necessary. It also gives a better view of what is currently active.

[KamiKaze 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (runningmovies @ May 10 2002,09:19)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I left my pc alone and the % of the processor be used was around 30-50 then a few min after leaving it alone it jump up to 100% and stay there.

P4 1.6 gig<span id='postcolor'>

wow 30-50%? hmm Me sitting here typing im only using 5%.. but then again im on windows XP...could be anything from screensaver not loading properly to like Avon said, a check in microsh*t for usb/gameport/parralel devices.

Also, are you running a USB modem? Cause my old windows 98 (before I upgraded to windows 2000) did that very same thing when i had a USB ADSL Modem.

1) try disabiling the screensaver or power settings

2) swap file should be 2 1/2 times your RAM

EG.

64 MB of RAM = 160 min/max swap

128 MB of RAM = 320 min/max swap

256 MB of RAM = 640 min/max swap

512 MB of RAM (which Win98se cant manage anyway but if you do) = 1280 min/max swap

3) *if* you have a USB modem, unplug it before you start your computer. Check usage with and without it plugged in.

My rig :

P4 1.6 Ghz

512 MB of PC2100 DDR RAM

80 GB Ultra DMA HD

32 Meg TNT2 M64 Nvidia card

Windows XP Home Edition

Personally, Id go with Windows XP, its more stable not to mention the way it handles memmory like a charm Good Luck!