Weird Memory Usage (Pro)

[bigaldoc]

Thanks too for YOUR trouble and patience, Chris! OK Loungers, back to the drawing board. One screenshot - 87, 11, and 2% respectively but the bottom line shows - huh? The saga continues. I'll be back, Chris.....

[WyllyWylly]

Chris, it's time to do some selective troubleshooting. First thing to try: boot into safe mode and see if the behavior persists. Safe mode will disable a large number of things and should ideally present you with low CPU usage. You can't really use the computer in safe mode, but if the problem goes away, it's almost certainly software related. If it persists, it could be hardware, or a case of broken Windows.

You have a few apps listed that raise an eyebrow for me - everything but your AV software, really. I've had firewall programs cause grief (cough Outpost cough) on high speed connections. The most effective way to determine if it's a software package you are running that is causing the high CPU utilization is to strip out all non-essential programs. Kill the processes that are running - those you listed in your post - and see if the spiking stops. Use MSCONFIG to disable as much as you can at startup, and if life is good, then start enabling things one at a time until the behavior recurs.

I really believe it's something you're running in the background that's doing this. Did you ever check to see if the Indexing Service was running? It's a notorious resource pig.

[Cah]

Thanks, Mark - I think I've discovered the source of the problem. It's my tablet. In safe mode I didn't have the problem so I used msconfig as you suggested and turned of all those programs that caused raised eyebrows <img src=/S/wink.gif border=0 alt=wink width=15 height=15> But I still had the problem - suddenly I noticed that when my pen was hovering over the tablet the CPU usage figure shot up, thought the system idle process remains unchanged.

So now the question is what can I do about it? Try another driver I guess, or is this behaviour indication of some other problem? Also would you give me your recommendations for what you would have running? Do you use a firewall? But now I'm thinking of changing to the following:

Keiro Personal Firewall
Winkey - I use this for launching programs and find it very convenient
dirkey - used for fast navigation to folders when saving files
Computer Essentials Power Tools - 'fixes' the Windows Search tool, quick keys for repetitive text, CTRL+N creates new folder, etc

I'll only run Ad-watch when I go online and Wordweb when making crosswords

What do you think? Is there anything else you noticed from the screenshot that you think I could/should live without?

Thanks,

Chris

PS Indexing was the first service I disabled using services.msc. There aren't any other settings elese where I need to change to make sure it isn't running are there?

PPS I used the wink smiley - is there a simple smile smiley? I couldn't see one in the smilies panel.

[Cah]

I tried a different driver - no change. Then my wife had the idea of using a Serial Wacom Intuos tablet we have - I was using a USB1 tablet. Low and behold the CPU usage isn't shooting up when I hover the pen over the tablet. I wonder if it's because I had the USB1 tablet running into a USB2 hub (though the hub is supposedly USB1 compatible)? Or because the serial tablet has it's own mains power whereas the USB tablet doesn't?

Thank you everyone for your help.

I still wonder if I should remove any of those utilities, though. Any recommendations regarding my last post?

Chris

[WyllyWylly]

Chris, if those utilities are what you are used to and you find them useful, I can't think of a compelling reason to stop using them. You've pinpointed the source of your CPU spikes, and it wasn't one of the utilities.

Since you asked, though, I'll share with you what I use, or do in place of, the listed applications/utilities. Knowledge is power.

Keiro Personal Firewall:
I discovered Sygate Personal Firewall and I've been impressed with its stability and unobtrusive nature from day one. I started off using ZoneAlarm, and throughout the Lounge you'll find evidence of my displeasure with it - too many times has it caused one problem or another, ranging from loss of Internet access up to the wonderful BSOD. I've also used Outpost, which was good but had a memory leak with high speed connections, Norton (very well done) and Tiny Personal (hard to use). Sygate is an excellent mix of intrusion detection and firewalling.

Winkey - I use this for launching programs and find it very convenient:
I use a combination of the address bar, which is docked in the main taskbar, and Quick Launch. The address bar can open programs, websites, pretty much anything that an input box in Windows can do. I also have a few keyboard shortcuts assigned to programs on the Start Menu, but I rarely use them.

dirkey - used for fast navigation to folders when saving files:
I use the Autocomplete feature of Windows. You can also type in the path (such as d:My Documents) and press enter, and the file dialogs will jump to that location, if it's valid. In conjunction with Autocomplete I can get anywhere on the system in a flash.

Computer Essentials Power Tools - 'fixes' the Windows Search tool, quick keys for repetitive text, CTRL+N creates new folder, etc:
"Fixes" the search tool? Huh? The other things that it does sound intriguing.

I'm not familiar with AdWatch. I'm guessing this is some form of pop-up blocking, but since I'm an Object Desktop subscriber, I get a form of that with one of the components that make up the product. Namely, WebBlinds.

If you're comfortable with what you have running, that's the most important thing. There are an infinite number of programs and configurations, and no two people use a PC in quite the same way. My tendency is to kill off anything using memory that I can do with the operating system, and to learn how to use it - this is a holdover from the days of DOS, Windoze 3.x etc., where every scrap of memory was a precious commodity. It's still not a bad habit but it is a rare thing to see someone scraping for an additional 45KB of RAM to boost overall system performance!

Chris....glad you found the problem. Now that you have, it must be beer o'clock. <img src=/S/grin.gif border=0 alt=grin width=15 height=15>

[carbonnb]

Chris,

Are you the only one logged in?

If there is another user logged in and you have switched users, that may be the cause of the 43% CPU usage.

Check the "Show Processes From All Users" check box at the bottom of the Processes tab.

That may give some more clues.

[Cah]

Thanks for the suggestion Bryan, I'm on a stand alone machine at the moment - not hooked up to any other computer yet - but I will be soon and that box is definitely worth checking.

Chris

[Cah]

Thanks for the insights, Mark and thanks for taking the time to reply. I'll take a look at the Sygate Personal firewall. Isn't the Keiro Personal Firewall the Tiny Personal Firewall under another name? I might try out the address bar approach and see where it gets me. Regarding Computer Essential Power Tools (CEPT) here's a link. Fixing the Windows Search tool means that CEPT causes the search tool to open in a separate window when pressing F3 or CTRL-F. It does lots of other things as well (power rename, find duplicates, open a command prompt in any folder etc).

Adwatch comes with Lavasoft's Adaware (plus) - a free utility to remove spyware - but I guess perhaps it's overkill since Internet Explorer 6.0 is supposed to block cookies and perhaps Spybot is more effective?

As for it being beer o'clock I'm not sure what time it is where you are but here in Japan it's not even noon!

All the best,

Chris


PS I'm trying out the hyperlink buttons for the first time - I hope they work!

[carbonnb]

Chris,

You don't need to be networked for this to make a difference. On my XPP box, I have 4 accounts. Mine, my wife's and my 2 girls. My wife is often logged in at the same time as I am (and we switch back and forth) and any processes that are open in her account, may be responsible for increased CPU usage when I check the processes from my account.

[WyllyWylly]

It seems that Keiro is Tiny under a slightly different moniker. I haven't used it in quite some time, well over a year, so I had no idea. AdAware has been taking a beating lately in all the boards and newsgroups because it's not been updated, and can actually cause problems - so Spybot for now seems the better choice. (Your links work just fine BTW).

I believe Bryan is referring to fast user switching, where you can switch to another desktop without logging off the current user. It eats resources for breakfast.

Beer o'clock, to me, is ANY time you solve a strange problem. Even if you have to postpone it a little bit for the boss, you've still earned it!

[Cah]

I'm the only person using this machine so I guess it's fine to disable 'fast user switching'? Incidentally is there a way of copying user settings (including application settings) from one account to another? I have two accounts, apart from the original Administrator account. Would it make sense from a security point of view to be using a non-administrator account on a daily basis - say when I connect to the internet? I still haven't completely gotten my head around user accounts. If I move some shortcuts in the startup menu to the All Users account will that make the same program settings available for different accounts? If I can get all this sorted out in my head it could well be beer-time (or the equivalent since I'm not drinking until I finish my book...)

Chris

PS Do you use, Spybot, Mark and do you have it running all the time or just scanning occasionally?

[Cah]

That's very helpful <img src=/S/cheers.gif border=0 alt=cheers width=30 height=16> I think the only thing I need to do after making the changes you suggest is to learn about admin privileges. I can have the original administrator account as my last ditch fall-back. My main administrator account for making system changes and my everyday account for everyday use. How do I know if an item requires admin privileges or rather how do I set the privileges for an item? I guess I need to 'hit the books' <img src=/S/read.gif border=0 alt=read width=19 height=33> <img src=/S/yikes.gif border=0 alt=yikes width=15 height=15>. Do you have any more tips?

These user accounts things are a completely different World!

All the best,

Chris

[ibe98765]

Speaking of security, here are some links to check on issues and things to do. Many people have been badgering Microsoft for years to think about simplification of the OS. Instead it gets ever more complex and beyond the grasp of the average user.

http://lhttp://www.labmice.net/artic...ingwin2000.htm
http://nsa1.www.conxion.com/winxp/download.htm

[Cah]

Thanks for the links, there's a lot of food for action there!

Chris

[WyllyWylly]

Yes, if you're the only person using the system, by all means feel free to disable Fast User Switching. For some reason seeing "FAST.EXE" in the task list drives me nuts because I know that I will never use it.....thus, it's sucking up a little bit of memory that I could put to better use.

<hr>Would it make sense from a security point of view to be using a non-administrator account on a daily basis - say when I connect to the internet? <hr>

Absolutely. In the Linux/Unix world, you would never see a responsible user running as root. But for whatever reason, that's the default that was chosen by Microsoft - rights are wide open and must be pared back. Since many people don't do this, Microsoft is not helping their cause. Trustworthy computing? Bah! It's like leaving your front and back doors open when you leave home on vacation. Who's going to stop the cretins from walking in and rummaging through your underwear drawer? <img src=/S/grin.gif border=0 alt=grin width=15 height=15>

Essentially, if you install programs as a user with Administrative privileges, they will be useable by all authenticated users on the system. Some programs do not support the Win32 security model, being designed for Windows 9x, but that's becoming rare anymore (thank goodness). Shortcuts in All Users will appear for, well, all users. Any account logging in will see them, although if an item requires administrative privileges to execute an error will pop up. Shortcuts created in the Default User folder tree will be created for new users as they log on. Shortcuts in your user profile won't be visible to anyone else. An easy way to move them is to do the following:

1. <LI>Close or minimize all open windows (you'll see why in a moment).
   <LI>Right click on the Start menu and select Explore.
   <LI>Right click on the Start menu again, this time choosing Explore All Users.
   <LI>Right click in an empty area of the taskbar and select Tile Windows Vertically. (If you didn't close/minimize all your other windows you'll have quite a mess.)
   <LI>You're now rooted at the Start Menu for All Users on one side, and the currently logged in user on the other.
   <LI>Drag shortcuts and folders from one window to the next as desired.

At home, I keep things in All Users - at the office, it's the opposite, even though I am the Administrator of the machine. In that scenario I move only the things that I will actually use into the user profile that I work with, leaving others in the Administrator's group - such as antivirus settings, etc. Using NTFS increases security, but again, at home, I don't employ it - if my 7 year old gets on my PC, I can deal with her! <img src=/S/laugh.gif border=0 alt=laugh width=15 height=15>

I've recently started using SpyBot after hearing about it here, but I don't run it constantly - I'm extremely conscientious about my housekeeping, borderline obsessive, so I run it once a week just to be sure, and after any program installation as well. Software installs are an oft-employed tactic for installing drek of this nature.

Hope that helps,