Question For All the Computer Experts

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

~misfit~ wrote:
> Whitedog wrote:
> > An odd thing keeps happening to me. About every half hour or so my
> > computer comes to a screeching halt and works like its breaking down
> > the human genome or something. Can't figure out what it is, no new
> > or unusual progams appear when I hit ctrl+alt+del. I've run numerous
> > virus scans and came up with nothing, checked for spyware, more
> > nothing, can't figure it out. This has killed my poor sorc more
> > times than I can count.
> >
> > I'm running Win98 SE, any thoughts?
>
> Details old son, details......
>
> Is it exactly the same time period between freezes? Are you running a good
> firewall? Do you have anything that auto-updates? (I set my AV to update on
> re-boot). What are the specs of the machine? CPU? RAM? HDD space?
>
> Have you recently installed new software or hardware? Updated drivers? I
> have a wee proggy called Process Explorer (Sysinternals) for windows 98 that
> is only about 245kb zipped that is really good for seeing what is going on I
> can email to you.

Sounds more like spyware than anything else to me. Sadly, Vscans will
usually not pick up spyware or hijack programs. For this, I would
suggest HijackThis and MS anti-Spyware.

Mickey

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"Mickey" <mickeyb@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1126190869.988004.69050@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>
> ~misfit~ wrote:
> > Whitedog wrote:
> > > An odd thing keeps happening to me. About every half hour or so my
> > > computer comes to a screeching halt and works like its breaking down
> > > the human genome or something. Can't figure out what it is, no new
> > > or unusual progams appear when I hit ctrl+alt+del. I've run numerous
> > > virus scans and came up with nothing, checked for spyware, more
> > > nothing, can't figure it out. This has killed my poor sorc more
> > > times than I can count.
> > >
> > > I'm running Win98 SE, any thoughts?
> >
> > Details old son, details......
> >
> > Is it exactly the same time period between freezes? Are you running a
good
> > firewall? Do you have anything that auto-updates? (I set my AV to update
on
> > re-boot). What are the specs of the machine? CPU? RAM? HDD space?
> >
> > Have you recently installed new software or hardware? Updated drivers? I
> > have a wee proggy called Process Explorer (Sysinternals) for windows 98
that
> > is only about 245kb zipped that is really good for seeing what is going
on I
> > can email to you.
>
> Sounds more like spyware than anything else to me. Sadly, Vscans will
> usually not pick up spyware or hijack programs. For this, I would
> suggest HijackThis and MS anti-Spyware.

I use Spybot search and destroy, but it didn't find anything. I look for
one of those too.

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"~misfit~" <misfit61nz@yahoot.co.nz> wrote in message
news:4320454e$1@news.orcon.net.nz...
> Whitedog wrote:
> > An odd thing keeps happening to me. About every half hour or so my
> > computer comes to a screeching halt and works like its breaking down
> > the human genome or something. Can't figure out what it is, no new
> > or unusual progams appear when I hit ctrl+alt+del. I've run numerous
> > virus scans and came up with nothing, checked for spyware, more
> > nothing, can't figure it out. This has killed my poor sorc more
> > times than I can count.
> >
> > I'm running Win98 SE, any thoughts?
>
> Details old son, details......
>
> Is it exactly the same time period between freezes? Are you running a good
> firewall? Do you have anything that auto-updates? (I set my AV to update
on
> re-boot). What are the specs of the machine? CPU? RAM? HDD space?

Its an old computer, P3 550, 128mb RAM. I have to harddrives, 17 and 30
gigs each. They have 15 and 24 free. I have things that auto-update, but
they're all turned off. I run ZoneAlarm and then theres the hardware
firewall in my router/modem.

> Have you recently installed new software or hardware? Updated drivers? I
> have a wee proggy called Process Explorer (Sysinternals) for windows 98
that
> is only about 245kb zipped that is really good for seeing what is going on
I
> can email to you.

I recently installed all kind of stuff as I cleaned house and reinstalled my
OS a few weeks ago. This problem didn't start right away, and I can't
pinpoint when it did start. I'll try that progam, please email it to
jroyer2@removethis.verizon.net

Thanks for the help

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

On that special day, Whitedog, (email@email.com) said...

> About every half hour or so my computer
> comes to a screeching halt and works like its breaking down the human genome
> or something.

Half an hour after turning it on? How about openinge the case, removing
all dust balls and checking if the CPU fan is still running smoothly?
Newer CPUs have a self protection feature; they slow down in order to
lower the heat, and that might cause your problem.


Gabriele Neukam

Gabriele.Spamfighter.Neukam@t-online.de


--
Ah, Information. A property, too valuable these days, to give it away,
just so, at no cost.

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"Gabriele Neukam" <Gabriele.Spamfighter.Neukam@t-online.de> wrote in message
news fpmg0$ul3$05$1@news.t-online.com...
> On that special day, Whitedog, (email@email.com) said...
>
> > About every half hour or so my computer
> > comes to a screeching halt and works like its breaking down the human
genome
> > or something.
>
> Half an hour after turning it on? How about openinge the case, removing
> all dust balls and checking if the CPU fan is still running smoothly?
> Newer CPUs have a self protection feature; they slow down in order to
> lower the heat, and that might cause your problem.
>

Its pretty clean inside, I was in there a couple of weeks ago to put in an
ethernet card. Its also a 6 year old computer, not sure if its smart enough
to protect itself like that.

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

Whitedog wrote:
> "Gabriele Neukam" <Gabriele.Spamfighter.Neukam@t-online.de> wrote in message
> news fpmg0$ul3$05$1@news.t-online.com...
> > On that special day, Whitedog, (email@email.com) said...
> >
> > > About every half hour or so my computer
> > > comes to a screeching halt and works like its breaking down the human
> genome
> > > or something.
> >
> > Half an hour after turning it on? How about openinge the case, removing
> > all dust balls and checking if the CPU fan is still running smoothly?
> > Newer CPUs have a self protection feature; they slow down in order to
> > lower the heat, and that might cause your problem.
> >
>
> Its pretty clean inside, I was in there a couple of weeks ago to put in an
> ethernet card. Its also a 6 year old computer, not sure if its smart enough
> to protect itself like that.

Check the BIOS and see if it has a heat alarm that can be set, and if
so, set it. Any computer, new or old, will start to slow down badly
when it gets overheated. If your fan is not pumping enough air (which
can easily happen these days with video cards producing so much heat on
their own) and the comp gets hot, it will start to act as if it were
running in mud.

Mickey

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"Whitedog" <email@email.com> wrote in message
news:UUZTe.293$EX1.222@trndny06...
>
> "~misfit~" <misfit61nz@yahoot.co.nz> wrote in message
> news:4320454e$1@news.orcon.net.nz...
> > Whitedog wrote:
> > > An odd thing keeps happening to me. About every half hour or so my
> > > computer comes to a screeching halt and works like its breaking down
> > > the human genome or something. Can't figure out what it is, no new
> > > or unusual progams appear when I hit ctrl+alt+del. I've run numerous
> > > virus scans and came up with nothing, checked for spyware, more
> > > nothing, can't figure it out. This has killed my poor sorc more
> > > times than I can count.
> > >
> > > I'm running Win98 SE, any thoughts?
> >
> > Details old son, details......
> >
> > Is it exactly the same time period between freezes? Are you running a
good
> > firewall? Do you have anything that auto-updates? (I set my AV to update
> on
> > re-boot). What are the specs of the machine? CPU? RAM? HDD space?
>
> Its an old computer, P3 550, 128mb RAM. I have to harddrives, 17 and 30
> gigs each. They have 15 and 24 free. I have things that auto-update, but
> they're all turned off. I run ZoneAlarm and then theres the hardware
> firewall in my router/modem.
>
> > Have you recently installed new software or hardware? Updated drivers? I
> > have a wee proggy called Process Explorer (Sysinternals) for windows 98
> that
> > is only about 245kb zipped that is really good for seeing what is going
on
> I
> > can email to you.
>
> I recently installed all kind of stuff as I cleaned house and reinstalled
my
> OS a few weeks ago. This problem didn't start right away, and I can't
> pinpoint when it did start. I'll try that progam, please email it to
> jroyer2@removethis.verizon.net

Process Explorer can be downloaded for free at:
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.h...
(No need for an email)

Its a well-used and trusted application, free from all adware, etc.

--
Trammel is a member of DWC (http://dwc.no-ip.org)
(Please reply to group only)

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"~misfit~" <misfit61nz@yahoot.co.nz> wrote in message
news:4320454e$1@news.orcon.net.nz...
> Whitedog wrote:
> > An odd thing keeps happening to me. About every half hour or so my
> > computer comes to a screeching halt and works like its breaking down
> > the human genome or something. Can't figure out what it is, no new
> > or unusual progams appear when I hit ctrl+alt+del. I've run numerous
> > virus scans and came up with nothing, checked for spyware, more
> > nothing, can't figure it out. This has killed my poor sorc more
> > times than I can count.
> >
> > I'm running Win98 SE, any thoughts?
>
> Details old son, details......
>
> Is it exactly the same time period between freezes? Are you running a good
> firewall? Do you have anything that auto-updates? (I set my AV to update
on
> re-boot). What are the specs of the machine? CPU? RAM? HDD space?
>
> Have you recently installed new software or hardware? Updated drivers? I
> have a wee proggy called Process Explorer (Sysinternals) for windows 98
that
> is only about 245kb zipped that is really good for seeing what is going on
I
> can email to you.

Thanks for the program, it helped me find what I think the problem is.
Oddly enough, it appears to be my antivirus software. For some reason the
email protection part of it was kicking into high gear and swallowing up
70-80% of the system resources every once in awhile. I'm just disabling it
while I play D2 now, and so far so good.

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"Whitedog" <email@email.com> wrote in news:lQZTe.323$vG2.208@trndny02:

> I use Spybot search and destroy, but it didn't find anything. I look for
> one of those too.

Never just use one spyware program. I would suggest Ad Aware (from
Lavasoft, IIRC) in combination with Spybot. No matter which one I run first
(I always run them one after the other) the other one always finds some.

--
Marcel
http://mudbunny.blogspot.com/

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

On 9-Sep-2005, Marcel Beaudoin <mbeaudoin@scintrextrace.com> wrote:

> Never just use one spyware program. I would suggest Ad Aware (from
> Lavasoft, IIRC) in combination with Spybot. No matter which one I run
> first
> (I always run them one after the other) the other one always finds some.

I agree, however, I would add Microsoft's beta anti-spyware program (if
you have a legal Windows installation)
You can get it for free from:
http://microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/product
This can sometimes find things that both AdAware and Spybot S&D may miss.
You should only run one at a time tho, especially if you turn on the real
time protections.
Personally tho, I think it sounded like the OP's problem is/was ZoneAlarm
checking for updates.
I sure wish some coder would create a nice little script/program that you
could personally tweak to turn off _all_ update checking for any and all
programs you may be running (anti-spyware, antivirus, firewall, etc.) with
perhaps some kind of time limit that you could set, and then they would be
turned on again automatically (so I/you would not have to go back and
rerun it to turn them all back on)
Oh, and do these programs _really_ need to check for updates quite so
often? 2 or 3 times a day should suffice, not twice an hour! Just my not
so humble opinion.
--
Not 1337, 42.

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

On that special day, Whitedog, (email@email.com) said...

> Its pretty clean inside, I was in there a couple of weeks ago to put in an
> ethernet card. Its also a 6 year old computer, not sure if its smart enough
> to protect itself like that.

Seeing in another post that your CPU is a PIII 550 MHz, I think it
would not slow down, but stall. The slowdown was first invented for
mobile PIII processors IIRC (to save energy), and then transferred to
the P4 series for ob´verheating protection.

Before, the CPU would just stop working to avoid overheating. So the AV
going stark raving mad theory is a more viable one.

Did you already try Kaspersky? Its load is bearable, and they are often
the fastest to release new definitions after the detection of a new
worm.


Gabriele Neukam

Gabriele.Spamfighter.Neukam@t-online.de


--
Ah, Information. A property, too valuable these days, to give it away,
just so, at no cost.

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 16:26:58 GMT, "ArtDent" <par@noyd.invalidname>
wrote:

>>
>> On 9-Sep-2005, Marcel Beaudoin wrote:
>>
>> > Never just use one spyware program. I would suggest Ad Aware (from
>> > Lavasoft, IIRC) in combination with Spybot. No matter which one I run
>> > first
>> > (I always run them one after the other) the other one always finds some.

Any really good spyware/virus removal program will wipe the disk clean
of any microsoft OS installation.

just my bigoted opinion.