We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.

This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.

📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

How do I find out what my computer is doing?

erb
erb Posts: 547 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
My computer seems to be very busy a lot of the time and more than it use to be. The light is showing that the hard drive is working almost continously at times but all I am doing is surfing the web.

I have brought up task manager and the only application running is my browser. However, is does show 60 processes running but I havn't a clue what most of them are.

Is there any way I can find out what the computer is doing to be using the hard drive for so much time?

Thanks.
Regards
erb :)
«13

Comments

  • ukcarper
    ukcarper Posts: 17,337 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Task manager will show you what processes are using cpu
  • Try the free version of "Win patrol" . Website = http://www.winpatrol.com/ . It lists all running/startup programs, with basic descriptions.
  • Millionaire
    Millionaire Posts: 3,748 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Is it Vista?

    Vista has a habit of Disk thrashing.
  • Browntoa
    Browntoa Posts: 49,612 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    try a "quick scan" with malwarebytes

    http://www.filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/

    if the scan finds anything then post the log file it produces
    Ex forum ambassador

    Long term forum member
  • erb
    erb Posts: 547 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Is it Vista?

    Vista has a habit of Disk thrashing.

    No XP Professional.
    Regards
    erb :)
  • Try booting into safe mode.
    I.e press F8 at start up.
    If you PC then runs fine then it is probably a malware or virus problem.
    As above a quick scan with AVG then Malwarebytes should do the trick.
  • andy2004
    andy2004 Posts: 1,309 Forumite
    edited 14 March 2010 at 2:13AM
    60 processes running on xp pro, that is definately way over the top, under xp pro you shouldnt have more than 40, with some fine tuning possible to get that down to 27, mine is currently 35, and i have 13 non microsoft programs running.

    1. download, install, update and run a quick scan using malwarebytes > www.malwarebytes.org <freeware and possibly one of the best

    2. antivirus AVAST HOME http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

    3. Hijackthis 2.0.3 http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/
    download, install, click scan and LOG, it will open notepad when finished, just copy and paste the contents here, so someone can take a look at it.
  • fonky
    fonky Posts: 27 Forumite
    yea thats right I would use Hijackthis!!
  • Darksun
    Darksun Posts: 1,931 Forumite
    I know with Vista, possibly with XP as well, when the computer is idle it'll perform certain background tasks which can be disk intensive, such as defragging and indexing.

    Is it slowing down your experience at all?
  • erb
    erb Posts: 547 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Browntoa wrote: »
    try a "quick scan" with malwarebytes

    http://www.filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/

    if the scan finds anything then post the log file it produces

    Tried this and it found 1 object which has now been removed. I now have 58 processes running. This is the log file.

    Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.44
    Database version: 3865
    Windows 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3
    Internet Explorer 8.0.6001.18702

    14/03/2010 15:47:49
    mbam-log-2010-03-14 (15-47-49).txt

    Scan type: Quick Scan
    Objects scanned: 293783
    Time elapsed: 37 minute(s), 30 second(s)

    Memory Processes Infected: 0
    Memory Modules Infected: 0
    Registry Keys Infected: 1
    Registry Values Infected: 0
    Registry Data Items Infected: 0
    Folders Infected: 0
    Files Infected: 0

    Memory Processes Infected:
    (No malicious items detected)

    Memory Modules Infected:
    (No malicious items detected)

    Registry Keys Infected:
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2b96d5cc-c5b5-49a5-a69d-cc0a30f9028c} (Adware.Minibug) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

    Registry Values Infected:
    (No malicious items detected)

    Registry Data Items Infected:
    (No malicious items detected)

    Folders Infected:
    Regards
    erb :)
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 352K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.5K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 454.2K Spending & Discounts
  • 245K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 600.6K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 177.4K Life & Family
  • 258.8K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.2K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.