Doctor, I was told to come to you by Belahzur

Let me try and fill you in as quickly and painlessly as possible. If you want to look up my posts with Belahzur the title was something like "CPU Usage gets stuck at 100%" obviously posted by me. Belahzur helped me out a lot, but has come to the conclusion that I need more RAM? My computer says I have plenty of "Free Space".. Belahzur had me check my "size" and it was like "512 MBytes".. he suggested for me to come to you and see if you can help me a little better.

Whenever I run my scanner at work my comp. goes to 100% Usage and the internet shuts off! I am trying to help my boss. Please help us!

Thank You

The free space you are talking about is probably the hard disk space, it's different from RAM.

512MB of RAM is really kind of little, I'd would recommend 1GB, if not 2GB.

I would also like you to open up task manager (Alt+Ctrl+Del) and go to the processes tab. Check which process shows the highest percentage and tell me the name of it. Maybe we some stop it from running.

yeah i usually do that with my laptop when it starts to run slow.. usually from the internet.. but for this comp.

SVCHOST.exe 13,448
DynexWCUI.exe (my wireless adapter) 10,036
SVCHOST.exe 8,552

Not the memory is uses, the CPU usage. It will be under the CPU column.

System 99 (stays there)

bcmwltry (will flash below every now and then)

the rest of everything is all at 00


** and im sorry this computer that i am talking about is Windows 2000 Professional.. not XP like what is listed under my profile.. thanks

How long has this been happening? Have you recently installed a certain modem driver or similar?

i just recently installed a wireless network card.. Dynex and that is when we started running into the problems with when the scanner goes off the CPU goes to 100% and stays there.. could that really be it? I have this wireless adapter on another comp and it works perfectly

Yes, I highly suspect that the driver you installed the driver.

Try disabling it and see if this problem still occurs. Also, is this the official driver provided by your computer manufacturer?

no.. i mean I went to my local computer store and said my computer does not have wireless and we need it for work. They gave me this simple plug and play wireless adapter. It works great on the other computer (which is a lot newer).

I am not going to lie, this comp. we are talking about is old. NOW, it will turn on and internet will work. Then after a few minutes, the comp spikes to 100% usage and I can NOT get a connection to save my life. The wireless adapter is picking up the signal, but the internet won't work. ONLY after it hits 100%.

I will turn OFF the device under Device Manager and see what happens when I restart it...

I will try to get you another wireless adapter, let me know what happens when you disable it.

well, as usual i go to reset the computer and it freezes with just the background showing. I then physically shut it down by holding down the power button.. letting it sit there for a few minutes, then turn it back on.

i let the comp. sit there for a while and the computer will go from 0% to around 30%.. then i will open ONE window of iexplorer and everything is alright.. it will still have connection.. as SOON as i click on something in the internet explorer and go to another page its like OVERdrive and the comp. hits 100% and stays there and the connection shuts off to the internet!!!

Did this happen even after disabling the wireless adapter?

no.. when the adapter is disabled.. the comp. will do the 0-30% or higher usage.

When it is turned ON.. the comp. will do the 0-30% or higher usage. Still runs ok.

When it is turned ON.. the comp. will do the 0-30% or higher usage. Still runs ok. I will even open internet explorer, it will be ok. ONCE i open another page to check mail or anything is when it goes to 100%.. stays there and shuts off the internet. MAKES NO SENSE!

**I believe when I run my scanner, it will also spike to 100% and cut off the internet.. PLEASE HELP

Since there are no references as to what might cause this problem, you have to disable startup and service items one by one and see what is causing this problem.

To do this, Start >> run >> type in msconfig >> enter.

Under the Startup tab, click the Disable all button and restart your computer, see if the cpu usage still spikes up, if it doesn't enable the startup items one by one and see which one is causing the problem.

If disabling all startup items won't work move to the services tab and do the same.

an ERROR message comes up.. "Cannot find the file msconfig (or one of its components). Make sure the path and filename are correct and that all required libraries are available."

Ahh. Malware caused the above problem. From what I know certain malware is known to remove msconfig, regedit, cmd and other commands from the run utility.

Here's how to bring it back.

Open Explorer and navigate to C:\Windows\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Binaries\, find for MSConfig.exe and see if it is present.

If it is missing, you can copy it from another computer to the Binaries folder or if you only have Windows XP CD, open a command prompt window, insert your XP CD into the drive and enter the following command: (assuming E:\ is your CD/DVD drive and C:\ is where Windows is install also known as your Local disk.)



The above command should restore MSConfig.exe to it's origianl folder.

If MSConfig.exe is already there and but you can launch it from Run command, then the reference to the path within the registry may be wrong. Check this location in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\MSCONFIG.EXE

On the right pane, next to Default, it should show:

C:\WINDOWS\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Binaries\MSConfig.exe


There is also a tool created with a VB 6 utility, it will create a usable backup copy of Taskmgr.exe, MSConfig.exe and Regedit.EXE in a new folder, called C:\EmergencyUtils. The new copies will be named Copy_of_Taskmgr.exe, Copy_of_MSConfig.exe and Copy_of_Regedit.com.

Grab it here:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_emergencyutil.zip

All you have to do is navigate to the C:\EmergencyUtils and double click the file you need to run.

wow, this is truly amazing how you know this.. i wish I could do this :-), anyway

i am running on Windows 2000 Professional for this computer.. just so you know.. i saw you mentioned XP

NOW, when you said explorer.. I opened up "my computer" and typed C:\Windows\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Binaries\ .. it looks like it tried taking me to the internet. When i tried it on THIS computer which is just a few years old it went right to what you were talking about.

Do we need to find another approach? Since the computer w/ the problem has "Windows 2000 Professional" ??

When i tried it on THIS computer which is just a few years old it went right to what you were talking about.

Didn't get you here. Did you mean, the path is not valid?

yes, when i put in the file path you told me to on the computer WITH the problem which has Windows 2000 Professiona.. it like directed me to internet explorer and said "page can not be displayed"

on THIS computer with XP, i tried the same thing.. and the path you gave me took me right to where you wanted me to go

Ok, instead of copying the path in, try to navigate to the path with explorer.

smart move.. but right after C:\.. windows wasn't even an option.. so then i stared doing Start=>Search and i searched for each individual path.. NOTHING showed up.. Windows, PCHealth, Helpctr.. nothing came up until Binaries.. which the path to get there is this..

C:\Program Files\Common Files\MSSoap

does this help?

It's been a long time since I used Windows 2000, and everything is different from XP or Vista.

Can you try this one and see if it works?

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_emergencyutil.zip

Extract it and navigate to the C:\EmergencyUtils and double click msconfig.

remember.. i am not on the comp with the problem because the internet stops working.. but i will restart it and try to go directly to that link you just sent me before it shuts off

noooooo.. it said " this utility only runs on xp!!"

ahh... Do you have your Windows 2000 CD? The last resort is to use it and perform a repair.

yes i do.. can you describe what it may say? i went and looked for it last night bc i thought that is where this was going.. and this is what i found..


Drivers and Utilities
"Dell OptiPlex ResourceCD for Renistalling Device Drivers and Using Diagnostics, Utilities and System Requirements"

its a blue cd.. is this what i need?

Yes, that is it. When you insert it at boot up, it will ask you if you want to boot from CD, allow it to boot from the CD and it will ask you if you want to repair or format. Choose the repair option.

damn.. it didn't ask me at start up what i wanted to do with the cd? It just started up..

Reboot, and press Ctrl + F11 at the Dell logo. (Keep Pressing Ctrl + F11 to be safe). The Dell PC Restore screen will come up.