BleepingComputer.com: cpu usage 100 percent

Hello-

Newbie here that needs some help please after tearing my hair out for the last week.
Platform: Windows XP SP3 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v7.00 (7.00.6000.16981)

I noticed on Monday that my Mozilla Firefox icon was missing and went an installed the latest 3.6v. My computer became extremely slow and the Task Manager showed that there was a svchost.exe (SYSTEM) that was running at 99% constantly (or a little under that). I removed that version and rolled back to the 3.5.8v and still the same.

After Googling.. I did the following: defrag, registry cleanup, Malywarebytes, CCleaner, disk cleanup, Spybot and still nothing. I ran HiJackthis and don't really understand it. I posted it to a couple of sites but they didn't really help.

I ran Process Explorer and it showed that one svchost.exe as "kernel32.dll!CreateThread+0x22" and the stack for the thread reads:

"ntkrnlpa.exe!NtBuildNumber+0xe
ntkrnlpa.exe!RtlUpcaseUnicodeString+0xbe
ntkrnlpa.exe!ZwYieldExecution+0x4f3
hal.dll+0x2ef2
ntdll.dll!NtDeviceIoControlFile+0xc
WS2_32.dll!recv+0x6f"

I've done more research on this and I still can't figure it out. What am I doing wrong please? Help!

Thank you! Sorry if I sound stupid, but I'm trying..

How to determine what services are running under a SVCHOST.EXE process - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/list-services-running-under-svchost.exe-process/

Louis

Thank you Louis for posting a reply.. I guess I posted the wrong information..

After reading the tutorial.. it says:

DcomLaunch DCOM Server Process Launcher C:\\WINDOWS\system32\rpcss.dll
TermService Terminal Services C:\\WINDOWS\System32\termsrv.dll

Does that help any?

Thanks..
-Grace

Well...that DCOM Launcher Service seems to have been prominent in a number of recent suspected malware instances posted in this forum.

You might take a look at Possibly Related Threads.

Louis

sigh.. yeah I already went through all of those and then some.. they did nothing...

Can you give us a little information about your system please:

Motherboard
Processor
Memory

Thank you!

Motherboard says: ASUSTek Computer INC/Model: Amberine M 1.03/Chipset: ATI Xpress 200(RS480) Rev 10/Southbridge ATI SB400/LPCIO SMSC/Bios Brand Phoenix Tech LTD/version 3.14

Memory: Type DDR/Channels # Dual/Size: 1024 MBytes

Processor: AM Athlon 64 3400+

I hope that's right..

-Grace

What did Malwarebytes find ( if anything ) when you ran a scan with it?

Would this computer happen to be a Compaq Presario SR... Model?

Malwarebytes found nothing.. and I ran the FULL scan too...

Actually it's an HP Pavilion a1330e

Have you updated any drivers on your computer lately?

Have you run Windows Update or installed Updates lately?

Did you recently install Service pack 3?

none of them actually.. I even ignore the add-ons for Firefox cause I'm so paranoid.. the only things was that Mozilla because it had mysteriously disappeared from my desktop..

oh and every once in a while I can hit CTRL ALT DEL and it unfreezes the computer for a few minutes..

Delete your Firefox Profile, and then remove Firefox then reinstall. Something in your firefox profile is causing this.

ok this is going to sound REALLY stupid.. but forgive me OK?

Is that the same thing as deleting the entire Firefox Program and reinstalling.. or no?


Thanks!

When you remove/uninstall firefox your profile remains to keep bookmarks and other things. It doesn't get removed.