Machine slows to crawl when 2 or more logged on

Machine slows to a crawl in XP when 2 or more are logged on even if no applications are running. The CPU is occuppied at nearly 100%. How to correct this problem. Service pack 2 installed.

 

What does task manager indicate is hogging the CPU cycles?

How are you for free resources like physical and virtual memory?

 

1. Windows XP...is this Pro or Home?
2. How fast is your machine?
3. Do you have antivirus software?
4. Are there any scheduled tasks running...Backup or Antivirus scanning?
5. Why do you have two people logged in ? I know MS "gave us" this great new feature, but it has been my experience that lots of problems seem to happen because of this.
6. When there is only one person logged in, does the system work ok ?

7. What spyware / anti-virus software are you running?
8. Are you running Diskkeeper disk defrag software?

Things to look at.

Go to task manager and click on the Processes tab. Next, click on the CPU Column to sort the processes by cpu cycles. What processes are CPU intensive when two people are logged in.

Goto Control Panel \ Scheduled tasks...see if any tasks are currently running.

Assuming your on a dedicated internet connection (cable/dsl) disconnect your network cable, just in case you have somehow downloaded some trojan/worm that might be phoning home.

The second person...Are they by chance a <20+ yr old. Are they doing any music sharing like kazaa ?

Based on your response, I'v got some more ideas, but this is a start.

 

reply to jedi24

OK, here's additional data.
Dell 2350 with 2.2 GHz Pentium 4 / 256 Meg RAM / 20 G hard drive
McAfee anti virus.
Zone Alarm firewall.
XP home w service pack 2.
Teenage boys doing some music sharing but not Kazaa (Realplayer?).
56 processes running (way too many I'm sure).
Switching between users is convenient as it saves login time. Don't use it not because of machine slow down.
Disc is less then1% fragged.
Recently machine seems to be running faster now that Diablo has been removed.
Recently took the HP online course for SPAM and spyware but haven't had time to apply. It irritates me that I have to spend a lot on time dealing with nosey b******* who took liberties with my equipment. I turned purple with rage when my IE was coopted by a porno site. I switched to Netscape's browser. That helped a lot.
Thanks for your suggestions.

 

Good Luck ...........

 

jchem1

Make sure you have a paid for and current subscription for weekly downloads of definition files. This is not set-it-and-forget-it. AV def's need to be updated, as a minimum...weekly.

Good...this will allow you to block not only incoming, but also outgoing traffic, such as trojans and backdoors.

This is good. Turn on the automatic updates in the control panel for automatic download / manual install.

BAD...VERY BAD. unfortunately many things are occuring. (1) They have turned the box into a community file cabinet for songs. The p2p service allows anyone/anywhere/anytime to access your pc. They are not only sharing songs, they are using your bandwidth. (2) Lots-n-Lots of loosers lace the shared songs with viruses/backdoor programs. Not only is your computer affected, but by p2p, you are helping to propagate these malware.

Rview these services. If one looks weird, just do a search in google for then service. Most of the time, this search will reveal the purpose of the service.

Is this <1% fragged or <1% space available for defrag process?

Good. Next you will want to go into the control panel and start removing applications/programs that you don't need. After that, search internet on what services can be turned off. Check out www.cisecurity.com for a free benchtest application for testing the effective security of your pc.

Don't forget this forum. It is one of the best I have come across. With respect to Spyware, check out Adware and HiJackthis. Both are documented here at windowsbbs.