Computer Question-Start Up Menu

[Courts]

Thanks! I run AdAware or SpyBot every other day, along with AOL's spyware which runs automatically and is probably a joke. I update and scan McAfee automatically.

So, of those I didn't find, one is either my Canon Camera, or as I remembered, my Canon printer more likely as it has a card reader.

Another is NVIDIA (as it appears is the NvCpl I was worried about which is found where the site said it should be in order not to be a virus). Reads like it needs to stay.

Then there is a McAfee Site Advisor.

I'm worried about the ctfmon.exe as this one is beyond me, is mentioned as a possible trojan/worm and some of the problems it causes, I'm experiencing.

I did a files and folders search and it came up four ways:

ctfmon.exe C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 (this is where the sites say the legitimate one is to be found)

but it is also found in these:

C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackfiles\i386

C:\WINDOWS\$NTServicePackUninstall$

C:\I386

The file ctfmon.exe is needed, but if you go to Microsofts link you can alter it to prevent Ctfmon.exe from running.

From Microsoft;
Can I Remove the Ctfmon.exe File?
Removing the Ctfmon.exe might cause problematic behavior in your Office XP programs, so removing it is not recommended. To prevent Ctfmon.exe from running, follow these steps.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=282599
Under this link see "Can I Remove the Ctfmon.exe File?"

Follow directions EXACTLY. Make sure you ONLY follow the directions for YOUR windows operating system (ie. Windows XP).
.

 

[Courts]

NvCpl RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NvCpl.dll,NvStartup
NVMCTray RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\System32\NVMCTRAY.Dll,NvTaskbarInit

The above, after further reading, are both NVIDIA and should be left alone. One is just the icon, but is far too much trouble to remove and could pose a problem if you try to get rid of the icon. (involves editing the registry - "shudder")

 

[Glynda]

startup

Right. I don't want to remove either NIVIDIA.

I don't want to remove the official ctfmon.exe C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 from MS Office either. But are these all official or do I have the Trojan/Worm? That's what I can't figure out.

ctfmon.exe C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 This is in the right place and "official."

C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackfiles\i386

C:\WINDOWS\$NTServicePackUninstall$

C:\I386

 

[Icarus]

Did you get rid of the other two (siteadv, and the Canon utility)?

I'm not sure how to get rid of the AOL junk other than to completely remove AOL from your computer, but you said you use it. Maybe you can search for that.

After you do that, do a full restart, and then after you run and see it running sluggish, you can do two things with taskmgr (start/run/taskmgr).

- From the process pane, report the list of processes that are running.

- check your peak memory usage by selecting the performance pane, and report the numbers under the heading "commit charge" in the lower left hand corner.

-David

 

[Kal]

You can only go so far in removing start-up programs. What size is your hard drive? How full is it? How much memory do you have? Depending on where you are, these could have a substantial impact on operation.

A friend of mine had a 20GB hard drive and I put an 80GB on it. I cleaned up the startup routine, but that was about it. He commented that all he needs now is a "seat belt" as the machine is now really fast.

No doubt as his hard drive was 19.5 GB full.

 

[Icarus]

Kal, from post #16, Glynda answered:

Dell Dimension 8300 Intel (R)
Pentium (R)
4CPU
2.60 GHz
2.59 GHZ 1.00 GB RAM

Drive C: Total Size: 74.4 GB Free Space: 45.4 GB

I thinik we need to keep looking at startup/services, peek memory utilization and possibly virtual memory configuration.

-David

 

[Glynda]

Removal

Did you get rid of the other two (siteadv, and the Canon utility)?


Glynda: I have now!


I'm not sure how to get rid of the AOL junk other than to completely remove AOL from your computer, but you said you use it. Maybe you can search for that.


Glynda: I tried again via msconfig statup. Rebooted and AOL was no longer there. Then I tried to bring up AOL via my desktop icon. Sloooooooow.
Checked msconfig startup again and there it was, rechecked. At this time, I'm not willing to uninstall AOL completely and lose all my favorite places, email, etc. Not willing to put up with such a long loading process for it either.
But, I've removed all but the one from the list so maybe that will help along with all the others.


After you do that, do a full restart, and then after you run and see it running sluggish, you can do two things with taskmgr (start/run/taskmgr).

- From the process pane, report the list of processes that are running.

- check your peak memory usage by selecting the performance pane, and report the numbers under the heading "commit charge" in the lower left hand corner.

-David

Glynda: Tskmgr, processes, results in a VERY long list. Does that mean all of those are running or just those I see moving CPUs?

Right now, using AOL to access tug:

Commit Charge (K)
Total 357840
Limit 2523316
Peak 383660

 

[Glynda]

Worm/Trojan

ctfmon.exe C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 This one is in the right place and "official."

But do any of these look suspect to anyone:

C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackfiles\i386

C:\WINDOWS\$NTServicePackUninstall$

C:\I386

 

[Icarus]

ctfmon.exe C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 This one is in the right place and "official."

But do any of these look suspect to anyone:

C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackfiles\i386

C:\WINDOWS\$NTServicePackUninstall$

C:\I386

No, they are standard.

You aren't using that much memory. Only 380k peak. Memory is not your problem, since you said you have 1G. So, we still have to look at what tasks are running. (The list from taskmgr).

I think somebody already suggested disk defragmentation, right? And you do it regularly?

Some services you can turn off that will make your system run faster:

Indexing service
System Restore Service

It's completely safe to turn off the indexing service. It's also safe to turn off the system restore service however, you won't be able to go back to a restore point if you turn it off, so you might want to leave it on. There's a bunch of other services you can turn off too.

You might want to look at taskmgr when the computer is sluggish, click on the cpu column heading twice, and that will sort the list of tasks by which ones are using the most CPU time. Report back if you see anything interesting using a lot of cpu time. Most of the tasks will be using very little cpu time and those don't matter than much, and that's normal.

-David

 

[Courts]

ctfmon.exe C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 This one is in the right place and "official."

But do any of these look suspect to anyone:

C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackfiles\i386

C:\WINDOWS\$NTServicePackUninstall$

C:\I386

Did you go to Microsoft and follow their advice about "altering" the ctfmon.exe programs?

This ctfmon.exe sounds like it causes all sorts of problems.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=282599

.

 

[Glynda]

sluggish

Yes, 1 GB and yes, I do defrag often.

What CPU is considered high? The only thing showing on the CPUs right now is 99 by System Idle Process. Everything else is 00 except taskmaster which is a 02 and waol.exe at 01.


Where do I find Indexing Service to turn it off?

Courts, I was under the impression that the ctfmon causes problems if it is the trojan/worm, not the legitimate one that does belong to MS Office.

 

[bilbran]

In reading these posts and your description - to me your system sounds like it has a corrupt windows install. Or worse - like a bad case of spyware or a virus. Or even a hardware issue. With the system you have, those programs you have running in start-up should not make that much difference. They might make it a touch slower, but you mention things going at a crawl, and the system refusing to shut down and/or reboot. This is more than a few programs running at startup. The spyware/virus climate is terrible on the internet and even though adaware and spybot are OK, they don't catch it all. I have seen many systems that run at a crawl and they usually are full of spyware.

What I would do if this was my system is run some other virus checkers and spyware cleaners. Try several. If they don't find anything that helps, I would download and run Windows xp service pack 2. Its a big one, about 270 mb so a fast internet connection is needed to download it. This just might fix a corrupt windows install. No guarantees.

If none of those worked, I would back everything up and do a reinstall of Windows XP. This would get the system back to a virgin state and free of the problems. But if for some reason it still persisted at this point then it is more than likely a hardware issue, like the motherboard, or hard drive. At that point I would have to weigh fixing the broken hardware piece, against replacing the system. This would depend on how old the the system is and how much reasonable life I could expect after fixing what was wrong. If the system is relatively new, I would spend a few hundred dollars to repair it, but if it's more than a few years old, I would rather spend the money on a new system than put too much into an old one.

Don't hesitate to get help with this if you need it. It will be the least painful method in the long run.

 

[Icarus]

Yes, 1 GB and yes, I do defrag often.

What CPU is considered high? The only thing showing on the CPUs right now is 99 by System Idle Process. Everything else is 00 except taskmaster which is a 02 and waol.exe at 01.

Your system is 99% idle. taskmgr is the thing you're looking at. waol.exe is using a bit of the CPU at the moment, and everything else is doing nothing.

So, if it was sluggish, there's not much else you can do except to get a newer, faster computer. And even then, you will be doing nothing faster.

So, what do you mean by "sluggish"?

And, yes, I've assumed you have an up to date A/V program running, and that you regularly use an antispyware program like Spybot S&D to clean up anything that really shouldn't be on your computer. And I'm assuming you run windows update regularly or have it set up to notify you or download critical updates and you do it, and that you are running XP SP2.

Where do I find Indexing Service to turn it off?

http://www.helpwithwindows.com/windowsxp/tune-18.html

I usually uncheck the option first in the properties of each hard drive. (system/ right click on each hard drive, and make sure "Allow Indexing Service to ..." is unchecked, then disable the service.

Courts, I was under the impression that the ctfmon causes problems if it is the trojan/worm, not the legitimate one that does belong to MS Office.

More info on ctfmon (not the trojan or virus, the office XP applet): http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;282599

-David

 

[Glynda]

Problems

I actually think it's moving along better now. The biggest problem was how long it took to start up and the frustration of it refusing to shut down or reboot. And it would freeze on me as well. We'll see how that goes over the next few days. Seems OK now.

I just don't do that much with my computer to have these problems, unless it was the startup or I have too many photos on there, that's something I need to address too. I look through and see that I apparently have the same photo stored in several different places.

Basically, I surf the internet with Microsoft Word open, a memory stick in for stored Word documents, and sometimes Adobe Photoshop Elements open as well. I use my Palm software and iTunes occasionlly. That's it

Absolutely! XPSP2. McAfee and Windows update runs automatically and I also check behind them. I run Spybot and/or Adaware at least every other day. It appears as if the new McAfee update also is doing a spyware check now and AOL does one as well. I empty my cache, recycle bin, and defrag regularly.

YIKES, Bilbran, that makes me weak in the knees...before I could do all that, I think I'd buy a new system!

In fact, I've been thinking. I need a new laptop and have been waiting until all this VISTA and Word stuff settles down. What do y'all think of a bit bigger laptop than I was considering for more umph (I wanted thin and lightweight like 4-5 pounds.) and dock it at this home with a monitor, keyboard and mouse? It does get old having things on two systems. What would you recommend? Thanks!

 

[Kal]

I actually think it's moving along better now. The biggest problem was how long it took to start up and the frustration of it refusing to shut down or reboot. And it would freeze on me as well...

... It appears as if the new McAfee update also is doing a spyware check now and AOL does one as well...

First, whenever the system freezes or refuses to shut down tells me you've got some driver problems or issues in the registry. Try booting up in Safe Mode and see if you experience those same problems.

I would look at the configuration of McAfee and AOL. They seem to be running spyware and virus checks concurrently in the background. Maybe pick one and turn off any duplicate function with the other.

Also, virus paranoia seems to be at work here. You don't need to go thru that effort so frequently. The root of the problem is the underlying operation.

 

[Courts]

After you try what Kal suggested there are two things that may help.

First:

Set your “page file”, “swap file”, “virtual memory” all the same file, as follows;

1-Open Control panel
2-System
3-Advanced tab
4-Performance settings
5-Advanced tab
6-Virtual memory – “change”

7-Custom size -- “minimum and max size =2000 (min=2000 and max=2000)
you can set to 2500 or 3000 also as long as BOTH are the same,
but NOT less than 2000 (windows says not less than 1566)”. 2000 is optimal.

8-Set
9-Ok

What this does is it keeps your “virtual memory” file the same size always.
When windows manages it, the file grows and shrinks as you work, depending on how many programs you use.
Problem is, the file fragments constantly. By keeping it the same size, the file is always in the same spot – no fragmentation to worry about.

Another thing you can do is purchase Symantec’s SystemWorks.
Basic SystemWorks =$50(has the optimizer that will help) / standard SystemWorks (has anti-virus)=$70 / the premier $100 (has system restore, but XP has this built in). If you purchase one of these, do not allow it to put anything in the start-up, unless you replace your McAfee with Symantec's anti-virus. Anti-virus needs to be in start-up.

I use the “speed disk” constantly. Speed disk allows me to put the virtual memory file at the beginning of the disk for fast access.
Files such as photos and cab files at the end of the disk, so the computer does not need to look through all the photo and cab files to find program files. It also rearranges the files, so they are not fragmented around the disk.

When my Win ME machine starts having shut down problems, I know it is time to run “speed disk”.

.

 

[Icarus]

I also agree with Kal's suggestion of making sure you only running one A/V program and only one Anti-Spyware program and only one firewall. For A/V, you might consider downloading and installing the free version of AVG and disabling ad removing any other A/V program on your system.

The suggestion to make the swap file one size is a also a good one.

It's tough to recommend Norton anything anymore because all of their stuff has turned into bloatware. But speedisk used to be a good program.

Diskeeper is even better, except for their anoying marketing email. But for most people, the defragmenter that ships with windows XP is good enough. It doesn't provide nearly as much control or features as diskeeper, but for most people that doesn't matter because they won't know what to do with the additional features and options.

-David
.

 

[Glynda]

Thanks

I've disabled Indexing Service. And I've set the virtual memory to 2000/2000.
I don't have a clue what all that means but trust you guys do. :whoopie:

I'm going to search around AOL and see how to turn their spyware off. That always annoys me and never catches anything.

Then, I'm going to get out my laptop and go through all this with it!

 

[Glynda]

Laptop Startup

I've taken a look at the startup menu on my Dell Inspiron 700M laptop. Using:
http://www.sysinfo.org/startupinfo.html

I don't see the following in order to make a decision:

igfxpers C:\WINDOWS\System32\igfxpers.exe

igfxtray.exe (said no to " but this one is not there)

SNDMon C:\PROGRA~1\SYMET~1\SNDMon.exe/Consumer

apdproxy "C:\ProgramFiles\AdobePhotoshopElements4.0\apdproxy.exe"

jushed C:\ProgramFiles\Java\j2re1.4.2_03\bin\jushed.exe

SynTPEnh C:\ProgramFiles\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe

ipoint "C:\ProgramFiles\MicrosoftIntelliPoint\ipointexe.

Help?

 

[Icarus]

I've taken a look at the startup menu on my Dell Inspiron 700M laptop. Using:
http://www.sysinfo.org/startupinfo.html

I don't see the following in order to make a decision:

igfxpers C:\WINDOWS\System32\igfxpers.exe

igfxtray.exe (said no to " but this one is not there)

SNDMon C:\PROGRA~1\SYMET~1\SNDMon.exe/Consumer

apdproxy "C:\ProgramFiles\AdobePhotoshopElements4.0\apdproxy.exe"

jushed C:\ProgramFiles\Java\j2re1.4.2_03\bin\jushed.exe

SynTPEnh C:\ProgramFiles\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe

ipoint "C:\ProgramFiles\MicrosoftIntelliPoint\ipointexe.

Help?

I found some of them in the startups list. The igfx stuff can be disabled (Intel Graphics card stuff).

sndmon is associated with Norton Live update .. you decide if you need it or not. If you are running Norton A/V, etc, and you run live update automatically, you want to keep it. If not, get rid of it.

apdproxy is Adobe Photo Downloader .. you can delete it. You can start it manually when you need it.

Are you sure it's jushed and not jusched? jushed is spyware. jusched is Sun's Java runtime updater. You don't need jusched. If you have jushed, run spybot s&d to get rid of it, or do further research on how to get rid of it.

SynTPEnh is for the synaptics touch pad system tray program. You probably want it for custom settings, etc.

ipoint.exe is for a Microsoft intellimouse. Your choice if you need it or not. If you're not using an intellimouse, get rid of it. Otherwise, it's for customizing the settings, etc.

-David

 

[Glynda]

Thanks

I found some of them in the startups list. The igfx stuff can be disabled (Intel Graphics card stuff).

sndmon is associated with Norton Live update .. you decide if you need it or not. If you are running Norton A/V, etc, and you run live update automatically, you want to keep it. If not, get rid of it.

apdproxy is Adobe Photo Downloader .. you can delete it. You can start it manually when you need it.

Are you sure it's jushed and not jusched? jushed is spyware. jusched is Sun's Java runtime updater. You don't need jusched. If you have jushed, run spybot s&d to get rid of it, or do further research on how to get rid of it.

SynTPEnh is for the synaptics touch pad system tray program. You probably want it for custom settings, etc.

ipoint.exe is for a Microsoft intellimouse. Your choice if you need it or not. If you're not using an intellimouse, get rid of it. Otherwise, it's for customizing the settings, etc.

-David

You're right, it's jusched. I do use the mouse and figured that the synaptics might be there because, per your great help, I turned off the touchpad and it recognizes when there is a mouse or not. Thanks again!