Subj : Re: system slowing down. To : Marty Blankenship From : August Abolins Date : Sun Jan 25 2004 08:28 pm Hi Marty (of 1:2320/303), On Sat, 24 Jan 04 at 17:08 o'clock, you wrote me: MB> I must have seen something else then because this time I ran it it MB> had some stuff that I got rid of and saved 12,000 + bytes of space. Did you mean 12 MEG of space? MB> I defrag once a month, but I never saw scandisk on the list of system MB> tools and I have everything installed that came with the computer. Scandisk ought to be there too. But it should be run when booted to SAFE-MODE for best performance and results. MB> Ok here is the list. It is quite long and a few of them show up MB> several times. I'll list them in order that they show up. MB> vsstat.exe Vsstat VSSTat.exe (McAfee) --- System Tray icon for McAfee VirusScan which enables you to start VirusScan from the System Tray. Recommendation : If you get errors mentioning VSSTAT, as many users sometimes do, obtain the latest program updates for VirusScan (as opposed to virus definitions updates). If that does not solve the problem, disable VSSTAT MB> fxssvc.exe Fxssvc FxSSvc.exe --- (Microsoft) Microsoft's Fax Service found on Windows XP and 2003. Microsoft's Fax enables the user to send and receive faxes. This service is responsible for sending and receiving faxes, as well as logging various stats about your faxing loads, archiving sent faxes, and configuration of your fax device (fax modem, fax port). Recommendation : Set to disabled or manual in "Administrative Tools / Services" in the Control Panel if you do not use Microsoft Fax. This is especially important given that this service uses a lot of memory and, also, it will often generate boot-up errors if it is enabled but was never configured. MB> fast.exe Fast Fast.exe --- (Microsoft) From the little documentation on this program FAST.EXE seems to be a program that gets installed only with older versions of Microsoft's PowerToys for Windows XP. I noticed that you have TWO instances of this thing running. Maybe you need to atleast stop the 2nd one. Recommendation : Microsoft's recommendation is to upgrade to the latest version of PowerToys for Windows XP, available here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp MB> snmp.exe SNMP Service (Simple Network Management Protocol). This service/task listens for SNMP requests, obtains the required information and data, and passes it on to the requester. You probably don't need this since you said you don't connect to the internet with that computer. ??? Disabled or Manual in Windows 2000/XP (Control Panel \ Administrative Tools \ Services). If a particular software package requires SNMP, and tells you so, simply re-activate the task/service. MB> nvsvc32.exe NVIDIA Driver Helper Service which gets installed under Windows NT4/2000/XP/2003 by the NVIDIA drivers for some of their graphics cards (or graphics cards based on an NVIDIA chipset). We do not at this stage know what this process does except consume memory ! And we also have no idea as to what a "Driver Helper Service" is supposed to do !! Recommendation : This service is often responsible for various glitches, from significant shutdown delays to excessive memory usage. Disabling it, however, does not result in any ill-effect as regards the proper operation of your NVIDIA or NVIDIA chipset graphics card, so we recommend that you definitely disable this service via "Control Panel \ Administrative Tools \ Services" ("Control Panel \ Services" in NT4). MB> avsynmgr.exe Don't know that one. MB> rulaunch.exe Rulaunch RuLaunch.exe -- (McAfee - Network Associates) Background task installed by McAfee VirusScan 6.x and which automatically downloads antivirus updates whenever you connect to the Internet. Recommendation : There are so many problems with McAfee VirusScan v6.x that the last thing you want is a VirusScan background task doing badly in the background what you can do manually yourself. RULAUNCH often crashes or fails, or is it fails and crashes ?!!! Even if you have not experienced a problem with RULAUNCH, disable it and simply manually update VirusScan 6.x To disable RULAUNCH : start VirusScan. Then "Pick a Task \ Change my VirusScan settings \ Configure Instant Updater \ Configure Automatic Updates \ Manual Update". MB> cmgrdian.exe Cmgrdian CMGrdian.exe --- (McAfee) McAfee System Tray icon in pre-version 6 releases of the product which enables you to access all the McAfee AntiVirus features. So.. if you already use a v6+ of MacAfee, you probably don't need this. MB> svhost.exe MB> svhost.exe The two instances of svhost.exe could represent a virus. Here is what the table in answersthatwork.com has to say: Svhost Svhost Loader Svhost.exe --- You have a virus which could be any of a number of them, such as : Backdoor.Socksbot, Bat.Boohoo.Worm, W32.Bolgi.Worm, and a few more. MB> wcmdmgr.exe Wcmdmgr Wcmdmgr.exe --- (Wild Tangent) Wild Tangent's Automated Support Engine for their Web Driver. The Wild Tangent web driver is used in many applications, from games to MP3 players. Recommendation : This program is not required; its sole purpose is to enable Wild Tangent to automatically support new hardware through the feedback that it gets from this program over your Internet connection. Our recommendation, therefore, is that you stop it from running. To do that find the Wild Tangent icon in the Control Panel, then the "Automatic Updater" tab, and clear the "Automatic Updater enabled" checkbox. Next, disable WCMDMGR MB> avconsol.exe Avconsol AVConsol.exe --- (McAfee) AntiVirus Console for McAfee VirusScan 4. This is the McAfee Task Scheduler in VirusScan 4 which enables you to schedule virus scans of your hard disks, download of virus definition updates, etc... AVCONSOL sits in the System Tray in the shape of a McAfee icon. Recommendation : AVCONSOL is temperamental (read "unreliable"). We recommend that you do not rely on AVCONSOL having properly downloaded the latest updates from the McAfee websites. We have seen AVCONSOL appear to be working only to find that the virus DAT file never really gets updated. In our experience, remembering to regularly manually update your version 4 of McAfee VirusScan is a far more reliable process than relying on AVCONSOL doing it automatically ! If you follow our recommendation, and do not have hard disk virus scans scheduled, then you can disable AVCONSOL MB> I went into msconfig and some of these don't show up so that I can MB> uncheck them. Interesting. You probably have to go into (Control Panel \ Administrative Tools \ Services) to work with them. HOPE this HELPS! ....August --- FMail/Win32 1.60 * Origin: http://www3.sympatico.ca/abo (1:229/390) .