DCC Archive Completely OT: Windows ME Help?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Vivaldinization, Nov 7, 2001.

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  1. Vivaldinization

    Vivaldinization Active Member Thread Starter

    Actually, this is semi-OT, as it's been affecting my CD-makin' ability..^_^

    I recently bought a new computer that came with Windows ME installed. For whatever reason, it has a strange quirk; even when I'm not necessarily doing anything (indeed, it only seems to happen when I haven't touched the keyboard or mouse in a while, but it happens while, for example, I'm making a CD or watching a movie), the computer will access the HD. A lot. For, say, 15 minutes at a time...doing SOMETHING. I can't figure out what, and I dislike it to no end...firstly, it causes movies to skip, secondly, it does it while I'm ripping audio and not futzing with the mouse...it's a really annoying thing to hear for 10 minutes at a time when I'm trying to read in my room. That sort of thing.

    Things I've determined it isn't:

    a) I turned off System Restore. No good.
    b) I uninstalled NOrton, as I thought Norton might be scanning even though I was telling it not to. Nope.
    c) And no, I don't have any viruses.
    d) Nor open ports...this occurs when I'm not even physically connected to the internet.

    I just can't figure out WHAT'S causing it...whether it's some "feature" of WinME, or something. My old Win95 comp would occasionally access the drive while I was away, but it was obvious what it was doing (managing swap file space, et cetera). There's no earthly reason why I should return from DINNER to find my HD happily chugging away for no apparent reason, and with no apparent cause or effect.


    Anybody?

    -D
     
  2. Dan

    Dan Senior Member

    Location:
    WNY
    I'm wondering if either "Scan Disk" or "Disk Fragmenter" might be running. I can't imagine them running that frequently.

    I still have Windows 95, this is what I have on mine. Find the "System Tools" folder and check "System Agent" to find out if those programs are scheduled.

    You also might want to look at any power saving utilities like screen savers and turn them off too.
     
  3. Sckott

    Sckott Hand Tighten Only.

    Location:
    South Plymouth, Ma
    Windows has automatic disc management and Windows ME is really heavy on disc caching activity. The problem is, there are several places where programs may be executed right at the 'boot up' of Windows.

    Good news is, there are ways of killing those programs that run in the background. For now, hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and make sure the only things running are SYSTRAY and EXPLORER. (END TASK anything that's NOT these two files. For every program you force to die, wait a sec or two, then hit the 3 keys again, repeat until SYSTRAY and EXPLORER are running) It doesn't matter if you've uninstalled anything or if you've recently installed something, as the only 2 things Windows needs to run are both of those files, mainly. Only letting SYSTRAY and EXPLORER run means you're running the PC as lean as you can.

    Once you've done that, go to Control Pannel, Display, turn off your screensaver (switch to "none") exit, and hang for about 10-20 minutes, or listen to a CD (on the stereo) and watch the disc activity light. If this has helped, there's some software being naughty. If not, chances are you have a Compaq or HP that encorporates a SIS motherboard (sucks for bus mastering, but can be tweeked a bit) or there may be melicious code running.

    It's really hard to tell without some patient troubleshooting. Try this 1st and then let me know. Ya gotta take it one step at a time, and just ripping it all apart all at once isn't cool, because that can be a waste of time if the problem is small.

    BTW, everyone should be running Norton Anti-Virus 2002 or Kaspersky Lab's mother of anti-viral software called AVP, in normal use for your computer. Everything else is a waste of time and money (yes, Mcaffee bites it) I build, fix and do computer network stuff for a living - and I can't tell you the Scooby-Doo weird stuff that's been in computers, mostly viral stuff and poor motherboards that make the PC wig out. Usually starts when a secretary or curious kid opens some email he got on AOL, contains NIMDA, HYBRIS, KAK or any other pains in the ass, and I gotta rip up the registry or do Safe Mode shuffle stuff. Grrr.

    Hey, but people who've written virus code has kept food on the table quite well! Thanks, suckers!

    Hope this helps. Oh, I hope you have 64 meg of ram running with ME or more. Having merely 32 meg makes the HD cache activity even more.

    [ November 07, 2001: Message edited by: Sckott ]

    [ November 07, 2001: Message edited by: Sckott ]
     
  4. Vivaldinization

    Vivaldinization Active Member Thread Starter

    The problem is that I do have lots of supplementary programs I like to keep running...but I don't know what ends up being what.


    Could this be a caching problem?

    -D
     
  5. Sckott

    Sckott Hand Tighten Only.

    Location:
    South Plymouth, Ma
    Might be, but I doubt it now with that answer. When you End Taskd all those, did you find major improvement? You should not be running anything supplimentary other than Norton. If yo're running ICQ, MSN Messanger or Yahoo Messanger, etc... they all demand to be run at the start of windows. If you right click and go exploring into the icon that appears in the taskbar, each one of them has a checkmark to uncheck where it says "Run automatically on Windows startup" et al.

    If you're burning with a high speed CDR drive, ya gotta keep it clean, lean and under control.
     
  6. BitShifter

    BitShifter New Member

    Location:
    Cincinnati OH
    When that happened on my NT computer, it was Microsoft FindFast, going off every so often and regenerating indexes to the file systems. Check the top directory level of your disk, and if you have 2 or 3 files beginning with the letters ff, FindFast is probably running. Options for FindFast (including disabling it altogether) can be found in the Control Panel on an NT. Not sure if ME uses it, though...
     
  7. Sckott

    Sckott Hand Tighten Only.

    Location:
    South Plymouth, Ma
    It can, and FF is easilly found to be running if you check in the menu of your Programs, check "Startup" to see if Microsoft Office or Find Fast components are there, and if so, you can right-click and delete both icons without any harm done to Windows or Office. Actually, nothing should be running in that folder unless you WANT it to, like old scanner software or...whatever... but I always keep that folder clean so it doesn't mouse-trap-start anything when windows comes up.

    However, if he can end-task everything except Explorer and Systray, and all is quiet, yes, it's a pesky piece of software, easilly remidied. When only those two are running, barring scripts, viruses (which he swears is not running) or DOS cached utitlites, he should be AOK (as apposed to AOL - ha!!) Findfast and OSD shouldn't be alive by then.

    Don't ever get rid of Kaspersky or Norton AV permanently. Virus come get cha and go BOOM! :eek:
     
  8. Paul C.

    Paul C. Senior Member

    Location:
    Australia
    I have heard of problems being caused by Norton AV, but they may be more to do with memory rather than hard disk.

    I wonder if you have enough RAM memory for your needs... My understanding is that Windows will use virtual memory (ie. the hard disk) if physical RAM is insufficient. Virtual memory can be set by the user, or by default managed by Windows. If you are running some memory hungry programs, you may be swapping to virtual memory a lot (ie. the swap file on your hard disk).

    Sometimes even small programs can chew up system resources way out of proportion to what you'd expect. You might want to check what is going on in memory using a task manager program.
     
  9. Vivaldinization

    Vivaldinization Active Member Thread Starter

    Thanks for all of the help, guys. I did the obvious...I upgraded to Windows 2000. My problems have essentially vanished...^_^ Even my SOUNDCARD problem got better.

    -d
     
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