RE: MCE suddenly very slow, stuttering, CPU usage at 100%

Douglas / all,

I have a brand new Dell XPS laptop that is also running maxed out most of
the time it's turned on. I believe these problems are related. If you kill
the task ehrec.exe, you may see then see the behavior in paragraph 2). More
information:

1) Originally, I had the problem only with CCApp.exe (part of the Symantec
antivirus suite.) It ran maxed out and wouldn't shut down when I wanted to
reboot. It can't be killed from task manager (different than the next
paragraph.) A bit of researched, deleted the temp. files, installing all
recent OS patches (all of them), Symantec updates (daily) and allot of warm,
cold and hard reboot later, I have new and worse OS behavior (see below.)

2) When I leave my computer on for a while it goes into screensaver mode and
(as I recall) powers down the monitor/LCD. Usually the problem starts with a
max CPU for msmsg.exe. One of the event logs (System I believe) logs a DCOM
error - "timed out" type of problem. After I kill msmsg.exe (or whatever
program is currently running max out), within a few minutes a different
already loaded program starts running maxed out. This problem doesn't always
seem require an idle CPU/OS state for this to occur and can transition
between tasks within seconds sometimes. If I kill that maxed-out task,
another existing task starts getting maxed out. It continues until
eventually, explorer.exe gets maxed out and I have to stand on the power
button (which I hate doing.)

I have not verified that the "next program to get maxed out" happens at the
idle timeout / screen saver activation / power down activation yet. I have
verified this problem happens on more than on screen saver so that probably
isn't directly part of the problem.

I booted in safe mode yesterday and didn't see this problem but I this
wasn't a definitive test either.

Things I have tried:
1) Update Symantec
2) Deleting all internet temp files
3) Deleting all other %TEMP% files
4) Update the OS (all patches)
5) Cold boot
6) * Complete virus scan - Symantec anti-virus
7) Root kit scan
8) Complete Trojan scan - Adware by Lava works
9) Verified normal or below normal network traffic

* I attempted to load housecall.antivirus.com but the latest updates of IE
seem to have rendered that web-based virus scanner site completely useless.
<grumble grumble>


Things I'll try next:
1) Disable the screen saver
2) Disable all power down settings
3) Use more SystemInternal tools to try and locate the problem
4) Re-enable the wireless adapter ( in addition to the wired NIC )
5) Boot in safe mode and leave it idle for a while
6) (Last resort) wave a dead chicken over my brand new laptop and then
install Linux

I am NOT having "a good experience" with Windows XP Media Edition, SP2
(fully update as of Sunday, 4-17-06). I have NEVER had this kind of problem
before nor wasted SO MUCH TIME.

Unhappily and Grumpy Mike B.


"douglas@xxxxxxxxxxxx" wrote:

I've got a two year old HP running MCE 2004... In the last week, it has
gone flaky.. No sound on recordings. Live TV is slow and stuttering,
and when I check Windows Task Manager ehrec.exe is around 70% and all
processes are maxed out at 100%.

I've run a virus scan, checked for spyware. The only thing that has
changed lately is the regular updates from Microsoft.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Douglas


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