XP cpu usage problem.

[the mattster]

Hi, new user here. I have been having the most annoying problem ever with my brand new pc.

1. At first I though it was a bug, as McAffe and Norton found one the other day. Norton couldn't remove it (a trojan), but McAffe did. The infected file was winaspi32.exe. After that, My CD-Rom started having problems reading my starcraft disks. I had to blow starcraft away B/C of a supposedly missing file, and when I went to re-install it, it wouldn't read the disk. Until I opened my internet browser, Firefox. It suddenly brought up the autorun menu, and seemed to be okay. I put the expansion disk in, and same story. When I explored my computer, and clicked the install icon off the CD, it caused the explorer to stop responding. After about 5 minutes of sitting here, the autorun suddenly popped up, and it installed fine and runs great. However, it still has problems reading the disk. Has to sit for about 5 minutes. No other of my disks/games had this problem, and the disk worked fine previously, and still does in other computers.
Another thing is that I cannot recognize any LAN games in starcraft, so I'm wondering if that has to do with my network settings.

2. Windows Media Player is also having a problem. After running for a few minutes, it suddenly starts to grab extensive cpu usage, until it reaches 99%, and the visualization is slow and choppy, and the song sometimes skips. It does this even with no visualization, or if you minimize it. The songs are off my hard drive, and they all worked fine before, and still work on other computers on my network.

3. The System Idle Process also starts taking up about 97% cpu, but it doesn't register as that in the performance tab of the Task Manager.

The Windows Media Player didn't start having this problem until AFTER I downloaded the version 10 update for the version 9 that I have. I tried to rollback the drivers and update, but it still didn't work. I dowloaded the windows XP service pack 2, but still no change.

This problem is really starting to bug me, and any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm wondering if it's a bug of some sort, but I'm pretty sure it's not spy-ware. My firewall (ZoneAlarm) should stop viruses, so I'm wondering if there are a few important files missing on my computer.

Give me a windows 98 or hardware problem any day...Thanks in advance.

[Viktoria]

Your CPU usage is a worry. Are you positive you got all of the virus? I hope you aren't running McAfee and Norton AV both at the same time, as this can cause conflicts.

I would do an online virus scan at -:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/hous...start_corp.asp

Then redo your AV scans in with system restore OFF. In fact, turn it off before you do the online scans.

I presume you have looked for spyware ect? If not, run the appropriate apps and make sure your system is clean

If all is well, your system could just be missing some vital .dll's or system files.....to fix this....

Place your XP disk in your CD ROM, click->Run->type "sfc /scannow"->ok [do not include the " and keep the space between sfc and /

copy this is easier...

sfc /scannow

Let us know how you go
~Viktoria

[the mattster]

I went to the website, and wouldn't you know it, it only works with the netscape browser (or so my computer said). It gave me a program to install, so I downloaded it, and when it was finished I ran it. The first thing that popped up was a screen for a Baldurs Gate Patch, a game I have had problems with earlier, but then it continued to install this program. However, it couldn't find the directory with netscape in it, and it won't install, and I can't run the virus scan.

After seeing the Baldurs Gate screen, I am almost sure that there is a virus of some sort still on my computer. I never ran McAffe and Norton at the same time. Norton sucked, anyway, because it would find stuff that didn't exist in my computer, and not remove it. The winaspi32.exe was one of these files found by norton, that supposedly had a virus, but norton couldn't fix it, and the file didn't exist in my explorer. That's why I got McAffe, which didn't find any of the problems that Norton did, but found a different one elsewhere. Ad-Aware doesn't find anything bad, but Spybot S+D finds an OSD Exploit every time I run it. The Cleaner had also failed to find any viruses.

[the mattster]

Almost forgot, but my computer didn't come with a windows XP (home edition) disk, just a system restore DVD that was provided by E-Machines.

[Viktoria]

After reading your post, I'd do the sfc /scannow to repair any system files just so I could do an online scan asap and see what's going on. You may still have to do it again once all virii are gone.

What process is eating up your CPU to 97%? System Idle at a high CPU reading is good, not bad! It means NO process is eating your resources.
The other 3% is probably going to taskmanager. Better yet, check who is eating it. But relax about the System Idle being high.

Just saw your post, and edited this.......you should be able to still use the sfc command with your repair DVD.
~Viktoria

[the mattster]

I ran the sfc /scannow, but I still can't use that online scanner. I am going to try it with IE, as Firefox might not be suppported.

[the mattster]

The online scan didn't find ant problems either. The process that is sapping the cpu is wmplayer.exe. The other that are using when idle are:
System
Ares.exe
vsmon.exe
svchost.exe
lsass.exe
explorer.exe
taskmgr.exe

I know what two of these are. Ares.exe and taskmgr.exe. As for the rest of them, no clue.

[Viktoria]

Do a search on your PC for wmplayer.exe, if it is anywhere other than C:\Program Files, then it is probably viral activity.

http://www.google.com/search?q=wmplayer.exe+virus

Read here.

Your other processes are normal

~Viktoria

[the mattster]

Okay, I did a search, and found four wmplayer.exe files. I deleted the extras, and that seems to have started working again. Still having the issue with the game, though. If it helps, I didn't have a single problem with it until I went to download a patch. I went to install it, and got a message saying my current version was better then the patch. After that, however, I started having the problems with it. Does that possibly have to do with the file winaspi32.exe?

[Xanex]

Just a few comments to clear things up.

WNASPI32.DLL : Is a cd access layer that older programs and OS's used to access CD's directly. winaspi32.exe is defo gonna be a virus as you can see its a merger of these file names: WOWPOST.EXE WINASPI.DLL WNASPI32.DLL

FireFox is not compatable with Windows Update ATM, there are some plugins to make it so but i dont fully trust them. Other sites do not recognise firefox and so therefore the netscape comes up as thats the closest the website can determine as the browser you are using.

Firewalls generally do not stop viruses, they stop hack attempts and are used to control programs access in and out of the internet / LAN.
They do stop the RPC exploit that is around atm that does put a virus/trojan on your machine.

Running 2 AV's on your machine esp' if they have auto protect enabled is a bad idea, having 2 on there is ok but 2 running at the same time can cause conflicts

[the mattster]

Let's say that you know that there are certain files on your computer, and even though all hidden files are supposed to be coming up, these select few only did once, and were undeletable, and are still there, you just can't see them.

This is the case with a couple files and folders on my machine. Winaspi32.exe is supposedly a file used in correlation with some cd-burner software, but after reading the last post, I don't think that it is anymore. Is there a way I can find these files on my hard drive? Do I have to use DOS?

[Xanex]

Virii can't activate themselves. They need input or some calling to work. Check your startup folder and the registry entries in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run

be carefull when editing entries since once gone they cant be ctrl-z'd

Write down these entries and I'll see which are ok. Typically this is where viruses are called when the machine loads up.

Also if it is gonna be anywhere it will be in your C:\Windows or \windows\system or \system32 folders.

Also from the command line (DOS as u put it, there is no DOS in XP) type "attrib" it will list all the files in the current directory and their status ie hidden / system

[the mattster]

These are the entries:

(default)
CommonFilesDir
DevicePath
MediaPath
MediaPathUnexpanded
OEMReset_Switch
PF_AccessoriesName
ProductId
ProgramFilesDir
ProgramFilesPath
SM_AccessoriesName
SM_ConfigureProgramsExisted
SM_ConfigureProgramsName
SM_GamesName
WallPaperDir


Still can't find the winaspi32.exe file that I saw when norton supposedly found a virus in it.

[Xanex]

That doesnt seem to be the right registry directory.

you say you run norton, do a search in the registry for ccapp.exe this is nortons main file that loads up on start up.

dbl check you are in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

example of what you will find



save this and enlarge it so u can see what i mean

[the mattster]

oops. I forgot to click the run tab. sorry.

(default)
NvCplDaemon
NvMediaCenter
nwiz
Zone Labs Client