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[Hydrogen Bluebird]

Hey guys, I need your help. I'm currently experiencing a problem with my laptop running Windows Vista Ultimate and having 2 Gigs of RAM. My system is running very slowly and is using TONS of memory (up to 97%) even if there are no programs running. Normally, it uses less than 50% memory. I started experiencing this problem after firefox (version 3) did an automatic update to firefox 3.X.x, i forgot the version.

After the automatic update, my system started to run very slowly,became very unresponsive, and used a lot of RAM. I thought the problem was caused by the firefox version I was using so I installed the latest version of firefox, version 3.5.2. After the Firefox update, the problem still occurs and my laptop is still using a lot of memory and running very slowly.

My system has very few programs that run on start-up and has been pretty fast since I bought it several months ago. This is first time that I experienced problems with it.

I did a virus scan and also scanned for malware but both scans didn't find anything. I then tried hijack this and came up with this log file. I hope you guys can help me fix this. Thanks in advance.

Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2
Scan saved at 2:15:42 PM, on 8/9/2009
Platform: Windows Vista (WinNT 6.00.1904)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v7.00 (7.00.6000.16386)
Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:
C:\Windows\system32\Dwm.exe
C:\Windows\system32\taskeng.exe
C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE
c:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static\MOM.exe
C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\HP Quick Launch Buttons\QLBCTRL.exe
C:\Program Files\Apoint2K\Apoint.exe
C:\Program Files\AVG\AVG8\avgtray.exe
C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\jusched.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe
C:\Program Files\Apoint2K\ApMsgFwd.exe
C:\Windows\ehome\ehtray.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmpnscfg.exe
C:\Program Files\WordWeb\wweb32.exe
C:\Windows\ehome\ehmsas.exe
C:\Program Files\Apoint2K\Apntex.exe
C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static\CCC.exe
C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\ymsgr_tray.exe
C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe
C:\Windows\system32\SearchFilterHost.exe

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant =
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch =
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar,LinksFolderName =
O1 - Hosts: ::1 localhost
O2 - BHO: WormRadar.com IESiteBlocker.NavFilter - {3CA2F312-6F6E-4B53-A66E-4E65E497C8C0} - C:\Program Files\AVG\AVG8\avgssie.dll
O2 - BHO: Java(tm) Plug-In SSV Helper - {761497BB-D6F0-462C-B6EB-D4DAF1D92D43} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\ssv.dll
O2 - BHO: Java(tm) Plug-In 2 SSV Helper - {DBC80044-A445-435b-BC74-9C25C1C588A9} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\jp2ssv.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [StartCCC] "c:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static\CLIStart.exe" MSRun
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QlbCtrl.exe] C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\HP Quick Launch Buttons\QlbCtrl.exe /Start
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Apoint] C:\Program Files\Apoint2K\Apoint.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AVG8_TRAY] C:\PROGRA~1\AVG\AVG8\avgtray.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SunJavaUpdateSched] "C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\jusched.exe"
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Sidebar] C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe /autoRun
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [ehTray.exe] C:\Windows\ehome\ehTray.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Messenger (Yahoo!)] "C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\YahooMessenger.exe" -quiet
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [WMPNSCFG] C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\WMPNSCFG.exe
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /detectMem (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [WindowsWelcomeCenter] rundll32.exe oobefldr.dll,ShowWelcomeCenter (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-20\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /detectMem (User 'NETWORK SERVICE')
O4 - Startup: WordWeb.lnk = C:\Program Files\WordWeb\wweb32.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Adobe Gamma Loader.lnk = C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Calibration\Adobe Gamma Loader.exe
O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office12\EXCEL.EXE/3000
O9 - Extra button: Send to OneNote - {2670000A-7350-4f3c-8081-5663EE0C6C49} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office12\ONBttnIE.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: S&end to OneNote - {2670000A-7350-4f3c-8081-5663EE0C6C49} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office12\ONBttnIE.dll
O9 - Extra button: Research - {92780B25-18CC-41C8-B9BE-3C9C571A8263} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office12\REFIEBAR.DLL
O13 - Gopher Prefix:
O18 - Protocol: linkscanner - {F274614C-63F8-47D5-A4D1-FBDDE494F8D1} - C:\Program Files\AVG\AVG8\avgpp.dll
O20 - AppInit_DLLs: avgrsstx.dll
O20 - Winlogon Notify: ddcddec - ddcddec.dll (file missing)
O23 - Service: Adobe LM Service - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe Systems Shared\Service\Adobelmsvc.exe
O23 - Service: Agere Modem Call Progress Audio (AgereModemAudio) - Agere Systems - C:\Windows\system32\agrsmsvc.exe
O23 - Service: Ati External Event Utility - ATI Technologies Inc. - C:\Windows\system32\Ati2evxx.exe
O23 - Service: AVG Free8 WatchDog (avg8wd) - AVG Technologies CZ, s.r.o. - C:\PROGRA~1\AVG\AVG8\avgwdsvc.exe
O23 - Service: Com4QLBEx - Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. - C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\HP Quick Launch Buttons\Com4QLBEx.exe
O23 - Service: hpqwmiex - Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. - C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\Shared\hpqwmiex.exe
O23 - Service: InstallDriver Table Manager (IDriverT) - Macrovision Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Driver\11\Intel 32\IDriverT.exe
O23 - Service: ServiceLayer - Nokia. - C:\Program Files\PC Connectivity Solution\ServiceLayer.exe

--
End of file - 5353 bytes

 

[NaughtyCalibur]

FireFox and I have a love/hate relationship. I love it for being the only browser that works on my busted PC, but I hate that it's usually the sole cause for freezing my OS or crashing it altogether. I remember one time I opened up my task manager and saw that it was using 2,000,000+K memory or some shit.

I really need to reformat. I think I'll do that before classes start, in fact.

 

[Hydrogen Bluebird]

I don't why I only started experiencing this problem after firefox did an automatic update.

 

[Thunder Monkey]

Your RAM is clogged with porn. Erase it all and the problem will be fixed.

 

[Hydrogen Bluebird]

Yeah, and you're so full of shit.

 

[DoomGyver]

your ram is full of kiddie porn, erase it all and the problem should be fixed.

 

[Hydrogen Bluebird]

damn, and I thought GAF would be of help.

 

[entremet]

Mozilla still hasn't fixed their memory leak issues with Firefox?

 

[Hydrogen Bluebird]

This problem started after the firefox update but my system still uses a lot of memory even if firefox isn't running.

 

[mAcOdIn]

I'd be willing to bet the two are unrelated. Firefox really shouldn't be able to mess up your whole system in that way, especially when it's not running, so I think it's the last thing you know you did before it happened and you're just attributing it to that.

AVG could have for instance pushed an update that made it slower. Maybe you plugged in a slow thumb drive and allowed it to be used as a readyboost drive, perhaps your superfetch cache needs to be cleared?

Truthfully, it doesn't look like you have a lot of stuff running but your log doesn't list all the services running so there still could be a service running that we'd recognize as bad.

I would look at your running services, Ctrl+Alt+Del, then the services tab, then click on the status to get it to sort between running and stopped.

I'd also think about clearing your superfetch cache, C:\Windows\prefetch, just delete all the stuff in there and restart and see if that makes a difference.

The amount of memory used in Vista is hard to really judge because superfetch by default is caching a lot of shit in the background, it's supposed to do that by design, so it may say 97% but if it's only superfetch using that memory all is good because theoretically as soon as you launch something not cached it'll make room for that program in memory.

Readyboost killed performance to me, my hard drive was way faster than the flash drive I own so when I played with that I was pretty dismayed and how bad it was, maybe you put a flash drive in on accident? On the other hand, since you have a notebook there's a good chance that readyboost won't be a problem because probably any readyboost capable flash drive is as quick as a notebook hard drive.

 

[Thunder Monkey]

your ram is full of kiddie porn, erase it all and the problem should be fixed.

Pedophilia is no laughing matter!

*giggles*

And sorry OP. If I knew how to fix it, I'd have helped.

 

[Arzehn]

Best solution: Reformat and install Windows 7.

No need to thank me.

 

[Hydrogen Bluebird]

okay so I checked all of the processes running and searchprotocolhost.exe is the one taking up the most memory, (700 mb or greater). I can end the process and this speeds up my computer but the process starts running again after a while and my system gets sluggish again.

How did searchProtocolHost.exe start taking up too much memory? If this was in my system the whole time, how come I only experienced problems now? Does it have anything to do with firefox?

 

[Puck]

How did searchProtocolHost.exe start taking up too much memory? If this was in my system the whole time, how come I only experienced problems now? Does it have anything to do with firefox?

jesus fucking christ. you want answers and yet you won't even do a 5 second google fucking search!

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=searchProtocolHost.exe

SearchProtocoolHost.exe is part of the Windows indexing sytem. The Index keeps track of the files on your computer and stores information about the files, including the file name, date modified, and properties like author, tags, and rating. The index is used to make searching for files in Vista much faster. Instead of looking through your entire hard disk for a file name or file property, Vista scans the index, which allows most results to appear in a small fraction of the time that a search without the index would take.

http://forums.techarena.in/vista-help/804884.htm

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/69564-index-enable-disable.html

 

[cntr]

Speaking of memory, I have this 1 GB flash drive that I don't really need, does ReadyBoost actually improve performance? (Running Win7)

 

[Puck]

does ReadyBoost actually improve performance? (Running Win7)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReadyBoost

yes

The core idea of ReadyBoost is that a flash drive has a much faster seek time (less than 1 millisecond), allowing it to satisfy requests faster than a hard disk when booting or reading certain system files. It also leverages the inherent advantage of two parallel sources from which to read data. Unfortunately, USB 2.0 flash drives are slower for sequential reads and writes, compared to modern desktop hard drives. Desktop hard drives can sustain anywhere from 2 to 10 times the transfer speed of USB 2.0 flash drives but are equal to or slower than the new USB 3.0 and Firewire 1320 for sequential data. So, all USB flash drives hold an advantage in random access times: typically around 1ms, compared to 12ms and upwards for desktop hard drives and now USB 3.0 and Firewire 1320 also hold a slight advantage on sequential data too.

On laptop computers the performance shifts more in favor of flash memory, laptop memory being priced relatively higher than that for desktop systems, and with many laptops using relatively slow 4200 RPM and 5400 RPM hard drives. Additionally, on a laptop, ReadyBoost caching can reduce hard drive access, allowing the hard drive to spin down for increased battery life.[9] Also, because of the nature of the power management typically enabled during mobile use of a laptop it is a more power efficient way of increasing equipment productivity.

 

[FromTheFuture]

okay so I checked all of the processes running and searchprotocolhost.exe is the one taking up the most memory, (700 mb or greater). I can end the process and this speeds up my computer but the process starts running again after a while and my system gets sluggish again.

How did searchProtocolHost.exe start taking up too much memory? If this was in my system the whole time, how come I only experienced problems now? Does it have anything to do with firefox?

Yeah, indexing is what Windows does so that you can search stuff more quickly (such as in the start menu search or even just regular HDD searching). I think in some options somewhere should be a way to disable the indexing from occuring, or choosing how much you want to index. Obviously you'd only want to disable this if it won't be too much use to you, otherwise you can let it run until it's done indexing and it won't take up too much, i think.

 

[smurfx]

here is a tutorial on how to disable search.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/69564-index-enable-disable.html

 

[mAcOdIn]

okay so I checked all of the processes running and searchprotocolhost.exe is the one taking up the most memory, (700 mb or greater). I can end the process and this speeds up my computer but the process starts running again after a while and my system gets sluggish again.

How did searchProtocolHost.exe start taking up too much memory? If this was in my system the whole time, how come I only experienced problems now? Does it have anything to do with firefox?

No, it's most likely not related to firefox, unless you downloaded some weird build from some guy that created like a million different files all over the place.

What most likely happened was that you finally downloaded Windows Search 4.0 from windows update or were finally pushed Vista's second service pack, which includes Windows Search and it made Vista rebuild the index, which on a laptop would probably take quite a while.

 

[ZombieSupaStar]

the indexing service is probably causing it, i always turn that shit off on xp

 

[Hydrogen Bluebird]

okay, so thanks for all the help guys. I managed to disable the search function that really slowed my computer down.

I'm still thinking about turning it on though, will it stop using too much memory if I leave it on for a long time and the indexing finishes?

 

[mAcOdIn]

okay, so thanks for all the help guys. I managed to disable the search function that really slowed my computer down.

I'm still thinking about turning it on though, will it stop using too much memory if I leave it on for a long time and the indexing finishes?

It'll stop using as much but it'll always use some. On a laptop I'd seriously consider turning it off since the HD on those are slower and a laptop doesn't usually stay on, which means you'll probably run into it often since the times the laptop is on and not asleep are the times you're physically using it.

That said, you can control it better if you want to keep it enabled. You can control what folders and file types it monitors by going to the control panel, then indexing options, and you can control it's performance somewhat by going to the control panel, Power Options, clicking change plan settings under your selected power profile, then clicking change advanced power settings in the next window then scrolling down until search and indexing and changing it's power mode.

 

[Meus Renaissance]

I'm confused. I read that Windows 7 32bit sees more than 3GB of RAM yet - like Vista - only utilises 3GB. Is this true? Say it ain't so

 

[mAcOdIn]

I'm confused. I read that Windows 7 32bit sees more than 3GB of RAM yet - like Vista - only utilises 3GB. Is this true? Say it ain't so

It is, and even if it weren't so it would still be so.
If Microsoft enabled Windows 7 32bit to utilize more than the 3.whatever gigs of ram it would still fall on all the hardware manufacturers to rewrite their drivers to also support it, considering how annoying it was just to get 64bit drivers, I really don't want to know what kind of fucked up situation we'd have with 32bit non PAE drivers, 32bit PAE enabled drivers and 64bit drivers.

Quite frankly, I believe there should be no 32bit Windows 7 as far as I'm concerned.