What's with my task manager??

[Ranti]

Umm, yeah, I use XP and it keeps pausing every now and then, of which I know the reason. That is that on the task manager, the system process is taking up the rest of CPU (usage) when its supposed to be the System Idle Process!

Basically, because of that my computer is constantly at 100% CPU Usage when it should be much lower. How the heck do I fix this? I've tried optimizing in the system settings from programs and not background stuff and taken off all the eye candies on XP and still no good. What am I missing? It's a pain in the butt when I'm trying to play D2 online or typing a paper and then all of sudden my computer pretty much locks up for about a min or so. There has to be some way to switch it from all the usage left from System to System Idle, but I can't figure it out.

Plz help.

I circled what I'm talking about in red and circled the numbers in blue..hope it helps.

[Advent Child]

well your idle process is "doing" SOMETHING because it has CPU time... But since you've already turned off eye candy and all that stuff I really don't know how to help you.

[Ranti]

turning off eye candy should have stopped the system from taking CPU time and system idle should then have it...I had it going at one point, but I can't do it again for some reason...any ideas?

[Citizen Bleys]

I don't see enough info to troubleshoot this; Can you post your Application and System logs as attachments?

(Event Viewer in your Administrative Tools; It should be in your Start Menu under programs, but if not, it's in the Control Panel; Switch to Classic View and look near the top. Once you get Event Viewer up, right-click on those logs, select "Save Log File as..." and save it as an .evt file and attach it. (Actually, it doesn't matter how you save it, since the other formats are human-readable, but I'd find it easier to search if I can import the .evt into my own Event Viewer)

EDIT: Actually, I do see one thing that could be causing a problem--ZoneAlarm is a known offender for causing buggy behavior on Windows systems--but there might be something in the Event Viewer that could help things along without requiring the purchase of a router to act as a hardware firewall. Although that is strongly reccomended if you have the cash, since routers are more secure than a software firewall and don't drain your system resources)

[Ranti]

its quite strange...now that i left it the computer off for a night, all the leftover resources go into the system idle process like it should instead of the system process (stuff that runs in the background). I think XP solved the problem itself somehow...don't know how.

here's the logs in any case. It may seem messed up since I try to take care of stuff myself and I'm not really trained for the really intricate things...oh well. If you can make sense of these things, thanks.

[Citizen Bleys]

1) I'm seeing repeated problems with something that the log calls the "Indexing Service," but I honestly don't know what that is--Perhaps it's some sort of third-party software on your computer? Whatever it is, it's messing around with your System Volume Information, which I believe has something to do with NTFS (It wasn't covered on the 2000 Pro or XP Pro certifications)

2) I'm also seeing repeated errors with a "TrueVector Engine," which I'm certain is third-party software of some sort. You may wish to try uninstalling and then reinstalling that.

3) Windows hit a pile of errors while installing Ragnarok Online; Perhaps that's what hosts the TrueVector image. I know that RO will run fine on Windows XP, though. A reinstall might fix the problem.

4) Almost every issue in your system log is with CiSvc; A lot of things in the Application log referred to Ci as the application that caused the problem as well.

There are a lot of error references to games, but for all I know, it might just be routine issues that aren't affecting this problem...can you name a specific date and time when you were having the issue? I can easily filter the data in those logs to look only for messages generated at that date and time, which might eliminate a lot of unrelated problems.

EDIT: Just after I hit submit, I kept on browsing and found this:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MRxSmb
Event Category: None
Event ID: 8003
Date: 06/09/2003
Time: 4:07:12 PM
User: N/A
Computer: TYREAL
Description:
The master browser has received a server announcement from the computer KURTHEIST that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on transport NetBT_Tcpip_{D5A26B6D-573B-4EED. The master browser is stopping or an election is being forced.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

I found other messages referring to the "master browser"; There's no such thing in a Windows 2000 domain (There are precisely five FSMOs on a Windows 2000 domain, and I know all of them by name and function: The Schema Master, the Domain Naming master, the PDC Emulator, the RID Master, and the Infrastructure Master)...and besides, it doesn't seem likely that your PC (As the computer name and gaming-related messages seem to indicate) is joined to a domain at all; peer-to-peer workgroups suffice for any gaming/entertainment networking needs. That sounds to me like you're being hacked by somebody. That message refers to NetBT, which means NetBIOS over TCP/IP. NetBIOS is a depreciated, non-routable protocol that should be totally unnecessary unless you're supporting down-level (And we're talking Windows 3.11 and earlier here, since TCP/IP is installed by default on Windows 9x and up).

First step is to disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP. Go to your Network Connections (Control Panel -> Network and Internet Connections -> Network Connections), double-click your internet connection (probably the only Local Area Connection) select the TCP/IP protocol, and click "Properties"

Click "Advanced", and on the WINS tab, select the radio button that says "Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP"

In case it helps you figure out who is trying to get at your computer, I'll list a couple more computer names from your System log:

HEY-D4D8JCIARI0
ELIZABETH
S0027563027
KRIZZER
VELOCITYMICRO
JEFFREY-F8MLJJA
YOUR-M5D4U9R2UV
PRES1500T
MCPHEETS
D4JKY131
CPQ64881869512
MARCIE
VALUED-A069BA8D
KUMELA
ALEX
DELLCOMP
AMS-K73BIP2ZYVM
2400MHZ
S0031785365

[Yamaneko]

1. Indexing Service can be turned off under "Control Panel > Add / Remove Programs > Add / Remove Windows Components > uncheck the box that says "Indexing Service" > hit "Next" > finished"

You don't need it and it waste valuable RAM.

[Ranti]

I checked into the Indexing Services, it wasn't checked so I don't know where that came from. Couldn't find the TrueVector thing, still looking though. I got rid of RO since I was seeing if I could play it like Diablo (offline I mean) but since I can't, no point in it for me (too cheap to play it online). Not sure what the Ci thing is but I'm looking into that too.

The Netbios probably came from when I was adding a Netware part to my connection, my college uses Netware as its network. I tried to get my computer fully connected but it didn't work exactly. And I also added a IPX protocol to play some games online and some netware came with that. I got rid of all those things for now.

I have no clue who those names are that are trying to get in, but Zonealarm blocks virtually everything that I've noticed.

I've noticed that this problem occurs a little while after I run a program called DreamRender..maybe that could be the problem. I'll have to run my anti-spyware programs and check it out.

Thanks for the response guys

[crono_logical]

TrueVector going dodgy = ZoneAlarm going dodgy, and a dodgy firewall is certainly something I don't want on any of my systems. ZoneAlarm botching up like that is actually pretty common from what I've seen, and I'd suggest using another firewall, although I haven't seen any decent ones that have the same ease to use as ZoneAlarm

Indexing Service is only really needed if you search often for files on your HD. Otherwise, I find you still get good search speeds on a disk with over 100,000 files (except for when you search for text in a file, that's gives incorrect results but that's something completely diferent not related to Indexing Service). Cisvc is a helper to Indexing Service, so if that's giving errors, you might as well turn Indexing Service off.

[Citizen Bleys]

You shouldn't have to install much to make a connection with a local NetWare server; CSNW alone should do the trick. A remote NetWare server is a different story, though. Although IPX/SPX is a routable protocol, I think you have to go through a VPN in order to connect to a Netware server remotely. I'm not sure, I've never tried. (I'm a CNA, but I haven't pursued any further Netware-related education, and all CNA requires is that you know how to administer a pre-existing, local Netware server)

I think that some configuration has to be done server-side in order for a Netware server to respond to client requests from a remote subnet. You should ask your school's network administrator, who is probably CNE or better, and hence who would be more qualified to help you set up a remote connection.

One thing is for sure: Your computer and the Netware server MUST be running the same frame type. For Netware 4 and up, that is probably IEEE 802.2, and for earlier versions of Netware, it's 802.3. (That's counterintuitive, but it's a fact)

[Ranti]

I really haven't noticed that many problems with Zonealarm but I'll keep my eye on it. I decided to forego with the school network thing...there really isn't anything on it that I need that I don't have on my own computer. There are programs installed over the network that I could access if I ever got fully connected, but being able to be connected to go online is enough for now. It seems there is a certain program that triggers my problem now...trying to figure out which one...probably DreamRender.