Permanent HD activity problem in Win 98 SE

[RevoluChe]

Hello and thanks to all who read this post, especially those who come up with a solution.

For reasons beyond my comprehension, my computer is permanently accessing the hard drive. It is not a constant hard drive usage, its more like a HD access every 2-5 seconds. I have no clue why it started doing this, but it is a recent problem on a computer I have owned for over a year (no new hardware has been added around the time this problem started, and the HD is original). I have Cacheman installed and I tried turning ON and OFF the conservative swap file usage in the RAM/OPTIMIZATION tab. I have used Cacheman before and had this option ON for a while, long before this problem started (the help file states that turning conservative swap file usage OFF will result in a permanent HD activity, which is why I had it ON). Anyways, here are my system specs, and if I neglect to mention anything, please ask and I will post it.

Windows 98 Second Edition
Duron 600mhz
Asus A7V motherboard
256MB RAM
Western Digital 13GB HD
Geforce 2 GTS 32MB

Anyways, this permanent HD access is causing slowdowns on my system. I notice that when I run an app or game, there is a major slowdown or frame drop, every 2-5 seconds. Also, the hard drive LED is the biggest clue that this is a HD problem. It lights up (sometimes very dim, sometimes bright) every 2-5 seconds. Something which it did not do 3 days ago.

Again, I really have no clue as to why this problem started. I did notice several HD problems after it started though. Scandisk was able to solve all of them, and they included lost fragments and lost chains. If there is a registry key that perhaps manages this type of HD activity then a post about it would be much appreciated. Any other solutions are also greatly welcome and appreciated.

Thanks,
Che

 

[Knight3058]

Looks like it could be a few things...
1st off, could be a virus...sounds like it, acts like it, so check out http://housecall.antivirus.com for a free online scan for bugs/virii...
if that doesn't work
2nd, try booting to safe mode(an easy way to do this is to run msconfig from the RUN command and then click on [advanced] then check "Enable Startup Menu", then click [OK] and [OK] again, it should ask you to restart, do so), choose "Safe Mode" from the startup menu, and then when windows boots up to safe mode, run a thourough scandisk and then a defrag of your hard drive.
if that doesn't work
3rd go to the startup menu in msconfig and see what you have loading up every time...if you see something that you do not recognize, then check out
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm
for an almost complete list of things that normally and sometimes abnormally show up in the startup group.

Good Luck!

Knight3058

 

[Buz2b]

What about your anti-virus software? What are you using? Have you tried turning it off for a bit to see what happens? Also, I'd try to completely disable that Cacheman program. Maybe just turning it on and off isn't sufficient.

 

[RevoluChe]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I use PC-Cilin, and scanned my drive with their most recent patch and fortunately no virus was found. Also, I use a selective start-up (using msconfig.exe) and the only startup items I have are system tray and tweakUI. I tried disabling cacheman, and unfortunately that didnt work. I will run a full disk scan and defrag when time permits...and hopefully that will do something.

Thanks,
Che

 

[Buz2b]

Try disabling the anti-virus for a bit also; just to test.

 

[tk149]

This is a long shot, but...

Have you checked how much memory Windows says you have? Maybe a DIMM got knocked loose, and you're down to 64 MB or something.

 

[RevoluChe]

Well, I tried all the advice given...and I still have the same problem. I think I have narrowed my problem down to being caused by Tiny Personal Firewall. Even though I don't have the software launching at startup....only tweakUI and System Tray start, I do get a message everytime I run defrag that mentions something about Tiny Personal Firewall (And I have to click OK to continue with defrag). I am going to uninstall it and see what happens.

Thanks to all,
Che

 

[RevoluChe]

Ok so far nothing has worked...but I did some more digging up of clues and heres what I found. I used SoftICE and placed a breakpoint for ReadFile and WriteFile, which basically halts all windows operations and runs the SoftICE debugging program whenever a file is read or written to the hard drive. Now here's the odd part...even though the HD light still flashes, SoftICE never loaded up, which means either nothing was read/written from HD, or something is up with SoftICE. Again, I am pretty sure this isn't a faulty LED because there is a slowdown at every hard drive access when I use a program or game. Also, when I run windows in SAFE mode, the problem completely goes away. There are no more slowdowns and the hard drive LED stops flashing.

I'm so confused!?!?
Che

 

[unclebabar]

Do you have a bunch of assorted random programs downloaded from the internet? maybe you've gotten a trojan that's searching for info on your hard drive. In my limited experience, I've found that McAfee detected a trojan program that Norton did not. That was like 5 years ago. (I use Norton now anyway because McAfee kept screwing my computer up). You might want to check with a different virus scanner before you do your re-install. (I saw your other post).

 

[Buz2b]

Why don't you use the MSCONFIG utility to track this down? For the moment I will assume you know how to get to and use it. Why not go into MSCONFIG and start disableing one item at a time to find out if or when the problem goes away. That really should work in this case because you said the problem went away in Safe Mode. You could even go the opposite direction and start by disableing all startup items in MSCONFIG at first and then enabling them one at a time until the problem reappears. Warning: From the sounds of things, you most likely have a ton of "stuff" that will be listed in MSCONFIG and this could take a long time. But, if it works, it's worth it. LMK>

 

[michec]

Do you have MS Office installed? If so, check to see if you have Find Fast enabled. There should be a Find Fast icon in the control panel and you can disable it there. As you know, Find Fast indexes your HD to make files easier to find and it constantly updates, which causes the HD to be accessed very frequently.

 

[RevoluChe]

I'm starting to think that this could be a hidden trojan virus. Because everything else I have tried has not worked. I did use MSCONFIG and tried disabling every startup item....and still no solution. The only two items under the startup tab in msconfig that I normally have checked are System tray and TweakUI, but even with both disabled the problem persists. Another cause, however, might be is a registry key that controls "conservative swap file usage," which when turned OFF is supposed to cause exactly this type of constant hard drive activity. If anyone knows anything about this registry key (if it is indeed a registry key) a post about it would be much appreciated. Also, thanks to everyone who has posted their advice....keep em coming =)

Che


edit: Oh and I do not have MS Office installed. Thanks for the info though, I am now searching for similar software in the control panel.

 

[Buz2b]

No new idea but as to the MSCONFIG, the only items you should have running at startup (in order to diagnose this) should be Explorer and Systray. Uncheck the TweakUi along with all other items. Leave NOTHING else running except those two. Actually you could do without Systray for these purposes but you should have Explorer checked and running.

 

[Hiro]

My best guess would be update as many of your system drivers as possible, especially the VIA 4-in-1.

 

[Macro2]

RE:"Do you have MS Office installed? If so, check to see if you have Find Fast enabled. There should be a Find Fast icon in the control panel and you can disable it there. As you know, Find Fast indexes your HD to make files easier to find and it constantly updates, which causes the HD to be accessed very frequently"

That's the first thing I would check.

Also, there is a trojan finder called "cleaner". Give that a shot.

Also, the HD light on the front of your case will routinely flicker if you have a Western Digital HD. In your case sounds like it's actually gringing away though.

 

[Macro2]

the cleaner

http://www.moosoft.com/
link

Otherwise I'd do as others have suggested, go through the msconfig startup items.

 

[RevoluChe]

Hello fellas, heres an update on my problem...and thanks again to all those who have helped. I started my computer with NO startup items using MSCONFIG.EXE, and the problem did not go away. I do not have MS Office or fast find installed. I downloaded Cleaner (thanks for the link) and no trojan was found....whew. But now I am checking out the TCActive program that came with Cleaner....it lists all running processes on my computer. So I thought I would post them here and see if anyone notices anything odd about any of the entries.
Here goes:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a list of running processes on my computer listed by the TCActive program (I edited out the actual TCA program process and the IExplorer process),

KERNEL32.DLL Win32 Kernel core componet
MSGSRV32.EXE Windows 32-bit VxD Message Server
MPREXE.EXE WIN32 Network Interface Service Process
mmtask.tsk Multimedia background task support module
EXPLORER.EXE Windows Explorer
SYSTRAY.EXE System Tray Applet
WMIEXE.EXE WMI service exe housing
ENTERNET.EXE (no description) note: this is my DSL dialup software
PSTORES.EXE Protected storage server
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

So here is my quesiton, do any of these entries look odd to anyone? And also, I would like to know which of these entries are NOT required in order for win98 to operate correctly, and what each entry does(besides the common ones, i.e. Explorer, systray, kernel). The only one that looks odd to me is PSTORES.EXE, which I am about to remove after this post =) But I have no idea what most of the other processes are for.

Thanks all,
Che

 

[DAPUNISHER]

About PSTORES.exe. I did a google search and found some interesting stuff about it, read This , this

suggests disabling Protected Storage to make your machine faster. Well that makes sense since a large registry is one of the major speed problems with Windows and Protected Storage uses the registry.

Perhaps that is your problem.

 

[RevoluChe]

Ok, I'm making this one as an unsolveable problem. Actually I do have a solution to it. I terminated ALL running applications except Explorer and Kernel32....and the HD activity still happened!! So my solution is this: I'm getting a new hard drive and windows xp =)

I hate windows,
Che

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Unlike most around here I went straight from 98SE to XP myself, so the change was a very impressive one, I think you'll be stoked with it.

 

[Buz2b]

For the second time tonight I find myself only being able to second what Dapunisher says.

(We really have to stop meeting like this!)


Go for XP; you'll be much happier.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Buz2b
For the second time tonight I find myself only being able to second what Dapunisher says.

(We really have to stop meeting like this!)


Go for XP; you'll be much happier.

Hey! Sick minds think alike

 

[RevoluChe]

Great...a friend of mine actually laughed at me when he saw I still used win98 instead of XP =) You two pretty much summed everything he yelled at me for like 20 minutes into 1 sentence.

Oh quick question....which do you guys recommend. XP Professional or XP Home Edition? I use my computer for games, games, games, some programming, games, games, more games, and surfing the web.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

XP home is fine for most users and for what you use your system for is perfect. Newegg.com has the OEM full version for 94$ shipped.

 

[Buz2b]

I promised I won't say it again but, I "agree" with what some "monkeyfaced" personage said just before me. Look for bargins though. Check the FS/FT forum regularly; I got a copy of XP Pro upgrade for $45 last week. Other than that, if you live near a Fry's, they sometimes put XP Home Upgrade on sale for $89.