Strange Windows problems

M

mpisarcik

New Member
Hey everyone-

just did a reformat with windows xp on my machine. after installing all my stuff, i went to listen to some music from my windows media player 11. well, i have been experiencing crashes of this program, as well as itunes and winamp ever since. my music is on a second 160 gig sata seagate drive that is a slave only.

as well, i have been having trouble accessing the "run" screen if i type in something like "ipconfig" in the run screen. it simply disappears after about a second.


lastly- something called svchost.exe has been using about 56,168k of my memory on a constant basis, with nothing running when looking at my registry. total, im using about 350mb of my pc3200 ram just sitting in xp.



so whats the deal? bad install? should i have done a complete, thorough reformat of the drive, and not just a deletion of the partition before installing my current version? thanks-
 
I dumped WMP 11 since that is geared more towards Vista then XP. WMP 10 went right back on XP Home while some trouble was solved on the XP Pro installation on a sata drive recently added here. One problem seen in your sig is the Audigy 2 ZS model there. Since the upgrade from the ZS Gamer to the Audigy 4 Pro life has been easiler with the recent WMP 10.

If the svchost.exe listing is seen more then 5 times in the processes window of the task manager you may have a virus or other malware to look into. In the short time since the reinstallation of Windows you could have but not verified here picked up an older type. Going back to WMP 10 should help clear up the WMP part of the problem by creating new playlists for your music. But the crashes with ITunes and WinAmp point at something else there.

The 'pconfig" error can sometimes come up due to having the cd or dvd drive you have installed on the system set in the bios as the first boot device. That may be the reason for seeing that come up.
 
There are a few good articles on what to do if you are seeing too many listed in the processes suggesting something other then the actual system file.
http://ask-leo.com/svchost_and_svchostexe_crashs_cpu_maximization_viruses_exploits_and_more.html

As of september one alert went out on a "shchost.exe" clone of the svchost.exe file that collects user data from the infected system. The following here is a brief description of it.

"The shchostv.exe virus is extremely dangerous, as it logs user activity and presents a high risk of potential system damage or distribution. (Editor’s note : The SHCHOSTV.EXE has been named after the ubiquitous SVCHOST.exe which is essential to the smooth running of Windows XP)" http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/10/03/svchostexe-clone-the-latest-killer-virus/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapplicationsecurityblog.itproportal.com%2F%3Fp%3D3&frame=true

If you are seeing the svchost.exe outside of the "C:\Windows\system32\" folder you have a virus or other type of malware on your system. A set of free removers and a free system scan is offered at http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/svchost/
 
The ipconfig command simply displays the ip address and netmask for your ISP connection. This only displays that type of information and has nothing to do with problems seen with WMP 11, ITunes, or Winamp. With the command prompt vanishing immediately upon use that suggests you either are lacking some system files not fully installed, saw a bad installation of video and/or sound drivers, or got hit with some trojan soon after going online.
 
as well, i have been having trouble accessing the "run" screen if i type in something like "ipconfig" in the run screen. it simply disappears after about a second.
Click to expand...

If he runs ipconfig from Run it's perfectly normal that the window disappears.
 
That's due to not having first opened up the command prompt by either typing the "cmd" command at the Run prompt itself or going into Programs>Accessories as illustrated in the screen shot here.

 
THANKS guys. i figured out the fact that i was simply typing the ipconfig in the run, and not typing CMD first.


secondly, i downgraded from WMP 11 to 9 (it did it automatically when I tried to uninstall 11). It's still giving me trouble- who knows why. I may still to a reformat, as it's really annoying.

any other advice would be great. thanks alot. :)
 
I found WMP 10 is the best for XP! I have been constantly thinking of removing WMP 11 from the Vista installation to see the WMP 10 will go on. I wouldn't reformat a drive just to dump one version for another. You only do that when hit with pile of "uninvited guests" like viruses and other malwares, or you simply want to refresh a drive for a clean install after a year or two when everything gets cluttered. registry, drive, dumping a second partition, etc. there.
 
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