Hardware Interrupts & 100% CPU usage

[cozzy]

When asking the computer to do more than one task the CPU usage jumps up to 100% & slows down everything. This is particularly annoying when playing music or a video in Winamp or Media Player & then, for example, connecting to the net or even opening a 1KB document, because everything freezes up for 30 seconds until the "new" task has finally opened. I've got a program that shows about 80% "Hardware Interrupts" going on while the new application is opening. I've been trying to fix it for 2 months with no success. There are no baddies on the computer for definite. The task manager shows as 100% CPU usage until the new application, (whatever it may be), opens. There are no conflicts with any drivers & everything is working fine on the computer & is really fast at everything, until i ask it to do more than one thing at the same time. Using Windows XP with Athlon AMD computer. :eek: Please help, coz it's doing my head in.

[kc0arf]

Hello,

A Hardware Interrupt is a "message" that the hardware will give the CPU saying that attention is needed somewhere else. For example, if your CPU is adding some numbers together, and something comes in on the serial port (such as a modem connection), the port will send an interrupt to the CPU, and ask it to read the data sitting in the buffer. Keyboards, mice, even the video cards have interrupts.

I think that you have an OS issue, as it is happening globally, and you are losing the battle with it. Because you mention that your computer is quite fast running one program, I am going to believe your hardware and RAM are alright.

If I were you, I would save off my data, and re-install from ground zero. As complex as windows is, you could spend the better part of another month trying to find it. Start clean.

Christian

[cozzy]

Thanks K.C. for that. I've uninstalled just about everything from the computer, loads & loads of software & all external hardware, to try and isolate & detect the cause. It's still the same! I'm not an expert with computers & can get "stuck" on what would be a simple thing for a person "in the know". I'm going to try two more things before i wipe the thing clean & start from scratch & hope you can advise me. 1. I tried to uninstall Outlook Express yesterday & with all the warnings it gave me, i declined. Would it be ok. to uninstall Outlook Express? 2. I have the Motherboard Utilities CD with a service pack for all the drivers & other things i don't understand. How do i go about uninstalling drivers, then reinstalling them from the disk? Do i delete ALL DRIVERS from Device Manager then put in the disk, do i have to boot from the disk or just bang it in? There have been trojans, dialers, viruses, worms, adware & spyware detected & completely removed a couple of months ago & the puter is completely cured from "baddies", but just wondering if this has resulted in damage or corrupt drivers or whatever? One more clue........the "sound manager" icon on the task-bar appears & disappears at will, the "start-up" sound is scratchy too. When asking the puter to do 2 things at once its as slow as a pack horse, but then if i close both things then do them again, then everythings normal & low CPU usage. Then, for example, if i then open 2 entirely different programs then it takes 1 minute for the 2nd program to open with hardware interrupts & 100% CPU usage. Yet, close these programs & then open them again (& it doesn't have to be EXACTLY the same things, just similar, within the same applications), then evrything is lightening fast & about 7% CPU usage. Then, if i went back to the original 2 programs it now seems as though the puter has forgotten how to open 2 programs it opened 2 mins earlier, & it's so slow at responding (the 1st time) that i get the "send error" report, this program is not responding etc. Thanks again K.C.

[cozzy]

Hope this gives some clues to a good Samaritan.

Logfile of HijackThis v1.97.7
Scan saved at 18:33:36, on 22/06/2004
Platform: Windows XP SP1 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP1 (6.00.2800.1106)

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccSetMgr.exe
C:\Program Files\Norton Personal Firewall\NISUM.EXE
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccEvtMgr.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\LEXBCES.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\LEXPPS.EXE
C:\Program Files\Norton Personal Firewall\ccPxySvc.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\Ontrack\Fix-It\mxtask.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VS7DEBUG\MDM.EXE
C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\navapsvc.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\pctspk.exe
C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\SAVScan.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\CCPD-LC\symlcsvc.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Real\Update_OB\realsched.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe
C:\Program Files\Common files\updmgr\updmgr.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\CMEII\CMESys.exe
C:\Program Files\Lexmark X74-X75\lxbbbmgr.exe
C:\Program Files\Lexmark X74-X75\lxbbbmon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\SOUNDMAN.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\System32\P2P Networking\P2P Networking.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\ctfmon.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\GMT\GMT.exe
C:\Documents and Settings\Steve\Desktop\VIRUS PROGRAMS\HijackThis.exe

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = about:blank
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.yahoo.com/
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant = about:blank
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings,ProxyOverride = 127.0.0.1
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Local Page =
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Local Page =
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Connection Wizard,Shellnext = http://www.btbroadbandstart.com/
R3 - URLSearchHook: PerfectNavBHO Class - {00D6A7E7-4A97-456f-848A-3B75BF7554D7} - C:\PROGRA~1\PERFEC~1\BHO\PERFEC~1.DLL
O1 - Hosts: 12.129.205.209 search.netscape.com12.129.205.209 sitefinder.verisign.com
O2 - BHO: NavErrRedir Class - {00D6A7E7-4A97-456f-848A-3B75BF7554D7} - C:\PROGRA~1\PERFEC~1\BHO\PERFEC~1.DLL
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {02478D38-C3F9-4efb-9B51-7695ECA05670} - C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\ycomp.dll
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {0494D0D1-F8E0-41ad-92A3-14154ECE70AC} - C:\Program Files\MyWay\myBar\1.bin\MYBAR.DLL
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {53707962-6F74-2D53-2644-206D7942484F} - (no file)
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {AA58ED58-01DD-4d91-8333-CF10577473F7} - c:\program files\google\googletoolbar1.dll
O2 - BHO: NAV Helper - {BDF3E430-B101-42AD-A544-FADC6B084872} - C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\NavShExt.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Norton AntiVirus - {42CDD1BF-3FFB-4238-8AD1-7859DF00B1D6} - C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\NavShExt.dll
O3 - Toolbar: &Radio - {8E718888-423F-11D2-876E-00A0C9082467} - C:\WINDOWS\System32\msdxm.ocx
O3 - Toolbar: &Google - {2318C2B1-4965-11d4-9B18-009027A5CD4F} - c:\program files\google\googletoolbar1.dll
O3 - Toolbar: MSN Toolbar - {BDAD1DAD-C946-4A17-ADC1-64B5B4FF55D0} - C:\Program Files\MSN Toolbar\01.01.1629.0\en-gb\msntb.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TkBellExe] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Real\Update_OB\realsched.exe" -osboot
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ccApp] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [updmgr] C:\Program Files\Common files\updmgr\updmgr.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [CMESys] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\CMEII\CMESys.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [URLLSTCK.exe] C:\Program Files\Norton Internet Security\UrlLstCk.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Lexmark X74-X75] "C:\Program Files\Lexmark X74-X75\lxbbbmgr.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [VTTimer] VTTimer.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SoundMan] SOUNDMAN.EXE
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [P2P Networking] C:\WINDOWS\System32\P2P Networking\P2P Networking.exe /AUTOSTART
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [ctfmon.exe] C:\WINDOWS\System32\ctfmon.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [MessengerPlus2] "C:\Program Files\Messenger Plus! 2\MsgPlus.exe" /WinStart
O4 - Global Startup: GStartup.lnk = C:\Program Files\Common Files\GMT\GMT.exe
O8 - Extra context menu item: &Google Search - res://C:\Program Files\Google\googletoolbar.dll/cmsearch.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Backward &Links - res://C:\Program Files\Google\googletoolbar.dll/cmbacklinks.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Cac&hed Snapshot of Page - res://C:\Program Files\Google\googletoolbar.dll/cmcache.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE/3000
O8 - Extra context menu item: Si&milar Pages - res://C:\Program Files\Google\googletoolbar.dll/cmsimilar.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Translate into English - res://C:\Program Files\Google\googletoolbar.dll/cmtrans.html
O9 - Extra button: Research (HKLM)
O9 - Extra button: Yahoo! Messenger (HKLM)
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Yahoo! Messenger (HKLM)
O9 - Extra button: Messenger (HKLM)
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Messenger (HKLM)
O16 - DPF: {14B87622-7E19-4EA8-93B3-97215F77A6BC} (MessengerStatsClient Class) - http://messenger.zone.msn.com/binary/MessengerStatsPAClient.cab27571.cab
O16 - DPF: {166B1BCA-3F9C-11CF-8075-444553540000} (Shockwave ActiveX Control) - http://active.macromedia.com/director/cabs/sw.cab
O16 - DPF: {1D6711C8-7154-40BB-8380-3DEA45B69CBF} (Web P2P Installer) -
O16 - DPF: {2BC66F54-93A8-11D3-BEB6-00105AA9B6AE} (Symantec AntiVirus scanner) - http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/SharedContent/vc/bin/AvSniff.cab
O16 - DPF: {30528230-99F7-4BB4-88D8-FA1D4F56A2AB} (YInstStarter Class) - http://download.yahoo.com/dl/installs/yinst0309.cab
O16 - DPF: {4E888414-DB8F-11D1-9CD9-00C04F98436A} (Microsoft.WinRep) - https://webresponse.one.microsoft.com/oas/ActiveX/winrep.cab
O16 - DPF: {8714912E-380D-11D5-B8AA-00D0B78F3D48} (Yahoo! Webcam Upload Wrapper) - http://chat.yahoo.com/cab/yuplapp.cab
O16 - DPF: {8E0D4DE5-3180-4024-A327-4DFAD1796A8D} (MessengerStatsClient Class) - http://messenger.zone.msn.com/binary/MessengerStatsClient.cab
O16 - DPF: {B8BE5E93-A60C-4D26-A2DC-220313175592} (ZoneIntro Class) - http://messenger.zone.msn.com/binary/ZIntro.cab27571.cab
O16 - DPF: {C2FCEF52-ACE9-11D3-BEBD-00105AA9B6AE} (Symantec RuFSI Registry Information Class) - http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/SharedContent/common/bin/cabsa.cab
O16 - DPF: {CE28D5D2-60CF-4C7D-9FE8-0F47A3308078} (ActiveDataInfo Class) - https://www-secure.symantec.com/techsupp/activedata/SymAData.cab
O16 - DPF: {D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000} (Shockwave Flash Object) - http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab
O16 - DPF: {E504EE6E-47C6-11D5-B8AB-00D0B78F3D48} (Yahoo! Webcam Viewer Wrapper) - http://chat.yahoo.com/cab/yvwrctl.cab
O16 - DPF: {E77C0D62-882A-456F-AD8F-7C6C9569B8C7} (ActiveDataObj Class) - https://www-secure.symantec.com/techsupp/activedata/ActiveData.cab

[cozzy]

Anybody there?

[I_Broke_My_Mhz]

Here are some entries that worry me.

C:\Program Files\Common Files\CMEII\CMESys.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\P2P Networking\P2P Networking.exe
R3 - URLSearchHook: PerfectNavBHO Class - {00D6A7E7-4A97-456f-848A-3B75BF7554D7} - C:\PROGRA~1\PERFEC~1\BHO\PERFEC~1.DLL
O2 - BHO: NavErrRedir Class - {00D6A7E7-4A97-456f-848A-3B75BF7554D7} - C:\PROGRA~1\PERFEC~1\BHO\PERFEC~1.DLL
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {0494D0D1-F8E0-41ad-92A3-14154ECE70AC} - C:\Program Files\MyWay\myBar\1.bin\MYBAR.DLL

I noticed that you have Norton, which is a good start, but I suggest you also get Spybot S&D ( http://www.safer-networking.org )

[cozzy]

Hello Megahertz, i already got rid of all of the above & just about everything else last month, & the problem still remained. It's gonna be a simple solution this one.

Just to re-iterate what's happening. If i open up ANYTHING, everything's OK. It's when the puter then opens ANYTHING else, ie, with the 1st program still opened, that the putergoes to 100% & all this hardware interrupts business & things take forever to open. Yet, if i close both programs, then open them up again (even if i do this 2 hours later), then everythings lightening fast & back to normal. But, then if i open 2 entirely different applications or one of the two above, with a new thing, then its back to square one! Once i've run loads & loads of programs in lots of different "combinations", then the puter is fine. It seems to "remember" where it's been & is OK then. Yet, ask it to do something it aint done yet on a particular session & it sort of works it out as if its in shock the 1st time.

[cozzy]

I've just reinstalled windows by accident! When the puter started it flashed up this........"press any key to boot from disk", so i pressed a key. One hour later i have a fresh installation of windows PLUS the old one with everything still intact. All i wanted to do was chose a REPAIR option that someone told me about. Can anyone tell me how to get to the repair option on the windows installation disk?

After i did the above, on boot-up i noticed there were 2 options to chose how windows is gonna boot up. These were 2 choices of Windows XP Home Edition. The top choice brought me to the new installation & welcome/tour screen & the bottom choice took me to the original. When i went to the original settings & desktop etc, i noticed that some song tracks had changed their symbol to that of a file & would not play...(unrecognised file format). Most of them played OK in Winamp & Media Player, then suddenly, Media Player would not work at all. All i got when clicking on a song was an error "PING", but with no error message. The same happened if trying to open Media Player itself. I thought, "ney, i'm not having this", so did a SYSTEM RESTORE to the previous day & everything was OK again, (apart from the usual problem at start of this thread). So now, when starting the puter, i no longer get a choice of booting up to the new Windows installation, (probably due to the fact i've done System Restore). Shame really, because i was going to go to that & copy a folder called SOUND MANAGER from there & put it into our usual working "setup" because the folder (Sound Manager) is EMPTY.
Can anyone please tell me how to find this folder from the installation disk, without having to reinstall the whole lot.
So because i did system restore i would have thought that the new installation of windows would have now disappeared, well it's disappeared from the start up options for sure. Thing is, looking at the amount of space used up on the hard drive, it's stayed on EXACTLY the same mark as it was after doing the fresh installation of Windows yesterday, i'm 100% sure of this. How can this be possible?

I've now got "2" puters___________________with one "hidden"

Gosh!

[techahbeng]

You will probably need to do a proper windows update for your newly installed XP Home. The slow startup of applications sounds like a problem prior to SP1 installation.

Also you'll need to clean up those spywares on your system.

C:\Program Files\Common Files\CMEII\CMESys.exe C:\Program Files\Common Files\GMT\GMT.exe

Go to :- http://www.download.com/3000-8022-10122137.html

Download it, update it and do a scan on your system.

If you need to remove some persistent ones on your system, try tapping on F8 when your XP starts and select Safe Mode from the options.

Once in safe mode, run regedit (Start, Run, type regedit in box) and remove suspicious entries from :

1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Then restart and do a spyware scan again.

Can be quite a pain to remove these spywares but after that, you system will run faster and less random problems.

Also patch up your Internet Explorer. Alot of automatic installation of spywares are due to a unpatched IE. Or just use Firefox at mozilla.org.

[cozzy]

Thanks Techahbeng. I'm going to look into these things you suggested apart from removing the spyware as these are reliant on other programs that we enjoy a lot & if the spyware is removed, the programs shut down or don't work correctly.

Last month i removed all traces of spy & adware & their related software, got everything up to date & scanned for everything bad. The puter was clean but the problem remained. So i've put all the brill things back on again.

The fav is going to be driver problems, conflicts, or the processor.

I installed an up-to-date soundcard driver yesterday & got all the features back that we used to have. Trouble is, the sound was terrible & the mp3 vids hardly played at all & the puter was as slow as it has ever been. (there is 61% of the hard drive still free). The updated driver was definitely the righjt one. I just put the damaged old driver back on & we are now back to as it was at the beginning of this thread.

I'm going to do a system restore point & install ALL drivers & update them too. There is a basic thing that i don't know! That is, i install all drivers into c:\temp THEN do i just install the new drivers over the existing ones? OR uninstall all the existing ones first?
I've been reading up & it says that some of the drivers are to be used ONLY with Direct X, 4.0, or Direct X 8.0, & this, that & the other. Recently i downloaded Direct X 9.0 (only because everywhere i went on the net, it said that we should)!

The manufacturers driver disk i have seems to be already obsolete & it's only 6 months old & the puter itself.

Could you please tell me the best way to install all the drivers. Finding them & installing them into temp (before unzipping) is not a problem at all. It's just what to do with the existing ones 1st. If i uninstall the existing drivers 1st then i won't be able to roll them back, is that right?
Cheers!

[techahbeng]

If you do not remove the spywares like Gator/GAIN with its updmanager that keeps polling their server, you will never get a stable system.

You will also need SP1 at least for your XP other 100% CPU usage, task bar hidden and not reappearing are just some of the issues prior to SP1. If you're using Devil's own version of XP, you will not be able to update to SP1.

Doesn't sound like a driver issue but more like poorly written spywares that are lurking in your system and generating errors randomly.

Also if you have a network card on your system and you don't need it, remove it to see if the situation improves.

[cozzy]

I've removed the network card & removed all traces of spyware & every other conceivable baddie from the computer. I've then started windows with only the essentials needed to make it work & still, the problem remains. I've removed also all applications & programs that have been put on since new & the problem still remains. We have Kazaa, itunes, various shareware programs etc, the sort of things i hear are bad. Once in a while we do get some stubborn spyware which slows the sysyem down & i do a purge on it all & then everythings fine again. This time the problem is not related to spyware at all because i removed everything before & the problem still remains.
If i open one program then its OK, but, then if i leave that program opened THEN open ANYTHING ELSE, it takes an age to open the 2nd thing, I am not getting any error messages but everything is affected, sound, vision, 100%CPU usage & hardware interrupts, (until the 2nd program has finally opened). Then,if both of the programs are then closed they take ages to close too!
Then for instance, if i open the same 2 programs again, evrything is completely normal & fast, 6% CPU usage, going down less than that in a flash, when the 2 programs have opened really quickly. Even if i then open 2 similar programs everything is completely normal. For example; lets say the 2 programs were a) a word doc & an MP3 vid played in Winamp & the problem is always there. Then if i open say, ANY OTHER office doc such as excell or access then play a song in Windows Media Player, then everything is still OK & very fast.

BUT, then if i knock them both off & open an entirely different type of application for example: start printing something, then it's ok, But then for example if i connect to the internet WHILST the printing is in progress, then the printing will pause, as if the power supply has been sucked away, the internet will also take about 1 minute to connect. BUT if i knock them both off, THEN start printing another doc & connect to the internet, the internet connects in 2 SECONDS & the printing goes about it's job & does not pause at all.

If the puter has been on for a long time & we've been around the houses doing lots of different things, then it's up & running completely OK, i can mix & match programs & even have 20 different programs opened at the same time, print, movie maker, music. vids, writing in word, chatting on msn, sending Emails .....you name it, & everything is fine & quite impressive too! So if it's spyware, like you think, well the spyware must go to sleep once i've run each application ONCE!

Switch the puter off ................& it's back to square 1.!!!!!!
Cheers!

[techahbeng]

Try to repair your Windows XP installation with your XP CD.

[cozzy]

techahbeng i re-installed Widows & updated everything a couple of weeks ago & it's still the same. Can you think of a few obvious things that could be causing it? I could have a go at doing a "clean sweep" but ain't tried that before so will probably leave it as it is for a few months until i get some simple instructions for formating the hard drive & reinstalling the operating system. The trouble is, there seems to be so many ways of doing this (even for the same tackle). I know to choose NTFS instead of FAT but that's about it! I made 3 floppy boot disks a few weeks ago & followed the instructions properly but i've also got the original windows disk & mainboard utilities & everything else required for a fresh start. Do i use these floppys or/and the Windows disk?

I've always paid someone to do all that type of stuff in the past, but since reading up on it, it doesn't seem that difficult! ...just so many ways! The chap who usually sorts it all out is a bit of a Wizard but doesn't have a check list, he just works from memory & cocks it up sometimes, by choosing FAT format by accident & getting Blaster Worms as soon as connecting to the net etc & having to start all over again.

Sorry for waffling on but i'm going to stop trying to fix this thing but if i find out what it is i'm gonna post it out in a lot of forums.

Have you got an A-Z of reformatting a 40G hard drive & reinstalling Windows XP? + what to do before connecting to net to avoid onslaughts? + what the main things to do after it's all up & running? In simple terms & just one method. Not with these "ghost partitions" etc, just a simple way?

Will post a solution if i come across it. Promise

[Catweazle]

cozzy, if you want a guide to format and reinstall, then the link in my sig leads to a couple of articles I wrote recently for people such as yourself, covering the tasks of preparing for and performing the format and install in a comprehensive manner.

[bentkey]

Cozzy,

You're making this way too hard on yourself. XP IS a simple install. You will never get anywhere fooling around trying to keep what you have and fix it. It's way too far gone for that. When you boot to the XP disk and say install at the prompt there is a screen that allows you to delete the existing partitions. Do this, Delete each and every one of them. Then let the installer create a new one, and only one. Let it install windows there. Accept all the defaults and you're done. If you have a Windows98 boot floppy you can boot to that and use fdisk to delete all the partitions also. When windows is installing READ the screens. Nothing happens by accident. I don't know if anyone has asked you, but do you have a real WindowsXP disk from Microsoft or do you have an OEM abortion from Gateway or somesuch? If you don't have the Microsoft disk, then the instructions for reinstalling or doing a repair install can be vastly different. You need to read THEIR way to do it. Usually XP has enough of the right drivers in it, to do a decent install. Except for maybe the video drivers. That should get you far enough to see if the problem is really your windows installation or not. Don't connect it to the Internet until you've checked it out. After that you can install your driver disk and see what happens.

[cozzy]

Thanks a million Catweazle.
Will do a fresh installation probably in about 3 months, using that link of yours. The puter, how we've got it at the moment is the best it's ever been. We don't have another one to transfer files & settings, (although we have all major things backed up). I'm going to post the solution to this if i come across it in the meantime. Shame really, because i know the solution is going to be very simple, so simple that folk would laugh. I'm competent at most of computer applications but, like a lot of folk, shy away when it comes to hardware & opening the box etc. I'm not going to pay a man to install the operating system ever again because 2 or 3 months after he has gone, it needs doing again. In this case it does not need doing again. If Catweazle was here now he would fix it in 3 minutes.

This mesage is in the wrong place. Cannot do anything about it. See you in October.

[cozzy]

Won't post to the correct thread

[cozzy]

Tried a few times to conclude this thread. Trying to reply to Catweazle but this post ends up in a strange place. Goodbye & thank you much.

[cozzy]

Yes i have a real, original, bought, Windows XP disk that came with the computer from new. The man who usually comes & sorts all of this out tells us "you can go seriously wrong if you don't know what you are doing from a format & fresh instalation" When i ask, & look up advice on this same subject it always warns......."do it several times 1st with an expert present, because you WILL make mistakes". OK, see you in October. Clocking off now & thank you very much. Sorry Catweazle this post was meant for someone else. The site or something has gone mad.