A problem with my system was ultimately identified (with help from this forum, especially whyzman, thank you!) as CPU overheat.
However, my CPU fan works well, I bought and installed a new chassis fan, and it still overheats (a little less frequently though). Also, it looks like it reaches its full capacity too fast. Even a small website applet (like moving news headlines) causes it to reach almost 100% capacity (it's a K6-2 500).
Does it mean that the CPU has gone bad? Should I buy a new one? (it would be of the same kind - you can't upgrade a sucket 7 for anything more than this!)

Thank you very much.

Back to the question...what do you have running in the background?

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Most of the time I have Word and Outlook on the background, but they are idle, and don't take much CPU by themselves. When I check on the task manager, everything is stolen by IE.

Ok....when you hit <ctrl><alt><del> what all is listed.

And when you close out IE does it drop back to a resonable level?


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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Under "applications", the only other application listed is Babylon.
Under, "processes" there is a whole bunch of unrecognizable stuff, almost all of them using zero CPU power.
The CPU drops off to a normal level even when I just hide the part of the window in which the applet runs.

What is this Babylon you have running?

I did a search and came up with one possibilty....a Java based chat-client.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Babylon is a translation tool. See www.babylon.com. (http://www.babylon.com.) It takes some memory bot no CPU power.

I just tried to edit my post....found it too..... http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif
It seems like what you have running shouldn't be a problem (as far as apllications go), so what about some of the services you don't recognise?

Have you tried running a virus scan? Adaware (http://www.lsfileserv.com/index.html)...virii and "adware" can both cause spikes in CPU suage...but with the spike being linked to IE I kind of suspect "adware/spyware".


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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

According to Norton, my system is virus free.
If it was some "spyware", why would it happen only when an applet is running on a web page? Simple (text/graphic) web page cause no problem.

Some modems (especially Winmodems) create huge amounts of
CPU usage in order to function.

As a Hardware modem, for the most part, leaves the CPU alone.


Luck.


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....How long is a minute... depends on which side of the Bathroom door you're on. ......
..........

I have both a cable modem and a regular modem, but non of them takes much CPU if any.
I have a feeling that the overheat and overuse are connected, meaning it's a hardware and not software program. The question is whether the problem is within the CPU itself or somewhere else (MB, video card etc.).

[This message has been edited by mmkaplan (edited 02-06-2002).]

High CPU usage can cause overheating...not usually the other way around.

Ok if it is something like a Java applet, or a browser plugin for music then there is the possibility of a damaged or corrupted install of IE...or the need to update one or more of the components (like the Virtual Machine).

In 2k some of the spyware components register to run as services...since you had expressed concern about a number of unknown services running...list some of the ones you can't figure out and maybe we can help you see if they really are needed.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

I just downloaded and installed IE 6, and the problem stayed the same.

Is it normal for a CPU to overheat just because it worked 100% for a few minutes?

Could the problem be related to the video card? I have only 8 MB on it and 1600X1200 resolution. Could it be that the CPU is doing work which was meant for the video card?

Here is a list of all services which I don't recognize, all .exe (although it's probably unrelated, since they don't take any CPU):
smss, winlogon, csrss, services, lsass, SCardSvr, svchost (appears twice), spoolsv, navapsvc, npssvc, regsvc, LVcomS, MSTask, nopdb, WinMgmt, mspmspsv, mrtMngr, alertsvc, CFD, QAGENT, SymTray, loadqm, GMT, navapw32, tgcmd, ctfmon.

Ok here are a few of the the services

QAGENT--probably a part of Quicken, not really needed to run at start up, ties in with downloads and Quicken starting at startup.

loadqm--Q Mgr Loader, a MS program that has ties to various things including MS Messenger

LVcomS--related to logitech quick cam.....

tgcmd-- related to @home software (you mentioned that you had cable...di you have @home and have you been switched to something else?), it has been known to cause resource problems...

navapw32--Part of Norton...or if it is found with a .vbs extension a virus (should be .exe)

npssvc--another part of Norton

nopdb --yet another part of NOrton (speed disk)

alertsvc --Norton, again

mrtMngr --another Quicken/Quickbooks item

mspmspsv--part of MSN messenger

SCardSvr -- smartcard reader, can be a resource hog....can be manually started.


Several of these can consume large amounts of bandwidth and/or resources when allowed to contact the internet, some are for auto-updating and downloading (like Qagent), or parts of messaging services ...etc most are not really needed all the time, and if you have a full install of Nortin and have everyting running in the background I'm amazed the machine runs at all (Norton has gooten very large over th last couple of years and if everything is going tends not leave room for much else)...the rest you can take the name of the service in question and drop it in the search bar on Google (http://www.google.com) and have a pretty good chance of diggin up what they are.......

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.




[This message has been edited by mjc (edited 02-06-2002).]

Thank you very much.

A few questions:

1) Are all the services you mentioned 100% OK safe to stop? For example, I should have at least NAV running, shouldn't I?

2) How do I stop these services from starting at startup? They don't appear in the startup folder.

3) Could they be related the CPU problem? On the task manager they use almost zero CPU. They do take memory, which I have plenty of.

4) As for the cable, I used to have Road Runner, which changed now to Comcast (along with @home). Does it mean that service is not needed anymore?

Thank you again!

[This message has been edited by mmkaplan (edited 02-06-2002).]

Most of the Norton stuff should be able to be configured through the main Norton interface...the Quicken/Quickbooks the same...the leftover from @home shouldn't be needed any more...the rest I have a link....pacs_portal (http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.htm), but couldn't get in today, so I don't know if it is just down or if it has gone away...and a couple of others like lsass and csrss may have security issues or are running due to needing to have some updates done to the OS (at least from what I found they were/are problems in NT and I haven't found anything to indicate that the unpatched versions are not problems in 2k), you may want to wait and see if Ghost Hacker stops in on this one to see if I missed anything vital or knows more on the lsass/csrss items......

And, yes shooting upto 100% CPU usage for a few minutes can make a marginally cooled system overheat........I would seriously think about adding a secondary case fan to increase the airflow.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Thank you, and I will for sure follow your advice about the services.

But could this be related to the CPU usage? They don't appear as using CPU at all!

Could it be connected to the video card, as I mentioned above?

Some of them will only spike up under certain conditions....like internet activity, and what not.

And yeah a small memory video card isn't going to help, but it isn't going to cause it by itself, unless it is not really be used at all (like everything grapihical is being done by DirectX with software emulaton, instead of in hardware).

Basically I think that some of the services, especially those not needed, and a couple other factors are combining to cause the problems...

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

I did as you suggested and removed everything possible. It did help to a certain extent - now it's using only about 80-90% CPU when viewing certain pages with moving graphics. Is this normal?

Now that it isn't shooting up to 100%, we can look at the possibility of the drivers for the video needing to be updated, but even with the most recent drivers I sometimes get high usage on some pages, I suppose unless you have the latest and greatest multi-mega GeForce Card, well over 1G processor certain pages will eat up the CPU cycles, especially if you are using a "winmodem" (internal PCI software based modem)....they can eat up 10 to 25% of the cpu cycles just connecting to the internet all by themselves (especially on older/slower machines).

But the improtant thing now is that it should be more stable and less prone to overheating...certain processors heat up very fast when running at 100%, that is why gamers and overclockers often use somewhat exotic cooling measures (water-blocks or stranger methods)

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Then, what's the next step you would recommend me to take?

The problem is not only on certain pages. Actually, whenever a flash or shockwave applet is on (like simple online games) the CPU runs close to 100%, which makes it overheat, and many times also slows the applet.

Also, how hot is safe for a K6-2 500? AMD says 65 celsuis, but you have to measure it on the top, while the MB probably measures it on the bottom. Is it hotter on the top or on the bottom?

Ok, well if Flash/Shockwave are the ones that really make it shoot up try looking for updates to video card drivers, and both of them...

Yes, most often when measured it is at the bottom...but measuring at the top should give you an idea of what the temp is, and as long as you keep your measurements in the same place an idea of what effect any changes you make are having.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

After updating the driver for my video card, at first things seemed to be a little better, but it didn't last for long. I'm back to 90-100% CPU on any web page with moving graphics. Back to square one...
If the max CPU temp. (on the top) is 65, would setting it to 62 (on the bottom) be safe?