Here is the system:
HP Pavilion 8190(I think, I'm not sitting in front of it)
PII 300 slot 1 processor
256MB Ram
Windows98 SE

Here is the problem:
I noticed I've been having to reboot more often, so I started up System Monitor and noticed that the more I do on the computer over just a few minutes the cpu usage will increase and stay high. I'm talking about an eventual 83% usage after I've closed all unnecessary processes down and the system is sitting idle and not connected to the Internet.
After I've worked on things, surfed a little, etc., The processor usage is up and I close everything down and it is a flat-line high usage and never goes back down until I reboot. Along with this, Memory allocation gets higher and higher and stays high. I've never seen this before. I suspected a virus, but I ran scan for viruses with most recent update and found nothing. Help!! what could be causing this? Thanks.

It does in fact sound like a Virus
Check out the Link in this post and do an online scan. http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/Forum16/HTML/000787.html

The Link to follow is in the Reply By SEA

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DEAR IRS
Please cancel My Subscrition

I thought it sounded like a virus, too. That's why I updated and ran AVG anti virus. It found nothing after a complete check. I'll try the online scan, but I don't suspect it will find any virus, either. I could be wrong. I'll let you know.

I finished the scan, no virus detected. What's next? Anybody? Thanks.

No Virus.. GOOD..

This being a catch 22 question.

Have you installed anything new in the way of drivers or Windows updates?
If you haven’t then I would suggest doing so.
Starting with the Chipset drivers

If you have already installed an update before you started seeing the system problem.
then it may be worth your effort to step back to the old version of the driver.
Latest and greatest is Not always the best ..+

Also when you run the system Monitor and it shows the cpu and memory High Usage with nothing running.
Have you tried exiting the Monitor then reopening it to see if the readings change

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DEAR IRS
Please cancel My Subscrition

Does your machine run the Riptide modem/sound card combo?

Have you done any updates from HP to the audio drivers?


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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.

Okay, recently, I had to format and start over with a new hard drive. Whilst doing all that, I had a lot of trouble getting a driver for the sound card. It still isn't right. I barely get any sound out of the speakers. I know it's because it's the wrong drivers, at least I think I know. Anyway, how would that affect the cpu usage, if you don't mind explaining that? I'll check to see what chipset drivers I can find. HP hasn't been that helpful when it comes to having the original files and drivers for this product.

No on the Riptide modem.

[This message has been edited by jim_roberts1 (edited 04-30-2002).]

If you have onboard sound (not an actual sound card) most of the audio processing is carried out by the CPU, so incorrect or poorly written drivers would cause an inordinate amount of CPU usage (partly because of non-fatal errors or executing unneeded instructions).

Do you have the original restore disk for this machine? Is it a 2 disk set?

If it is and you do the original drivers are on the second disk, this disk is not encrypted but the folders are hidden so you need to set Win dows to show hidden files...

Now the Riptide combo card is an interseting item in that it is both a modem and sound card and some of the functions are carried out in hardware (on the card) and others are carried out by the "host processor" (your CPU).

They also used another combo card on some models that almost everything was carried out by the CPU.

What chipset do you have?

If it is an Intel one, go to Intel for the chipset drivers, since any you find on HP will be at least two revisions out of date...

Here (http://www.hp.com/cposupport/swindexes/pv8190_swen.html?Submit=go) iis the driver page for your model. Look under "Application" there is an item for Analog Devices AD18MAX10 update (that looks like a sound card).

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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 downloaded the drivers for the HP Pavilion 8190 and ran it, but it aborted due to a bios read error: "Cannot load RDbios32.dll." I found one link on the web with information on how to get this driver to load, but it requires the recovery cd set that HP no longer makes and I no longer have. Does anyone have any idea how I can get around this?

Well a couple of things I can think of, none of them are really all that great, the first is find a non-HP version of that driver, it should not need the dll to read the BIOS tattoo from HP. The second is to get another sound card and replace the one that is in it....they don't really fix your problem with the current card, they go around it.

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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'm off to Fry's for a sound card. Thanks for your replies. I will follow up when I get it installed.