strange problem in startup and and in registry

[alidabiri]

strange problem in start up and strange registry
i'm looking at a friend's pc.
it's slow to bootup and shut down
it will not boot in safe mode (it lists files and stops and mup.dll or exe)
i looked at atart up and it has and entry
for start up item
it has a single quote followed by 5 small square boxes (i'm assuming it's x'01' ascii value 00 or 01
and for command has the same thing
for registry entry it has
software\microsoft\windows NT\currentVersion\windows
is this supposed to be there?
i have run ewido, avg, spybot, hijack this. non could find a virus.
what could this be?

 

[electronicsfreak]

I would run chkdsk and then defrag.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/chkdsk.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/defrag.mspx

Also I would check items in msconfig. To do this, go to start, run, then type msconfig and hit enter. Click the startup tab on the far right, look these items up on google. Only ones I would leave running are antivirus and firewall. Everything else I would uncheck.

Another thing for shutting down heres some registry tips ive Learned from here if you are comfortable with using it.

WaitToKillAppTimeout ( original value = 20000) Lower to make faster

hungapptimeout = 500 (lower to make faster)


"HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\verbosestatus"
Set this value to 1 (TRUE), it will then LOG any INFO to the EVENT VIEWER...

"HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\AutoEndTasks" set this to 1 (TRUE), this will kill TASKS quick...

"HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\" look for the Values "HungAppTimeout" and "WaitToKillAppTimeout", the first is for manually shutting down APPS (Exiting a Program) and the Second is for Shutdown

"HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\WaitToKillServiceTimeout"
Setting this to a value of 2 to 5, will kill the Services still running in the background faster during Shutdown...

"HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\ClearPageFileAtShutdown"
if this value is set to 1 (TRUE) then the PAGEFILE will get deleted everytime you shutdown, ergo slowing down the SHUTDOWN process, if it is set to 0 (or non existing) then leave it for a faster shutdown..


Adjust the numbers for stability and faster shutdow according to how your computer acts.

 

[alidabiri]

thanks!electri
i'm looking at the taks manager. cpu usage shows 100% and doesn't drop. what's eating up the cpu? my other machine with xp pro shows cpu usage only 11%

 

[alidabiri]

i have run sfc /scan now seems ok
i have run chkdsk all ok
i have run defrag
cpu usage still shows 100%
i'm just puzzled

 

[electronicsfreak]

Go here and run a full system scan

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

 

[alidabiri]

here's what i have done:
ran AVG, ewido, spybot s&d, hjt, ms-giant none found anything.
ran sfc, chkdsk, defrag all ok.
the startup shows 2 items with item name and command location of single quote followed by 4 square characters (i think they're ascii characters 001 - smileys)
another item shows up as blank for item name and command location.
task manager shows cpu usage 100%
what could be eating up the cpu?
i can't connect that pc to internet, so ternd micro is out of the question.

 

[alidabiri]

still shows cpu usage 100%

 

[electronicsfreak]

Make a new hijackthis log and post it on here. Also write down all system processes that are currently running and put them on here as well.

 

[alidabiri]

here are the process names that show up in task manager:
AOLacsd.exe
AOLtsmon.exe (task manager cpu column shows 99) and can not be disabled

avgamsvr.exe
avgcc.exe
avgupsvc.exe
csrss.exe
eweidoctrl.exe
explorer.exe
gcasDtServ.exe
gcasServ.exe
LEX125SU.exe
lsass.exe
Mcdetect.exe
McTskshd.exe
mmtask.exe
services.exe
smss.exe
spoolsv.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
System
System Idle process
taskmgr.exe
winlogon.exe

 

[alidabiri]

the pc that has the problem, doesn't have a floppy or cd burner and can't connect to internet.

 

[electronicsfreak]

This object thats using most of the resources is aol speedup process. Id reccomend uninstalling it if its using that much resource.

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/aoltsmon/

 

[BadBigBen]

As it is mentioned, not clearly though, that there seems to be a conflict of sorts in the system... Efreak pointed out the AOL as possible problem, but could be something else, causing AOL Speedup to hickup...

the funny box characters, are usually non standard ASCII symbols or better said, either Chinese or Japanese characters that do not display in Western European ISO standard Character sets...

ALI I know that you know what you are doing... but there are close to 29 different start ramps in Windows, not all get used... my suggestion, do a repair install over the existing install, then apply all Hotfixes up to date, clean all TEMPS and defrag...




Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."