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Hi, I have a family member who has a computer that was not working too well and they asked me to help them resolve the issue.
After examining the computer I noticed the CPU was running at 70-95% constant with nothing really running. Most of the CPU utilization was from two processes, The "System" process and the "System Idle Process". Also the computer will take an extremely long time to go from the windows login screen to actually displaying the desktop icons. It seems to freeze when it shows the Desktop background and no icons. The "freeze" is anywhere from 1-5 minutes.
My first thought was that this was some type of malware, but after scans with CCleaner, Norton, Spybot, and a few other utilities, nothing has come up. I have used process monitor to see that there is no unusual registry or file activity. I am not eliminating malware from the picture, but I think it is unlikely.
What I found to be the problem was a balloon message that pops up in the tray about every minute or so, that seems to be running in sort of a continuous loop. This message says "USB Device Not Recognized" and when I click on it it says there is a problem with one of the root USB hubs.
The layout of this computer is that there is a 7 in 1 powered USB hub which has a USB floppy, a printer and a connection to an APC battery backup connected to it. That is the only USB device, and it is plugged into a completely functional USB port. All the devices work and are recognized by XP.
The amazing thing is that when I uninstall all of the USB root hubs in the device manager and reboot, the problems go away and the CPU utilization returns to normal. However soon after XP boots all of the USB stuff comes back up as the ports are recognized as "new hardware".
Now the question is, what could be going on here, and how could I fix it so that I can still use one of the working USB ports to power the USB hub?
Thanks.
After examining the computer I noticed the CPU was running at 70-95% constant with nothing really running. Most of the CPU utilization was from two processes, The "System" process and the "System Idle Process". Also the computer will take an extremely long time to go from the windows login screen to actually displaying the desktop icons. It seems to freeze when it shows the Desktop background and no icons. The "freeze" is anywhere from 1-5 minutes.
My first thought was that this was some type of malware, but after scans with CCleaner, Norton, Spybot, and a few other utilities, nothing has come up. I have used process monitor to see that there is no unusual registry or file activity. I am not eliminating malware from the picture, but I think it is unlikely.
What I found to be the problem was a balloon message that pops up in the tray about every minute or so, that seems to be running in sort of a continuous loop. This message says "USB Device Not Recognized" and when I click on it it says there is a problem with one of the root USB hubs.
The layout of this computer is that there is a 7 in 1 powered USB hub which has a USB floppy, a printer and a connection to an APC battery backup connected to it. That is the only USB device, and it is plugged into a completely functional USB port. All the devices work and are recognized by XP.
The amazing thing is that when I uninstall all of the USB root hubs in the device manager and reboot, the problems go away and the CPU utilization returns to normal. However soon after XP boots all of the USB stuff comes back up as the ports are recognized as "new hardware".
Now the question is, what could be going on here, and how could I fix it so that I can still use one of the working USB ports to power the USB hub?
Thanks.