Applications Problems

[grandpa]

I've got a problem with applications that will not terminate when they are completed. An example would be with Outlook. There can be as many as 3 instances showing in the Task Manager and they have to be manually terminated. This isn't just with outlook either. I've noticed the same problem with Acrobat, Firefox, Winzip and more.

Can anyone offer a suggestion as to the nature of this problem? Thanks.

The system is running W2K pro. There is a gig of memory chips.
The processer is Intel x86 family, 500 mhz.

[kaled]

What anti-virus software, firewall, etc do you have installed?

Kaled.

[grandpa]

I use NAV, BlackIce Firewall, and regularly use Spybot, and Ad-Aware. There is also a Cisco Wireless router w/firewall at the DSL connection. Everything is kept current, OS, NAV, all of it. There could still be a bug in the system, I won't say for certain that there isn't. But to my best knowledge the system is currently clean.

It has been infected in the past, several times. Could it be something like a dll is still corrupted, or even missing? This would seem to me like its an OS problem.

If it has any bearing, the hard drive is nearly full. I have, over the last couple of weeks, been removing old unused applications, thru the Control Panel.

<add>
I have noticed this problem in the past, particularly with Outlook and Winzip. It just seems to more aggressive lately.
</add>

[kaled]

Assuming NAV=Norton antivirus, that is a likely contender.

If possible, try uninstalling it and running for an hour or so. Assuming you don't open any emails and use Firefox or Opera (not IE) it should be safe.

This is not likely to be caused by a missing or corrupted DLL but is likely to be caused by another process tied in to the operating system at a low level - typically security software.

I don't usually recommend clean rebuilds, but in this case it might be appropriate.

Kaled.

[bill]

If removing the Norton doesn't work take a look at a few other things before doing a clean reinstall. If you say that your drive is nearly full I would first ask whether you have any other partitions or drives where you could put files? I like to separate the OS, Program Files and data into their own partitions on my machines. Outlook files can be big and they can use a lot of swap space to close down.

Next take a look at your virtual memory swap file settings. If you're allowing Windows to set the swap file automatically and your disk is nearly at capacity I've heard of conflicts arising. However in those cases you'll often see the Windows error dialog warning you that it is attempting to resize your swap file. The standard recommendation is to set the maximum and minimum file size to 1.5 times the amount of RAM on your machine.

If that doesn't work for you then you could also do a Repair Install of Windows. That will restore all the system files, but leave your application settings in place. (Make sure you back everything up first.)

[grandpa]

I'll disable Norton until the next reboot and see how things pan out. Another question or three while that is happening.

I have multiple instances of scvhost.exe and cidaemon.exe running all the time.

cidaemon.exe is an indexing service which catalogues files on your computer to enable for faster file searches.

svchost.exe is a system process belonging to the Microsoft Windows Operating System which handles processes executed from DLLs.

Typically, it seems that one instance is getting the most system time, the remaining instances use very little time. Is it normal for multiple instances of either of these?

Winamp. Now that I'm the boss I got some speakers, an account with a popular music service and I'm using Winamp. It seems to be a real resource hog, and I've set its Priority Class to the lowest setting, Idle. I've looked around to try to find any issues with Winamp and W2K but couldn't find any. Are there any issues with this software? It is installed on a second drive and all the music files are also stored on that drive.

Again, the problem had existed for a while, but it seems to have become more agressive recently. Its possible that prior to October, the other person that was here during the day simply rebooted all the time, and I had not been made aware of the problem.

I have checked the swap file and it is set to the recommended size.

[bill]

I have multiple instances of scvhost.exe and cidaemon.exe running all the time.

According to the MS Description of Svchost.exe in Windows 2000 [support.microsoft.com] it is not abnormal to have multiple versions of these services running.

Winamp.

The description system resource hog barely begins to adequately describe the latest versions of WinAmp. Each succeeding version seems to eat away more and more system resources. The only solution I've found for that (short of using another player) is to add RAM. Windows 2000 can handle up to 4GB of RAM. That is one of the cheapest ways you can enhance system performance. I read an article just today claiming that you need to invest in at least 2GB of RAM to comfortably multi-task on modern systems with modern software.