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Something got on my system - today when I booted up my machine it started doing regular hard disk access when system should be at idle. Only processes that show any consistent activity are csrss.exe and svchost.exe but something must be appearing and disappearing on task list since its constantly shifting.  I rolled Win back to the point where it wasn't doing this but it didn't fix the problem. Nothing shows up on MacAfee Enterprise or Ad-Aware. Physical disconnection from router did not change random access behavior. Please advise.

Dying hardware?

CCleaner showed "Toolbar" entry on Startup but without file path. I removed it, rebooted and unexplained hard drive access stopped. Any ideas what it was?

Why dying hardware would cause regular (about once a sec) short seek to hard drive? If so what part?

Dying hardware does weird shit. But you fixed it, so cool.

Will see if it will come back. Did I mention that I hate fucking PC problems? If I could do gaming on Lunix or Mac I would be long since done with Win.

Question about the msconfig tool; is there a way to clear up redundant entries? Qtask, realsched and jusched keep on reappearing; they are quick time, real media and java updaters that I do not want active at start up. Every time I uncheck them, they come back with a brand new entry, and god its annoying. I've checked the 'preferences' on quick time, the java client and real media players and I do not see any options to disable this startup entry.

I just take them out of the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.  The fucking iTunesHelper bullshit will re-install the key everytime itunes or quicktime runs so I have to change the value from iTunesHelper.exe to lsdkjdsflj.exe just so that it can't find it and pollute my processes list.

I hate how every company thinks they should get to run their own process everytime I turn on my computer, the bastards who also think they deserve a tray icon should be shot.

I looked under the registry entry you mentioned and I couldn't find the one for jusched; I could only find values for the ones that are actually selected. Are you saying that I should reselect them all, then manually remove them via regedit?

To get rid of that one you can also go to Windows Control Panel->Java(Might be at bottom, not alphabetical)->update->check for updates.  I'm not sure why it isn't in your registry though.

I don't think we're communicating; I'm talking about the entry in msconfig that is unchecked. The entry for jusched is there, with the box unchecked. Disabling the autoupdate in the java 'control console' doesn't eliminate the entry in msconfig. Same thing for realsched and qttask. I have 2 entries for each; if I uncheck them both, next time I run Quick time I will have a 3rd one, another qtask.

I'm resigned to the fact that quicktime will always install a new qtask, but what I'm asking for is a way to erase prior entries in msconfig.

By the way, I found a free tool  (http://www.download3k.com/Install-MSConfig-Cleanup.html) that does this for you, but I was hoping to discover a manual way of doing this.

Oh, I misunderstood.  I don't know if this helps. (http://windowsxp.mvps.org/MSCONFIG.htm)

If it's something like "toolbar.exe" you were/are probably infected by a worm.

As for tracking processes get Process Explorer (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/ProcessExplorer.mspx) (MS bought out Sysinternals in case you were wondering) and under Options -> Difference Highlight duration set it to something long enough so you can see what's popping in and out.

I typically get a lot of strange accesses from msmpeng.exe.  It's basically doing impromptu spyware scans with absolutely no on screen indicator.  It's just one example of windows XP oddness, and not necessarily an indicator I've been hijacked into sending out zombie spam or hosting somebody's kiddy porn site.

Some clearly weird thing I've been running into lately is that, ever since I installed my new video card, my computer boots up with the C:\program files\ati folder open.  It's not in the Startup Start Menu Folder (for either me or all users) nor apparently being directly pulled up in my HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run registry.  I've find a thorough search of my msconfig and came up with nothing - the closest I get to a direct reference to that folder is installation information.  Chalk up some more ATI oddness.

You need to get systernals (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx) -- holy cow, they got bought by microsoft, their website redirects now -- Autoruns (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Autoruns.mspx) program. There are several places that programs can run on startup within the registry. That program or another on that site and some perseverance will find your culprit. Make sure it's not a normally scheduled checkdisk scandisk, it also likes to do that at weird times.

Edit -- Oh hey look Trippy said the same thing a few messages above. Whoops!