CPU Usage spikes every 5 seconds

My CPU Usage is spiking to 90% every 5 seconds. Sorry to post yet another plea for help but I have searched for days and not quite found an answer.

Heavy hitting processes that cycle every 5 seconds are are:
system
services.exe
svchost.exe

I followed the READ & RUN ME FIRST directions and cleaned up a lot, but I am still having the issue. IE is also a little slower than usual.

I would appreciate it if an expert could look at the attached logs (2 posts) for anything that stands out.

Thank you in advance.

 

Second set of log files.

 

Welcome to MajorGeeks.com!

First, please disable any antivirus and/or antispy programs you have installed so they will not block this fix.

Pre-Instructions:
Please print out these instructions so that you can operate with All Browser Windows CLOSED.

Step 1:
Now scan with HijackThis and check the boxes for the following entries:
( Make sure ALL browser windows are closed when you click FIX )

Again, make sure ALL browser windows are closed when you click FIX.

Step 2:
Disable the below service…

• Now Click on Start, then Run ... type services.msc into the box that opens up, and press 'OK'.
• On the page that opens, scroll down to McAfee Application Installer Cleanup
• Then right click the entry, select Properties and press Stop Service.
• When it shows that it is stopped, next please set the Start-up Type to 'Disabled'.
• Click OK until you get back to Windows.

• Next, run HJT, but instead of scanning, click on the None of the above, just start the program button at the bottom of the choices.
• At the lower right, click on the Config button
• Then click the Misc tools button
• Select Delete an NT Service
• Copy/pasteMcAfee Application Installer Cleanup into the box that opens, and press OK
• If you receive any error messages just ignore them and continue.
• Now exit HJT but do not reboot when it tells you it needs to. We will do that further down after running HJT again to fix some other items.

Step 3:
Now download The Avenger by Swandog46, and save it to your Desktop.

• Extract avenger.exe from the Zip file and save it to your desktop
• Run avenger.exe by double-clicking on it.
• Check the 'Input script manually' box.
• Click on the magnifying glass icon.
• Copy everything in the Quote box below, and paste it in the box that opens:

• Now click the 'Done' button.
• Click on the traffic light icon and OK the prompt.
• You will be prompted to restart, OK the prompt and your PC should reboot, if not, reboot it yourself.
• A log file from Avenger will be produced at C:\avenger.txt

Step 4: Begin here after rebooting from Step 3!
Next Reset Web Settings & Default Security Settings

Note for IE 6 users:
To Reset Web Settings:
Right click on your desktop Internet Explorer icon and select Properties. Then click the Programs tab and then click "Reset Web Settings". Now go back to the General tab and set your home page address to something useful like www.majorgeeks.com. Click Apply. Click Delete Cookies, Click Delete Files and select Delete all Offline content too, Click OK. When it finishes Click OK.

If you do not have an Internet Explorer icon on your Desktop, click Start, Control Panel (for some systems it may be Start, Settings, Control Panel), Internet Options, Programs tab and then click "Reset Web Settings". Now go back to the General tab and set your home page address to something useful like www.majorgeeks.com. Click Apply. Click Delete Cookies, Click Delete Files and select Delete all Offline content too, Click OK. When it finishes Click OK

To Default Security Settings:
Right click on your desktop Internet Explorer icon and select Properties. Then click the Security Tab and click Default Level for Internet, Local Intranet, Trusted Sites, and Restricted Sites. For IE 7 users, simply click the "Reset all zones to default level" button.

Note for IE 7 users:
Select Internet Options, then the Advanced Tab and then the Reset button under Reset Internet Explorer Settings.


Step 5:
Please download ATF Cleaner by Atribune. This program does not require an installation. The executable actually runs the program.

NOTE: This program is for Windows XP and Windows 2000 only. ATF Cleaner will remove all files from the items that are checked so if you have some cookies you'd like to save. Please move them to a different directory first.

• Double-click ATF-Cleaner.exe to run the program.
• Under Main choose: Select All
• Click the Empty Selected button.

If you use Firefox browser

• Click Firefox at the top and choose: Select All
• Click the Empty Selected button.
  • NOTE: If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please click No at the prompt.

If you use Opera browser

• Click Opera at the top and choose: Select All
• Click the Empty Selected button.
  • NOTE: If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please click No at the prompt.

Click Exit on the Main ATF Cleaner menu to close the program.


Step 6:
After you have completed ALL of the above in the correct order, please attach the following logs.

• HijackThis Log
• ShowNew Log
• GetRunKey Log
• Avenger Log

Let me know of any problems you may have encountered with the above instructions and also let me know how things are running now.

 

Thank you for your help bjgarrick.
Final result was no CPU spikes .... until I turned my DSL modem back on.

Here is how I followed your direction.
Closed IE and turned off modem.
Opened McAfee Security center and shut down all protection.
Proceeded through your steps.
When I ran services.msc McAfee Application Installer Cleanup was already stoped. I set the start up type to disabled per your direction.

When I opened HJT and pasted 'McAfee Application Installer Cleanup' I did get an error box that said it was not found in the registry. I ignored this and continued per your instructions.

When I ran Avenger I noted in the log
File C:\WINDOWS\Downloaded Program Files\iwonslot1,0,2,5.inf not found!
Log file is attached.

I reset IE settings and proceeded to step 5.
I did not down load ATF cleaner in advance so I turned McAfee and my modem back on and down loaded and ran the file.

Launched task manager and saw CPU usage spikes like before.

I then ran through all the steps again.
IE closed and DSL modem powered off.
HJT only had the R0 items listed from the previous scan. I checked and fixed them.
services.msc still showed McAfee Application Installer Cleanup as stoped and startup type disabled.
Ran through the HJT part of your step 2 with same results.
Ran avenger. The log showed that the files and folder to delete were not found since this was already done.
I reset IE settings again.

At this point I launched task manager and saw there were no CPU spikes.

I ran ATF cleaner again per step 5.

Then I started McAfee back up. No spikes.
With the modem off, I launced IE. No spikes.
I turned on the modem and started to see spikes like before.
I ran HJT scan and attached the log.
I ran ShowNew and GetRunKey.
These are attached.
A secong post will have the First Avenger log attached.

I thank you for you help and would appreciate any more that you can give me.

Scott

 

Avenger log the first time.
Second time the log said the files and folder were not found.

 

Please download F-Secure's BlacklightBeta

• Download fsbl.exe and save it to the Desktop.
• Once saved... double click fsbl.exe to install the program.
• Click accept agreement and Click scan
• This application may trigger a warning from your antivirus. Let the driver load. Wait for it to finish.
• If it displays any items...don't do anything with them yet. Just hit exit (close)
• It will drop a log on Desktop that starts with fsbl....big number

Please attach the BlackLight log.

 

I have not had the chance to down load and run BlacklightBeta yet, but before work I did do some experimenting.

With CPU spiking I turned off the modem and noticed the magnitude of the spikes went from 70% - 90% down to 30% - 60%.
I started to turn off various McAfee features one by one and notice further spike magnitude reduction to 20% - 40%.
I think I had all protection turned off through the McAfee Security Center.
Then I started to kill McAfee related processes through task manager.
Some kept coming back, but I managed to stop all CPU spikes.

Don't know if it is malware or just a McAfee issues.
I found this post today that seems to be the same issue.
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/626131.html

Here is the text from the last post that had the fix:
"Yep I think its a spy ware ... somehow affected SVCHOST.EXE every 5 second and made the CPU spike to about 70% so I ran just about every anti spy ware program I know, in the end Ad Aware SE (230+ Tracking Cookies) and a full repair installation of XP did the job. "

I would like to avoid re-installing XP if possible. Any thoughts?

Scott

 

Blacklight did not find anything. Log attached.

I downloaded Process Explorer and TCPView.
Saw that McAfee Net update was LISTENING. I ended the two processes and CPU spikes stoped. McAfee still says I am protected with virus protection, spyware protection, system guards, Windows protection and firewall. In other words it looks like everything is running fine after I killed those two processes.
Now what in the world is going on with McAfee?
Still unsure if this is malware or McAfee software issue.

 

It was McAfee Network Agent (McNASvc.exe).
One with a local address of d511nd11.myhome.westell.com:6646
I have a Westell DSL modem
The other McAfee Network Agent (McNASvc.exe) had a local address of D511ND11:6646.

Don't know what all this means.
If I kill them the CPU spikes stop and I get my internet speed back.

Any thoughts?

 

Honestly? Dump McAfee and go with something better that uses fewer resources and does a better job.

Attach new logs from ShowNew, GetRunKey and HJT please.

 

Still no issues anymore with McAfee Network Agent turned off.
Here are the log files.
I would like to know what started this.

Thanks for all your help.

 

If you're not having any problems without McAfee then I would ditch it and get something better. For a list of free applications please see step 11 below.

Your logs are clean. If you are not having any other malware problems, it is time to do our final steps:

1. If we used Pocket Killbox during your cleanup, do the below
   • Run Pocket Killbox and select File, Cleanup, Delete All Backups
2. If we used ComboFix, you can delete the ComboFix.exe file, C:\ComboFix folder, C:\QooBox folder, C:\WINDOWS\nircmd.exe, and the C:\combofix.txt log that was created.
3. If we used SDFix you can delete all the SDFix related files and folders from your Desktop or whereever you installed it.
4. If we used SmitFraudFix, you can delete all files and folders related to it now including the c:\rapport.txt log.
5. If we used VundoFix, you can delete the VundoFix.exe file and the C:\VundoFix Backups folder and C:\vundofix.txt log that was created.
6. If we had your run FixWareOut, you can delete the Fixwareout.exe file and the C:\fixwareout folder.
7. If we had you run Avenger, you can delete all files related to Avenger, the log (avenger.txt) and C:\avenger.
8. If we had you download any registry patches like fixme.reg, fixme1.reg or fixWLK.reg (or any others), you can delete these files now.
9. You can delete the ShowNew.Zip and GetRunkey.Zip files and the files that you extracted from the ZIP files. You can also delete the C:\newfiles.txt and C:\runkeys.txt logs that were created
10. If you are running Windows XP or Windows ME, do the below:
    • go back to step 8 of the READ & RUN ME to Disable System Restore which will flush your Restore Points.
    • Then reboot and Enable System Restore to create a new clean Restore Point.
11. After doing the above, you should work thru the below link:
    • How to Protect yourself from malware!