Desktop bogging down, recent problem

Haven't been here in awhile, so tell me if I'm missing some info. Running an old/rebuilt emachine: WinXP Home. SP3. AMD Athlon 64 3200+ with 2G ram. Have installed and keep updated & routinely use: AVG8; AOL Computer Checkup; CleanCache 3.0; Spybot 1.6.0; WinDefender and Norton Antivirus (just renewed, with auto update); and ZoneAlarm free. I'm running TeaTimer with the Spybot.

Recently (last 2-3 weeks) the computer slows down to useless once booted up. Most programs won't even run. Scans turn up nothing. Cleaned folders and did a disk cleanup: no help. Ran HiJack log but didn't see anything scary or strange, though I probably need to post a log later just to check.

Task manager shows two issues: LOTS of programs associated with the recently renewed Norton subscription running (updates, etc.) and MSASCui.exe causing 100% cpu usage (95-99% for that file). If I understand correctly that is WinDefender.

Is WinDefender conflicting with Norton or AVG? I've always had WD, and updated it a couple of months ago: the update seems to hog a lot more resources than the older, on-demand program.

Running my laptop for this inquiry. Booted Desktop in safe mode and ran cleaners, etc. Opened MSCONFIG and removed MSASCui.exe from the Start Menu. Rebooted: same problem.

I'm out of town a lot and my wife depends on the desktop: need to fix this. Suggestions?

 

Update: After reboot, I opened Task Manager and after just a few minutes an AOL process hogged all the cpu (90+%). Turned that off and rebooted again. It has been running now for several minutes with no problem, even opening several programs. However, I'm concerned about a relapse...

 

g'day hankroberts seems to me you are a tad bit over protected.it is not good policy to run more than one antivirus and firewall.i see you have mentioned nortons antivrus and avg8 both these programs run in real time and both have av and anti spyware protection this would cause conflicting problems on their own along with windows defender and running spybots tea timer.try switching of tea timer and uninstalling avg.if you are using nortons internet suite that has a firewall with the program uninstall zone alarm also.then try using ccleaner to clean out any issues with the registry.good luck

 

OK, I was afraid something like that was the issue. The AVG is the free one and I have it set to only scan on demand: I use it to double check. The norton is only virus protection, not security suite, so it shouldn't conflict with ZoneAlarm: hasn't been a problem in the past. I'll turn off the teatimer and I'm tempted to uninstall the WinDefender: it seems to be the main problem. I also have CCleaner, and run it manually on about a monthly basis. Run CleanCache 2-3 times a week, because my work has me on the Inet a lot, and downloading/deleting media/vid files (safety training vids, etc.).

I'll make those changes and see how it goes: thanks...

 

i use to run microsoft antispy but when they changed it to windows defender i was having pretty much the same issues so i uninstalled it never went back, i just run avg 8 and zonealarm 8 all freeware and have no issues with this set up. nortons is known to be a resource hog but i haven't used it in a long time so not sure how the newer versions perform.

 

Definitely a resource hog. I've been tempted for a while to get out of it and go strictly to the avg/zonealarm. However, a couple of years back I got some bad stuff on the 'puter because I was only running one program and it missed it. ever since, I've run at least two, and even so still run the spybot, the aol program, and every so often go do the panda or trend online scan. Paranoid, maybe, but peace of mind is worth a lot of $$ and I don't want to go through that hassle again: took me a week to get it fixed.

Out of time today, but I'll make the changes I mentioned and try it. If I'm not back, it'll mean it worked. Thanks again for the confirmation of my suspicions. You guys here never will know how much pain and suffering you relieve with your support. Some of us really appreciate it.