Some assistance? Thanks

I've followed the Read and Run to the best of my ability/knowledge of the matter. If I have not done something or done it wrong, I apologize ahead of time.

First off, every now and then, I randomly receive a popup window that says:

Second, I would like to know what items I can and can't/shouldn't uncheck from msconfig to speed up startup and shutdown

I will say right now, I do not have any viruses/trojans or spyware/malware since I have only had this laptop since the beginning of the year and I have loaded and installed only Symantec Antivirus which is auto-updated everyday and scans everyday, Automatic updates are checked nearly everyweek in addition to automatically, XP firewall is on, I regularly update Ad-Aware SE Personal and run it every other day, and the same for Spybot S&D. Call me paranoid, but I just want to keep my laptop as clean as possible, and improve a bit from the above mentioned items. Thanks and/or sorry if this is not the appropriate place for this thread.

 

Error messages of this nature are always hardware related. They are usually caused by a bad driver or in this case a memory leak.

In this case the offending program is PCMService.exe. Periodically check the memory usage of PCMService.exe; and if it keeps increasing; then there is a memory leak in PCMService.exe.

Look for updates from Dell.

 

Ok, thanks for the info. but this doesn't really help me in the way of curing the problem. Is there something that you all can suggest in the way of fixing this nuisance. I searched a problem via google several days ago and I found an exact same match problem... type "engine3" in the search option of these forums... that person has the exact same problem... I want to FIX it. I could careless what it is/isn't. Thank you for your response though.

Adam

 

The reason I posted this thread was because the one guy in the Malware forum seemed to really be thorough with his assitance with people and exactly the measures to take. I didn't know which forum this post would relate to.

At any rate, no, I don't have an video software installed/running unless there is something on here straight from the factory. So what's my next step, uncheck the PCM Service in msconfig and see if it's a problem, and then what? Which I've done by the way... so now I just sit and wait?

Also, what about my second question?

Thanks for the assistance.

 

Well, the thing is, it is an intermittent problem, so it's sort of hard to tell whether it's really "fixed." Dell had no updates for Media Experience or Cyberlink DVD(which I don't even think I have) that I could find.

Secondly, I just want to reduce the number of running processes on my computer bc as of now I have 58. Is it possible to post a list of these process for you to have a look at and let me know what I can and can't remove? I went to that website you provided and looked through the list and stopped as many as was possible. Some of the running processes start right back up as soon as I end them. Go figure.

 

Should be a total of 57 processes:

aim6.exe
aolsoftware.exe (tried ending this process and it starts right back up)
BCMWLTRY.EXE
ccApp.exe
ccEvtMgr.exe
ccSetMgr.exe
clclean.0001
CreativeLicensing.exe
csrss.exe
ctfmon.exe
CTSVCCDA.EXE
CTSysVol.exe
DefWatch.exe
DLG.exe
DMXLauncher.exe
explorer.exe
hkcmd.exe
hpcmpmgr.exe
HPOSM.exe
hpqgalary.exe
hpqtra08.exe
hpwuSchd2.exe
HPZipm12.exe
I8kfanGUI.exe
iexplorer.exe
igfxpers.exe
igfxsrvc.exe
issch.exe
jusched.exe
KHALMNPR.EXE
lsass.ex
MDM.EXE
quickset.exe
Rtvscan.exe
rundll32.exe
services.exe
SetPoint.exe
smss.exe
SPBBCSvc.exe
spollsv.exe
stsystra.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
SynTPEnh.exe
System
System Idle Process
taskmgr.exe
tfswctrl.exe
VPTray.exe
winlogin.exe
WLTRAY.EXE
WLTRYSVC.EXE
wmiprvse.exe

 

By the way, I haven't deleted Dell Media Experience, I just unchecked it from loading up on startup of XP. So far, no error windows have popped up, but like I said earlier, it was an intermittent problem so it's kind of difficult to tell whether or not it's really been fixed.

 

anyone?

 

The first list below is a list of running processes, not startup items. Those that load on startup are as follows:

igfxtray
hkcmd
igfxpers
SynTPEnh
WLTRAY
stsystra
quickset
CTStsVol
Rundll32 CTMBHA
UpdReg
tfswctrl
ISUSPM
issch
DMXLauncher
ccApp
VPTRAY
qttask
KHALMNPR
HPWuSchd2
hpcmpmgr
jusched
PCMService
MIDIDef
ctfmon
(there's on without a name at all)
I8kfanGUI
Adobe Reader Speed Launch
Digital Line Detect
HP Digital Imaging Monitor
HP Image Zone Fast Start
Logitech SetPoint

 

Is it necessary for HP Digital Imaging Monitor to be running all the time in the system tray?

 

Just as a note, with all suggestions followed bellow, I am still getting the pop-up window saying the exact same thing as the quote in my very first post... the Engine3 blah blah blah.

Any other suggestions? Sorry to be such a pain.

 

Also (sorry to be posting back to back like this), how can I delete programs such as MSN Messenger and Windows Movie Maker, as they show up in Start >> Programs Menu, but when I right click delete it says I am only deleting the shortcut and not the program. How do I find and completely delete these programs as they are not in Add/Remove?

Thanks for the help.

Adam

 

Just an update, after everything I've done as far as suggestions go, I am still receiving this same popup from PCMService.exe

 

Another update... I'm starting to now get this for other programs randomly, like Adobe, especially when shutting down the computer sometimes.

 

I know this is an old post, but I don't see the point in making a new thread for this same problem.

I received the PCMService.exe pop-up window and I look in task manager... PCM isn't even a running process... what is going on? This is the first time I've received anything about PCM when it isn't even running.