Virus causing my hard drive to run constantly?

[beppington]

Dan ... I did that, too: Checked the Processes, added the I/O columns to the list, sorted the line items so I can see which ones are the top users, etc. Microsoft Security Essentials is generally the top hog. But when I manually turn MSE off (ie stop that process), the hard drive still runs.

Sorting by "CPU", looking at it right now it shows System Idle Process is hovering between 97 & 98 ... & the hard drive is still running constantly ... & the network connection is still not working.

The computer has an onboard network card. I just disabled it in the BIOS & went to Office Depot & got a new 10/100 PCI network card. Installing now ... will see if it does anything. Not sure why/how the network card could cause the hard drive to run constantly, but ... ? (we'll know soon)

 

[beppington]

Installed the new D-Link 10/100 PCI network card ... no luck. (disabled the onboard card in the BIOS first)

The new card does show up in Control Panel -> Network Connections, & shows "This device is working properly." under (right-click) Properties -> Configure... -> General

However, the D-Link instructions direct you to enter "ipconfig" at a command prompt, but instead of displaying the IP address, subnet mask, & default gateway, I get:

Windows IP Configuration

An internal error occurred: The request is not supported.

Please contact Microsoft Product Support Services for further help.

Additional information: Unable to query host name.

And the hard drive continues to run full time

Looking even more forward to the new computer arriving.

 

[deepNdirt]

Not that this will help anything, but how often if at all do you Defrag the Hdd?
sometimes if doing this frequently can stress the hard drive,

it has been suggest to do a system restore, did you set a restore date back to when it was working OK? has this been a gradual problem? Slowing down, Hanging at times etc,etc, ? What size Hdd does it have? do you do a lot of downloading? Music, Movies etc,etc, Just trying to see if perhaps the Hdd could be worn out, or if in fact is symptoms of a Virus There are some ghost viruses out there that are really not viruses at all, but trick you into thinking you have one... the computer will( Lock up ) and a window will pop-up telling you the only way to get rid of it is to download some sort of search and destroy program..... But really not nesissary, usually this can be overcome by using the ( system restore ) --->to an earlier date,
Have you ever had the Blue Error screen show up? What windows are you running?

 

[Redbug]

I assume you are running XP. I remember one of my older computers running all the time like that. I had the Microsoft Indexing program turned on and it seemed to run and run. I turned the indexing off and the computer ran normal again. Go into your control panel to access that indexing program and see if that is it.

 

[beppington]

Not that this will help anything, but how often if at all do you Defrag the Hdd?
sometimes if doing this frequently can stress the hard drive,

I've only run defrag prob 2 or 3 times since it was new in '07.

it has been suggest to do a system restore, did you set a restore date back to when it was working OK?

Unfortunately for me, when it comes to computers, & my riding lawn mower, I've always been more of a fixer than a preventative maintenance-er

has this been a gradual problem? Slowing down, Hanging at times etc,etc, ?

No, just bam, all of the sudden the network connection quit working & I noticed the hard drive would never quit running.

What size Hdd does it have? do you do a lot of downloading? Music, Movies etc,etc, Just trying to see if perhaps the Hdd could be worn out, or if in fact is symptoms of a Virus

I think it's 150 GB, but will confirm tomorrow when back at work. I don't do enough downloading to ever get anywhere close to filling it up. It prob has 50 GB free, & has at all times had at least that much or more.

Have you ever had the Blue Error screen show up?

I did get that "death screen" on my older now out of service computer, but no, not on this one.

What windows are you running?

Windows XP

 

[beppington]

I assume you are running XP. I remember one of my older computers running all the time like that. I had the Microsoft Indexing program turned on and it seemed to run and run. I turned the indexing off and the computer ran normal again. Go into your control panel to access that indexing program and see if that is it.

Yes XP, & I'll check that tomorrow. Not sure that would ruin the network connection though ... ?

 

[Redbug]

No, indexing turned off will not mess with your connection or anything like that.

 

[RoyJackson]

Not that this will help anything, but how often if at all do you Defrag the Hdd?
sometimes if doing this frequently can stress the hard drive,

Since you brought up defrag, it jogged my memory a bit...
If the HD is more then 80%-85% full, you may not have enough HD space for the Windows Swap File.
Go to your "My Computer", select "C" drive and right click...then select properties. You'll see a screen with a pie chart of the HD (used space and unused space).
When the HD gets too full and the swap file cannot function properly, the PC can get erratic.
About the only thing you can do is delete some files.
BTW, in my experience, when the HD comes close to getting to this point, you should be seeing error codes indicating not enough space...
I haven't had this problem since the Windows 98 days...I always keep the primary HD fairly lean by use of a slave HD.

 

[olds67]

Few things to look at:

1) Have you tried changing your ethernet cable or plug into a different port on your router?

2) Go to the run command in the start menu and type in "cmd" and hit enter. Type in "ipconfig" in the command prompt. You should see a 192.168.#.# for your adaptor. If you don't it may be an issue with your router. Try unpluging the router and plug it back in to restart it. I am assuming you have a wireless router since you have a laptop.

3) Your HD might have some bad sectors so I would run a checkdisk.

 

[Willl]

Beppington, everything in your computer is replaceable, except for your personal JPGs.

Get those to a safe place now.