FAS.exe ???

[BillG_in_TX]

Does anyone know what FAS.exe does? It is running in my secretary's home computer, and shows up in the Processes section of Windows Task Manager (she has Home Edition).

She brought the computer up to the office so I could "fix it", /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif but I'm at a loss. At times the computer (a newish Dell desktop) slows to a crawl or stops running altogether. When I check for running programs and processes, this shows up as using up to 100% of the CPU, unless some other programs are running, like McAfee. Then it uses everything up to 100%.

She has up-to-date McAfee AV, which finds no virus, and I downloaded and ran SpyBot and AdAware. If I manually "End Process" on FAS.exe before the computer grinds to a halt, everything speeds up and runs fine until rebooting, when FAS.exe comes back.

Google has failed me /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif, as I can't find any mention of FAS.exe that makes any sense to me. So I thought I would turn to the collective wisdom of TBN. Any ideas? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[yooperdave]

Have you tried contacting DELL techical support?

Good Luck

Yooper Dave

 

[fenneran]

Bill,
Try this program. It shows a little more about the processes that are running
-Frank

 

[JimR]

I am running XP home edition also. There is no FAS.exe on my machine. It must be some type of program that she installed.

 

[Ozarker]

I did a search and there seems to be a program out there called FAS.exe which is a self extracting zip file that runs an info file for Fetal Alcohol Syndrom.

Do a search and see where FAS.exe is located on the hard drive. Apparently, it is starting up when the computer starts and is executing in a loop for some reason. Find the folder where the program is and delete it.

 

[nomad]

Do not delete any file that you are not sure about.
Make it "sleep" first and see what changes when restarting your computer. Do these;

Open Start / Programs / Accessories / System Tools / System Information

System Information window will be opened. On that window,
"Tools / System Configuration Utility"
Another window will be opened.
There, enter "Start Up" to see what programmes are running behind at every windows session. There, Uncheck FAS.EXE and restart the windows. See what will happen. If everythings still working without a problem, then let FAS.exe stay sleep/silent. It won't damage your computer as long as it stays silence. Still don't delete it without learning what FAS.exe is.

 

[Egon]

Where's Gatorboy? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Egon

 

[GRUMPA]

After building my own computers and working on many others most of what you buy retail have there own version of windows installed. Meaning you are not going to install the same windows program purchased off the shelf and install it and expect it to work, it wont. The driver invironment is alot different.

There are some things you can do to speed things up. 1 of the most important things is to de-frag the hard drive. Second is to close the programs that you dont want/need working. Hit start/run and type in "msconfig" (minus the quotes) and UNCHECK the boxes of programs in the start up tab you dont need, reboot. Next hit the start button then run and type in "services.msc" (minus the quotes) in there you can select what you want running, but caution must be taken here, these are things the agv. person dosent have a clue as to what most of these will do. REBOOT

If you still have a problem with it there may be a trojan\bug in the system. heres a link for one thats really simple to use.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

get the Hijack this program as well as the CWShredder both are free. When you run the Hijack This and hit the scan button a list will appear some of which may not make any since to you. The same button you hit for scan (after you click on it) will change to "save log". Save this to "My Documents" folder and send me the results thru private message if you cant figure it out.

CWShredder is very simple to use just hit the "FIX" button and NOT the scan button, It sniffs out bugs in your browser and will fix most problems. Please note that I'm ussuming that this computer is running on XP Home.

*NOTE* Whenever you download anything NEVER EVER download them to your desktop. Always to your documents folder/my breifcase folder.

By all indications that FAS.exe looks to me as a third party program. Heres what I would do if it where me. Hit start then search,move over to files and folders, type in FAS.exe and search for it. It will find it. Right click on it once its found and scroll down to properties and find out how big it is. If its under 1.44mb put it on a floppy disc, if its over that size burn it to a cd. After doing that I would delete it and see if that improves the performance of the machine. You can always put it back in if theirs a problem. But upon inspection of that program it looks as though its a utility that calculates the average size of all files, or your filespecifications. You also see the largest/smallest file.

I could be wrong but thats what I figure it is.

 

[om21braz]

I believe I'd quanrantine that file via McAfee, reboot and see what happens. That should give you the option of restoring it if necessary, as others have mentioned though - doubtful if it is required. I'll check my home computer this evening as it has McAfee ware and see if it is even something regarding anti-virus checking itself that is eating processing power.

 

[chim]

I sent an e-mail to #2 Son (IT Guy) about this, and here's the response..............chim



Pop,

I would advise him to end the process and go to start > run > regedit

then look for
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
opening that folder will show the programs that are set to start automatically at boot-up. look for a reference to FAS.exe in there, and delete it if it exists.

next, i would search the hard drive for a file called FAS.exe and delete it

reboot, and if all goes well, it'll go away

some viruses that exhibit this behavior will sometimes find a way to rename themselves and come back. For that reason, I would also advise doing a full sweep at www.trendmicro.com they have a free online scan that you can do. I like that one because you know that you have the lastest virus definitions and rules, and you know that the scanning software has not been disabled by the virus.

hope this helps,

Sohn