CPU at 100%

[Max Maximus]

I know there is a lot of this here and elsewhere but I have tried everything and I still cannot get this to let go of my processor. I am running XP media center on a single processor and until Friday it worked fine. It is on most of the time and sometime overnight (4:30am to be exact) a program was loaded called "software description service" or something like that, and since then my cpu is running at 100%.

So what have I done. I have terminated ALL processes except those required for xp to boot. All that is running is taskmanager, ctfmon, explorer, userinit, lsass, services, winlogon, csrss, smss, system and system idle. System is the culprit, and runs at 99% unless something else takes up some, then it adjusts down until that process ends and it goes back to 99%. If I try to end it, it does nothing. If I end the tree, it terminates to shutdown.

The funniest thing about this is that it will do the same thing in safe mode as well. As soon as the "windows is starting" screen pops up, the fan spins up and it is running full tilt. The fan will shut down after it loads up though and I have also taken it completely apart and blown it all out so it is not overheating.

I have Norton and have run a complete and full scan on all systems with no results to report. I have removed every aftermarket piece of software it will let me remove including real player, all apple software including quicktime, I even dumped IE trying to find what it is. I'm stumped.

Any ideas?


Thanks a ton guys!
Max

[Allan]

a program was loaded called "software description service" or something like that, and since then my cpu is running at 100%.

"or something like that" doesn't work. What is the exact name? And what do you mean it "was loaded"?

[Max Maximus]

Thanks Allan. The only reason I know it did this, is it was listed as one of my restore points, which I restored to previous to this being installed. I can't access it right now (as I didn't think to write it down exactly) as I am running another scan and I can't load system restore as I have only loaded the bare essentials. Once the latest scan finishes up, I load everything back up and see if I can locate the exact wording. I simply listed this program as being installed at 4:30am, and that I had a restore point prior.

Thanks again, and I'll be back soon.

Max

[Max Maximus]

Ok, I finally got it. I had run another full Norton scan that found and fixed 17 more things, and I had to wait for it to finish which took forever. Then on reboot, there were MS updates waiting, which is wierd because the PC has been disconnected from the web since Friday, so I installed those. Another re-boot after which I opened up msconfig and set the startup to normal, and loaded everything. I could then open restore and there it is again, at 12:30pm TODAY! So it is something that is residing on the hd, as again, there is no network connection connected. It reads exactly "Software Distribution Service 3.0"

 

[Allan]

Please follow the instructions in the following link and post your logs in the thread you create (NOT in this thread):
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,46313.0.html

[Max Maximus]

Allan, I cannot figure out how to see your posts. I have FINALLY got this other desktop to run and have logged in to my account, and I saved the page address that you sent me and have begun that process, but I don't know what to do with the info because I can't see your replies here. I ran the ccleaner and have the next download so I guess I will do that now.

Thanks again.

[Allan]

What do you mean you can't see my posts? Quite clearly you can.