Ghosts in my computer.....

[pertek]

Ive got an interesting problem i hope someone knows the answer too..
2 weeks ago i noticed a file called helpsvc.exe causing my computer to slow and take up over 100mb of memory and rising. I found a fix by re-insalling it's inf file. A few days ago it cropped again i just end tasked it for the time being.
Now today things are getting messy, when im using "explorer.exe" to access my files i would ,say right click on one, and then explorer would spike using 200mb memory then back down and i find that in the performance tab of windows taskmanger i only have 3mb from my 512mb ram available and all 700mb of my pagefile is used up and as you may imagine causes a touch of slow down. Ive ran scandisk and avg free antivirus and they came up with nowt. When i endtask eplorer the gui disappears but the program is still running when i restart explorer it opens another instance of explorer. I searched on google groups and it appears that other's have had this problem but there were no answers, peoples setups varied alot so im pretty sure this a software problem, oh yeah im using XP home sp1. This install has been there for about a year i run regular scans and maintenance progs.

[leon]

I've not come across problems with that particular process before but a quick google found this.

"In microsoft.public.windowsxp.help and support the following information can be found about helpsvc.exe using too much resources:
"...There is a feature called defrag that will run when needed (15%), as well as several other help and support functions, like restore points, and system file protection. Outlook Express will "compact in the background" (tools, options, maintenance tab)..."
"
http://www.reger24.de/prozesse/HelpSvc.exe.php

Not sure how this helps but it could be that your machine is having issues doing one of the things mentioned above. If you've got the system restore option enabled, then you could turn it off to see if that resolves the problem.

Sorry if that wasnt much help, I'll take a further look and reply back with anything else I can find.

[Steve]

Explorer flakes out on me a lot too. Once I've had XP installed for more than a week it just starts crashing when I hint that it might actually have to do some work.

Now I no longer use the explorer shell - I use Aston. It is setup so that explorer only runs while I'm using the file manager aspect of it. That keeps memory consumption down, and also prevents crashes as explorer isn't running all the time.

This is more of a workaround than a fix though.

[Butuz]

to be honsest kez mate - i would say its a problem with your system / version of win xp - as i seem to have no problem in "running explorer all the time" on countless different PCs ranging from P2-350's to Dual P4 Xeons wiht varying amounts of software installed.



Butuz

[pertek]

to clarify, helpsvc.exe is no longer the problem i read about it and found a fix and this explorer problem only occurs when using the explorer file manager.

[Steve]

to be honsest kez mate - i would say its a problem with your system / version of win xp - as i seem to have no problem in "running explorer all the time" on countless different PCs ranging from P2-350's to Dual P4 Xeons wiht varying amounts of software installed.



Butuz

Is that why it happens to me on both my home computer AND at college.

It is impossible to get explorer working perfectly - for me anyway.

[pertek]

It appears as though this explorer problem only cropped up when i tried to acces (inc right-click) on an unfinished avi file. I booted into safe-mode and deleted it there and no more problems, although still damn strange!

[Angus]

What antivirus are you using? My dad had some problems when he downloaded the lates patch for Norton with his svc things. - Could be related maybe?