Neil writes:

<<My clients PC slows down dramatically, using tasklist /svc I can tell
what services are within the SVCHOST but I cannot establish which of these
is using all of the CPU resource. Once I can establish this I can determine
what it is, what it does and whether it's needed and so on...

Faced with this problem I'm wondering how else I determine the cause of
this PC slowdown>>

Try ProcessExplorer free from www.sysinternals.com.  It will reveal
everything you need to know.

It fully details performance of each SVCHost and shows the dependant
threads for each one. You can also kill any SVC from within it. Try killing
the suspect one and see what happens. I've never tried that, so no idea
what the consequences might be. It might be a good way to further your
knowledge of XP. Looking at the threads might give you an indication of
where the problem lies, though it can be a bit daunting.

Here's what the blurb says:

"Process Explorer is an advanced process management utility that picks up
where Task Manager leaves off. It will show you detailed information about
a process including its icon, command-line, full image path, memory
statistics, user account, security attributes, and more. When you zoom in
on a particular process you can list the DLLs it has loaded or the
operating system resource handles it has open. A search capability enables
you to track down a process that has a resource opened, such as a file,
directory or Registry key, or to view the list of processes that have a DLL
loaded.
The Process Explorer display consists of two sub-windows. The top always
shows a list of the currently active processes, including the names of
their owning accounts, whereas the information displayed in the bottom
window depends on the mode that Process Explorer is in: if it is in handle
mode you will see the handles that the process selected in the top window
has opened; if Process Explorer is in DLL mode you will see the DLLs and
memory-mapped files that the process has loaded.
Process Explorer also has a powerful search capability that will quickly
show you which processes have particular handles opened or DLLs loaded. The
unique capabilities of Process Explorer make it useful for tracking down
DLL-version problems or handle leaks, and provide insight into the way
Windows and applications work. "


I assume you've tried booting with Shift held down, and closing everything
everything down except Explorer and Systray.  Is performance still bogged
down? Presumably you've disabled any a-v  and there's nothing like
Systemworks or Office running.

Go through all the Services and disable all which are not absolutely
essential --- See Blackviper.com if you aren't sure which to disable. If
the problem then disappears, it's a matter of trial and error to see which
Service is the culprit.  I assume you've already disabled the notorious
ones such as Fast User Switching, and Indexing. There are many reports of
Indexing Service causing the problems you mention.

Don Penlington


 From the beach at Surfers Paradise.
http://www.geocities.com/donaldpen/
for sunny Queensland photos, fractal art, free computer tutorials, and more.

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