Hi Ian,
My W98 machine acted like that for a while until a thorough scandisk
(surface check) reported that a cluster was going bad, thus taking a long
time to retrieve data. It didn't fail, it just got SLOW? Sometimes I could
hear HD activity while it was looking. I allowed scandisk to fix it and
it's been fine since.

I now run both SpyBot and AdAware. If you think it could be spyware of some
sort, I would recommend SpyBot. It's head and shoulders above AdAware IMHO.
Lately it's changed from only a "remover" to an (optional) "blocker" which
seems to be effective.

In case it's a defective Windows file, have you tried:
Start/Prog  ng/Accessories/System Tools/System Info-Tools-System File Checker?
I wonder if SFC might also recreate your msgsrv32.

Bob




>This is a followup to a question I asked about a 18 months ago - and which
>didn't get satisfactorily answered.  Today, I may have got a partial
>solution - but I'll lay it out again and see if it rings bells for anyone
>else.
>
>Once every so often (I'm talking months here) some unknown process starts up
>on my W98SE system.  This is indicated by the hourglass icon which appears
>for a few seconds, then disappears, then returns for a few seconds, then
>disappears...and so on, ad infinitum, for hours at a time. It's not random,
>but a very predictable and rythmic cycle.
>
>It's pointless trying to do anything while this........whatever it is is
>going on, as the CPU is kept busy with the mystery process.
>
>(I should say before I go any further that this is not a result of FindFast
>being installed or any similar add-on junk, as I keep my system very lean
>and mean.  And this problem has persisted through several Windows installs
>and rebuilds.  It's not GoBack indexing files, as I'm not currently running
>it, neither is it due to any viral activity)
>
>So I thought I'd have another go at running PrcView to try and reveal what
>my computer was doing behind my back.  I've tried several times in the past
>to use this app, but, being a bear of little brain, I've never been able to
>understand just what the heck the thing was telling me.
>
>This time, either I've got more intelligent (unlikely) or the new version of
>PrcView that I just downloaded is more user-friendly, as the prog seemed to
>make more sense.
>
>I started off 'killing' all of the harmless running processes, but the
>hourglass still kept flickering on and off.  Finally, I had no option but to
>begin despatching 'serious' files. I began with Msgsrv32, and that was it -
>the hourglass activity stopped immediately.
>
>Only trouble was, so did most other Windows processes, which necessitated a
>reboot.  However, after rebooting, Windows seems to be behaving itself, and
>the hourglass activity has stopped.
>
>I straight away did a google search for msgsrv32 and turned up a number of
>references on the subject, most of which stressed the importance of the
>application, referring to it as the 'air traffic controller' of Windows.
>
>So what I did by 'killing' it may have been simply to 'shoot the messenger',
>and maybe the real culprit is still lurking about.  I'd be interested to
>hear if anyone else has had similar experiences.  Ian Porter