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