|
Post Reply
Soul404 2007-01-15 05:22
Hello, I have a fairly serious problem where upon startup of the UltraMon process, Explorer goes to 100% CPU. I am using process Explorer, and what I think is interrupts goes to 100%, rather than standard CPU usage (the red graph maxes out, rather than the green one). Not that I understand it, looking into Explorer's threads, there is one thread with a large CSwitch Delta; which I assume is causing the problem. This persists for a vairiable time, up to 45 minutes; during which I have to put up with doing nothing or setting Explorer's process priority to Idle and everything else on Realtime. Of course, if I then ask any application to create a file / folder open dialog, it crashes. After the time passes things work as normal.
I know that UltraMon is part of the cause as startup without ultramon has no problem, and the problem recurrs when I start Ultramon manually.
I am running Windows XP SP2 Pro, with UltraMon 2.7.1.0. Just ask if more information is needed, and thankyou for any help.
|
Christian Studer 2007-01-15 09:19
Might be a conflict with another application which uses hooks.
For further troubleshooting, please run EnumHooks and post the contents of the generated log file here.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
|
Soul404 2007-01-15 23:04
Thanks for replying, here is the log:
Operating system version: 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2
Potential hooks:
RTSUltraMonHook.dll:
Directory: E:\Program Files\UltraMon
ProductName: UltraMon
ProductVersion: 2.7.1
CompanyName: Realtime Soft
FileDescription: Hook DLL for Realtime Soft UltraMon
FileVersion: 2.7.1.0
PowerMenuHook.dll:
Directory: C:\Program Files\PowerMenu
ProductName: PowerMenu Windows Hook
ProductVersion: 1, 5, 1, 0
CompanyName: Thong Nguyen
FileDescription: PowerMenuHook
FileVersion: 1, 5, 1, 0
RTSUltraMonHookRes.dll:
Directory: E:\Program Files\UltraMon\Resources\en
ProductName: UltraMon
CompanyName: Realtime Soft
FileDescription: UltraMon Resource DLL
FileVersion: 2.6.23.3
WinsockHookDLL.dll:
Directory: E:\Program Files\SimpLite-MSN 2.2\Plugins
WS2_32.dll:
Directory: C:\WINDOWS\system32
ProductName: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
ProductVersion: 5.1.2600.2180
CompanyName: Microsoft Corporation
FileDescription: Windows Socket 2.0 32-Bit DLL
FileVersion: 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
WS2HELP.dll:
Directory: C:\WINDOWS\system32
ProductName: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
ProductVersion: 5.1.2600.2180
CompanyName: Microsoft Corporation
FileDescription: Windows Socket 2.0 Helper for Windows NT
FileVersion: 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
|
Christian Studer 2007-01-16 08:40
Thanks for the information.
PowerMenu and SimpLite-MSN use hooks, I would recommend trying if disabling either of the applications fixes the problem.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
|
Soul404 2007-01-16 23:01
SimpLite was only installed the day before, so that isnt the cause. I disabled both anyway, and the problem remains.
Interestingly, if I kill all Ultramon processes and restart Explorer at startup, then manually start Ultramon, the resulting CPU spam lasts for a far shorter time, say 5 minutes, compared to the ~45 minutes normally at startup.
|
Christian Studer 2007-01-17 08:51
Do you have any security software (anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc) installed which might prevent applications from installing hooks in the explorer.exe process?
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
|
Soul404 2007-01-21 20:52
Unfortunately soon after you posted, I went through the last straw with my Windows install - it asked me what program you need to open .exe files...
I do have Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall 4 and NOD32, but before the format and reinstall, stopping them loading at startup had no affect on the Ultramon Explorer CPU spam problem.
Formatting and reinstalling windows was a good chance to try and get Ultramon working properly. The initial install I did had the same problem, and I reinstalled again. This time I made sure to install Ultramon first before any other programs, and it seemed to work. Since then Ive installed everything as before, with apparently no problems. Standard programs which run permanently that I expect would have the ability to interfere with Explorer, other than Ultramon, are:
Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall 4, NOD32 and Adaware Pro Adwatch.
I use Autopatcher to manage my Windows updates, and I use Power Menu and Task Switch (replacement for alttab), with some other tweaks that arent relevant I guess.
All I can get from this was that Ultramon needs to be installed first, otherwise it will screw up Explorer with or without any potential interfering programs. If it starts happening again, I'll post here, but god help me if it does ;) Spent long enough trying to get rid of the problem.
I guess you're thinking that my previous Windows install was full of malware - I would be very surprised if that was the case. Along with the afforementioned programs, I use Spybot Search And Destroy along with Adaware Pro for spyware removal and Rootkit Revealer and Fsecure Blacklight for rootkit detection / removal (of which I havent found any since I started scanning, about half a year ago).
|
Christian Studer 2007-01-22 09:54
Glad to hear it's working, unfortunately it is difficult to say what exactly caused the problem.
Maybe UltraMon gets started a bit earlier or later due to getting installed before other background applications, this can have an effect on compatibility issues with other applications which use hooks.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
|
Post Reply
|
