Two Problems, RAM and Booting

[PowderBB3D]

Q1: RAM

When I start windows I'm automatically seeing 250 MB of RAM used. I have 512 MB or RAM total. I'm not exactly sure where this RAM is going, because I checked task manager and nothing out of the ordinary is running. I used Cacheman XP but I can only free up about 20 MB of RAM. The programs listed in cacheman XP do not add up to 250 MB of RAM usage total.

I'm at a loss. It shows up that I have 512 MB of RAM too so it's not a damaged RAM module, right?

Q2: Boot-Up

Not sure if this is related but sometimes my computer won't POST. When it does, booting to windows takes about 15 minutes. This is not right.



Any help?

 

[mechBgon]

Don't provide us with system specs or anything...

 

[PowderBB3D]

Oh I'm sorry.

1.7 ghz P4
512 mb generic RAM
D850MV motherboard
PNY GeForce 4 ti4600
Maxtor 40gb HDD @ 5400rpm
SB Live! 5.1

 

[mechBgon]

Try both of the free online antivirus scanners in my signature for starters, while I get the manual for your motherboard and check it out. What's your method of connection to the Internet, do you have a hardware firewall/router, and what other computers, if any, are on "your side" of the router/firewall? Have you been to Windows Update to patch it lately?

Also, how much free space does the hard drive have? Has it been defragmented? Which PCI slot is the SB Live! plugged into?

 

[PowderBB3D]

Thanks for the help mechBgon.

So far, Panda has 1 "infection" found. That's good and bad - good because maybe it's the reason, bad because who wants viruses? I guess I slipped up somewhere. Will run the other avscan when Panda is finished.

To answer your questions:

I connect on a 512kbps cable connection behind a linksys router. I use a WAN. Two other computers connect to the internet in my household this way - my father's laptop and the 'family' computer. Dad's laptop uses Win2k and family's computer uses 98SE. I use WinXP. Windows is up to date as of last week. Something tells me that that won't fix this.

Hard drive has two partitions. One has 0.99 free (this is the partition windows is on) and the other has 16.7 free. Both are in gigabytes. It was last defragmented about a month ago.

The SB Live! is plugged into the fourth PCI slot (counting down from AGP being slot 0). Nothing is installed below it, a wireless card is in the slot above it.

EDIT: Two files were found infected by Panda:
http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info/encyclopedia/ficha.aspx?iddeteccion=109758
http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info/encyclopedia/ficha.aspx?iddeteccion=107939
The removal of these do not seem to have given me my RAM back. Will run the other avscan now.

 

[mechBgon]

Has Panda said what the infection is? Another thing you might do, if you didn't already, is run Spybot Search & Destroy 1.3 on it to look for spyware, although you sound saavy enough to know spyware when you see it

Since there are other computers on your side of the firewall, it may not be you that slipped up, if you see what I'm saying. Is your system equipped with strong passwords on all Admin-class accounts to keep share-hopping worms from sneaking into your ADMIN$ share? You might run Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer and see what other dirt it can dredge up on your Win2k and WinXP rigs, too. I have a link to MBSA and some other stuff here if that helps. If your other users are careless, it could be worth running ZoneAlarm to firewall your system from the other two as an added safeguard, too.

If it were me, I'd probably just nuke Windows and start over, with the system isolated from the network and the Internet connection until it's patched, firewalled, antivirused and anti-spywared, with a strong Admin password such as v1rus=bAd! (reasonably long, non-dictionary, contains both cases, numerals and symbols).

 

[mechBgon]

I guess the other question in my mind is "what is the normal memory footprint for a WinXP system running what you run?"

I have Win2000 Pro SP4 with a trial version of McAfee VirusScan 8 and ZoneAlarm. With those running, and two Internet Explorer 6 windows, I'm at 188MB memory usage right there, out of 512MB total. I'm pretty sure that if I add up all the items in Task Manager's Mem Usage column, it's not going to reach 188MB. You might be seeing normal behavior for WinXP there, the viruses notwithstanding.

 

[PowderBB3D]

I considered a fresh install of windows but haven't done it yet due to the uncertainty of a boot. Only 30% or so boot attempts actually succeed, the rest don't do anything. I push the power button, it starts to whir, but the screen stays black. That's it. Any ideas as to what is causing that problem? If I managed to get it to routinely boot (and not take 15-20 minutes on those rare occaisions that it actually succeeds) I would just reinstall Windows. It's not just slow; I've let the computer run for 2-3 hours (while I was out doing errands) to come back to see it STILL didn't boot (and the working light was not on). Only when it shows the beginnings of POST do I let it keep going, otherwise I have to turn it off and on again.

No beeps, all connections are secure (checked and rechecked). Just randomly started doing this. No idea why.

 

[nanaki333]

you try swapping out the ram you have in there and see if that helps? have you tried running a memory test program (memtest86)?

 

[mechBgon]

Also check whether your CPU fan is running at normal speeds (~2000rpm or so). You might consider a different power supply too, since that symptom can be a sign of a tired power supply. If you get a new one, make sure it's quality, because there's a lot of cheap junk out there now