Constant disk activity (XP Pro)

I'm running XP Pro SP3 and there is constant disk activity even when the computer's idle. I've left it for well over 24 hours with nothing happening, and the disk was still whirring away. My first thought was malware, but I've used the Spyware Warrior forums and they assure me that my PC appears to be clean, and recommended me to try here. If it's any help I used Task Manager to look at I/O Reads, I/O Writes and I/O Other, and the processes where these values are changing rapidly are: lsass.exe, csrss.exe, ashServ.exe, ashmaiSv.exe. I'd be grateful for any ideas.

I recognize you have avast from the 2 files with av on them, are scans being constantly started?

No. The various "shield" options are enabled, which scan files before they're opened, but AFAIK there is no file scan taking place whne nothing's happening.

never mind, i got confused and thought you were talking about you CD drive. i need to start drinking coffee i wont be able to help you out. sorry

No. The various "shield" options are enabled, which scan files before they're opened, but AFAIK there is no file scan taking place whne nothing's happening.

Hello MorningGlow… Welcome to WhatTheTech…

Avast, by default, installs a "screensaver" process that runs while the computer is idle. The process of the "screensaver" is to scan for viruses as well as build the virus recovery database that assists Avast in cleaning files if it finds them infected.

There is a chance that this activity that you are seeing is a result of Avast. However, it should not be constant. It will be occasional, but by no means constant.

While Avast may play a part in the activity taking place on your computer, there are other possibilities and further tools available to diagnose what is really taking place.

First of all, how much RAM does your computer have? While this wouldn't entirely explain why the system is so active when it is "idle," it may account for more disk thrashing than necessary. When your system doesn't have enough RAM it will use the hard drive to provide more memory to the system. If you have less than 512MB of RAM you will have a lot more thrashing than if you had 1GB or more. 1GB would be optimal, and 2GB would be best for most purposes.

If the activity is always happening, even when the system has not been idle for a long time (such as before the screensaver even kicks in) then it would be an easy matter to download and run Filemon and generate a log of what disk activity is taking place. This utility will tell you every read/write to the file system. To the untrained eye it may look very confusing. However, if you feel that you have captured some useful information during one of these "active while idle" moments you can always save the log and attach it here for us to analyze. Filemon can generate a ton of information very quickly. It is important that you attempt to run Filemon when you are not performing any other activities on the computer, but the hard drive has remained active, and then only run it for a minute or so.

If this definitely happens "all the time," then you can also use msconfig (start -> run -> type 'msconfig') to temporarily disable all non-microsoft processes and startup items. It may provide you with a process of elimination for determining what is accessing the hard drive so much. In other words, you can turn groups of items back on until the problem occurs again and then keep eliminating what is doing it.

Good luck and post back here with whatever information you find.

Hi, Thanks very much for your helpful reply, but I think I've just found the problem. I came across a posting on some other forum mentioning a setting that can be changed from the TewakUI PowerToy - "Optimize hard disk when idle". It was checked, but once I unchecked it and rebooted the constant activity stopped. There are still occasional bursts for no obvious reason, but this may be the Avast! feature that you mentioned. Regards

That's great.. I've always known XP had a feature like that. I'm not even entirely sure what it does. But, I haven't ever come across a problem where it stayed active all the time. Good job, and thanks for posting back that useful information.

Found this web page which gives the registry key Tweakui must manipulate to control this.

http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/1309/

I don't have the key so I don't know if it defaults to on or off.

If lsass.exe is running continuously, try stopping the Terminal Services service: set it to disabled to be sure that it won't get restarted and reboot. I spent 3 weeks fighting this one.

I finally solved this same problem and will share what I found. My symptoms were that the disk activity was regular and periodic to once every second. It would stutter video playback at the same frequency and would affect any continuous scrolling – so the problem was a little more than just annoying. I am running XP SP3 on Dell B130 Inspiron.

My solution: I used Device Manager to disable off the laptop CDROM. Problem fixed.

I continue to have issues with the display hanging appx every 10 seconds, it's not quite as regular but also equally annoying. Maybe a video driver??

Good luck all.

Onix, welcome to WhatTheTech… Thank you for sharing your solution. But, I must suggest that disabling a necessary piece of equipment in your computer is really not a "solution" at all, its a work around, and may not even be associated with what the real problem is, such as what is also causing your video to hang. If you need help with your current issue, I would suggest that you create a new thread to receive assistance. Because most problems, although they sound similiar, may not be related at all, its generally considered "rude," to ask for assistance on your own issues on someone else's thread and it can become confusing. No harm done though. Welcome aboard.