Hi! New user here.

I've been checking out this site for awhile now the tips have really come in handy (who knew you were supposed to have anti-virus and anti-spyware and a firewall?)

Now I have two concerns: the biggest one is my printer has been messing up more and more over the past few days to where it only prints in the faintest grey now. That should go in the hardware section, right?

Also, I've followed the steps for speeding up the computer but sometimes it still runs at 100% usage. I don't think it's infected because I get clean scans so should still post in HJT or somewhere else?

Hi ahelaumakani

And



Your printer issue you should post in General Hardware (You sure it aint a ink problem?)

Your CPU usage problem you should post in Microsoft windows

Hope you get your problems solved!

Regards Abydos

EDIT sorry Abydos, my slow typing again!
Hi and welcome to the WTT forums

Sorry to hear of the problems you are experiencing, but hopefully you will get the advice and assistance you need.

Firstly, yes it would be a good idea to post your printing problem in the hardware forum as many experts scan these subforums to identify any questions where their own specialist knowledge can be useful. However before you do so it would be as well to check (if an inkjet)

1 that your ink cartridges are still reasonably full
2 check your printer driver settings, for grayscale/tint%
3 Check that any ink saver programme is correctly configured
4 That you have used the clean print head function
5 you have used the prime print head function
6 tried brand new OEM cartridges (not refilled ones)

If a laser:
1 That your toner is still reasonably full
2 Toner saver settings are disabled
3 Drum and other replacable elements are within their service life
4 Waste toner bottle/container is emptied/replaced

if a dye sub, or specialist printer
then definitely post in the hardware forum!

Finally its a good idea to download the latest printer drivers from the printer manufacturers website, uninstall your old printer driver, reboot and then reinstall your printer driver aand see how you go.
If still no joy then its off to the hardware forum!

Turning to your 100% usage, this could be caused by malware (in which case posting an HJT log for analysis in the HijackThis and Infections Removal forum is advisable) not here in this forum please.

However there might be a more benign cause, such as a scdeduled anti virus scan or protection product update that is taking a lot of your system resources……… a useful way of checking on this by calling up Task Manager (ALT+CTRL+DEL) and clicking on the processes tab acrross the top, this will list the processes that are running and if you click on the column headers first for CPU this will show you what applications are using the most of your CPU cycles ( resources) you may have to click again to sort the processes into an ordered list.

You can use the same technique to check on memory utilisation………if you are not sure what applications are from their name then fire up your favourite search engine and this should give you lots of information.
Regard
paws

Thanks for your help. I will try posting in those sections. The printer definitely doesn't have an ink problem - I think it might have something to do with the print heads though. Hopefully they can help me in the hardware section.