I've had a quick look in the forum and can't see anyone else with this problem, so I apologise now if I've missed a thread regarding this same problem.

I'm having a problem in Windows XP SP2 where processes seemingly crash and a thread within the process maxs out one of the cores. If I kill the entire process using Task Manager the next program I launch seems to cause the same problem, and I end up in an endless loop so I am forced to reboot the machine.

Through a process of elimination, I found out that if I kill just the one thread (rather than the entire process) using process explorer, it returns to normal for a short while. However, to use this workaround I need to make sure process explorer is running all the time or this also crashes if I try to launch it once the original problem manifests itself.

Other information which may be helpful. The problem normally starts off in Outlook, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Visual Studio 2005 but I think this is due to me having these most all the time. However, it has also happened in Notepad and Gravity (a usenet client).

Any help or suggestions as to what could causing this would be really appreachiated.
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Some information about my setup which may be helpful

Hardware
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Athlon XP X2 4200+
DFI Lanparty UT NF3
1.5GB of RAM
Samsung 250GB running on SATA2
Hitatch 250GB running on SATA1
6600GT AGP (running latest drivers)
HiTec Mystique Sound card (using latest drivers)

Software
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Windows XP SP2
Symantec Corporate Edition (tried disabling this, no effect on the problem)
Rightmark CPU Clock Utility
No firewall or other low level software.

have you tried a fresh install of windows?

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AMD 64 X2 4600+
Gigabyte GA-K8N SLI motherboard
2 GB Kingston Ram
2 evga 7950 GT KO Video Cards in SLI
Audigy 2 Soundcard
Corsair HX 620 psu

If you haven't already done so, you might want to try installing the AMD Dual-Core Optimizer and Microsoft's Dual-Core Hotfix. Some have had similar issues fixed by taking these steps. Let us know if you are still having problems after the updates.

Hope all this helps.

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AMD Opteron 165 CCBBE (2.7GHz @ 1.35v)
DFI CFX3200-DR (07/28)
Kingston HyperX DDR500 (3-3-3-8-1T)
Asus Dark Knight Radeon 4870 1GB
Audigy 2
2x 74GB Western Digital Raptors in RAID0
500GB SATA-300 WD Drive
CoolerMaster RealPowerPro 850W
NZXT Zero full-tower case
Windows XP Pro SP2

Thanks for the quick replies. Overnight the machine went again, and I've managed to get some more information. It seems to max out core 0 (but I'm guessing that just how the windows task manager assigns threads). I've tried changing the processor affinity to core 1, but it still doesn't resolve the issue.

varianiv - Unfortunately I have both installed already, however I'll re-installing them to see if mine are corrupted and/or out of date.

carver - I have considered a re-install. However, it seems rather drastic and only as a last resort.

quote:

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Originally posted by: floatylite99
Thanks for the quick replies. Overnight the machine went again, and I've managed to get some more information. It seems to max out core 0 (but I'm guessing that just how the windows task manager assigns threads). I've tried changing the processor affinity to core 1, but it still doesn't resolve the issue.

varianiv - Unfortunately I have both installed already, however I'll re-installing them to see if mine are corrupted and/or out of date.

carver - I have considered a re-install. However, it seems rather drastic and only as a last resort.

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Make you have the correct HAL in device manger <Windows Start + break> will bring system properties up and then in tab pick hardware: device manager.

It should show for computer: ACPI multiprocessor PC.

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Abit AT8-32X (Xpress3200)/Athlon64 X2 4200+@stock/Corsair VS 2GB/Samsung SATA II 2x 250 GB/Club3D X1950XT GDDR3 256MB+ PowerColor Theatre 550 pro (PCIe x1)

thanks for the reply blizard. I've checked that and it set up for ACPI multiprocessor PC.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I thought I would update my post in the hope it may help anyone else with similar issues.

I have gone through removing any drivers and I think I have finally fixed it (hope I'm not tempting fete). It appears that it may have been a problem with some low-level drivers that Centrino Hardware Control / Notebook Hardware Control (http://www.pbus-167.com/) installed. (Despite it name, it should also work with AMD chips). I removed the application a very long time ago, so not sure why its only recently started causing issues, but it seems to have done the trick.

Now these have gone I've had around 16 hours without problems.