Hi every one.
I have recently installed Mcfee anti virus, zone alarm, zoom adsl modem and zoom dsl diler. Oh yhea kazarr lite i think! and my fifa 2004 has gone all jumpy stop starty, and very anoying. up untill i installed these programs, my pc was running v.good. even when i desable these programs, nothing realy happens. when i go to ctrl alt del i get about 45 programs running and idont know which to stop
please help
steve
Chain tech Zennith <m.board>
gforce3ti200<128mb>@500/220Ghz<riva tunner>
512ddr
barracuda 40gig h.drive
creative audigy s.card
Amd 2200
Thank

Don't be affraid to close programms in the task manager, it would usualy not let you close the too important stuff and if you do close something the computer needed, reset and it would open again. You can close all the stuff that has your username next to them (or Administer). To make stuff you don't want to run not open next time you reboot, goto: Start->Run->msconfig->Start-up you can see what executable each program launches and where it is located on your computer, it's easy to see which is which judging from where the exe is located, if it is somewhere in the registry, you might wanna leave it alone, though I unchecked everything and computer works fine.

Is 2^33634943 prime? (more than 10Mil digits @55.5%) I will know in 2 weeks when <A HREF="http://www.mersenne.org" target="_new">Prime95</A> finishes checking!

In your sig you forgot to add 1, 2^anything is never prime.

Damn Rambus.

Ah yeah, actualy, reduce 1.

Is 2^33634943 prime? (more than 10Mil digits @55.5%) I will know in 2 weeks when <A HREF="http://www.mersenne.org" target="_new">Prime95</A> finishes checking!

Oops, my bad...either way, 2^# ain't prime.

Damn Rambus.

The problem why you are having choppy games if you are online is because of Zone Alarm. Zone Alarm is a great fire wall security program but it rather sucks if you want to use your P.C for gaming.

Zone Alarm checks data coming into the PC and outgoing data leaving the PC it makes for a great software fire wall but it restricts connection flow and you can have massive bottlenecks in upload and download rates.
This problem seems to be mostly with Zone Alarm as most other software fire walls have a different net diagnostics engine.

If you disable Zone Alarm and try a game you will see the choppy game play disappear online.

You could also go into the network properties for XP if that is your OS and disable the XP fire wall that can also cause Choppy frame rates online.

Failing that try to set your game in Zone Alarm to ALLOW all communication besides online games run through UDP port servers and since you are joining a game server you have very little control over, you cant prevent hackers from using the server to invade your P.C anyways.

If they want into your XP machine they can get in with little trouble no matter what software fire wall you are using. I routinely see my Norton Fire wall deny access to XP file sharing. It is almost inevitable to see a hacker attack trying to access my PC through any of the online servers for Day Of Defeat.

Since I have Windows file sharing totally disabled and removed from my XP install the fire wall seeing the attack and preventing the connection is kinda pointless but it lets me run other software to trace the attackers IP number and you can ban the range of his/her IP address.

The only way they can attempt another connection to your P.C is to either insert a new Ethernet card (NIC) that contains a new adapter address so they can obtain a new IP range or they can use a MAC Clone Address spoofer program to generate a fake IP address to the net so they can never realy be banned and they get to continually hack on anyone they feel like.

All this is said understanding that you mean a choppy game when you are online and not playing at home offline.

If you are getting choppy frame rates at home the problem is most likely HEAT. Try playing the games with the case open or side panel off the computer and move it out of any cubby-holes it could possibly be inside of like the desk shelf.

Again we can expect that you did all the normal things like upgrading graphics drivers and audio drivers and making sure all software is installed correctly.

Barton 3200+ 400MHz
A7N8X Deluxe
Liquid
2x512 KinstonHyperX PC3200
GeForce FX5900
Maxtor DiamondMaxPlus9@80Gig
SONY CD 52x
SONY RW 52x/24x/52x
SONY DVD 16x/40x

The one thing you have in your P.C right now that has completely fouled you up is Kazaa, That file sharing piece of sh|t is full of the Klez Virus and that is a Master Boot record virus!! In fact KLEZ can cause physical Hard Drive damage by making the read needles in the hard drive tap on the mirror finish magnetic drive platter or platters inside the hard drive.

You will know if you hear the drive start to make sounds like 100 ants crawling around inside it...you can actually hear this crawling tapping noise.
Reinstalling your OS is the only way to remove a Master Boot Record Virus and you must also use a WIN98 Floppy booted into safe mode in DOS then use FDISK /MBR to clean the EEPROM Controller chip on the hard drive. Then you can use the standard FDISK command so you can remove the old DOS or NTFS file partitions. Then in WIN98 do a fresh format or simply let XP make a new Format in NTFS structure.

Oh I went back and read your system spec's just to make sure your system under normal circumstances would run most games correctly and that set-up should work better then choppy at the very least.

There are games that run choppy on any computer system they are simply horrific piles of trash and should never have been released to the consumer. Ubi.Soft has a bad habit of creating lag-master software and so does Nova Logic, and in some cases Activision.

I also see you are not sure what programs you should stop to prevent the system from using all it's resources up on background software.

Try using the Ctrl+Alt+Del keys at the same time see what programs are currently running and using knowledge of what software you have loaded try to figure what each running task is and if you need it.

You can also download a program called AD-Aware and use that to look for trash programs running in the back ground and you can ask it to delete the registry keys that enable these back door Trojans to ruin your computer.

BE WARNED running AD-AWARE will discover many attributes of Kazaa and will remove them because Kazaa is a back door Trojan. Kazza will no longer correctly function and you will get system errors rebooting to the desktop because the computer cant find the removed registry keys Kazaa will try to reload its self even after having its EVIL head cut OFF!!

Best advise is to do a complete reinstall of your P.C and for proof of that statement call any local P.C shop in your area simply tell them you installed Kazaa and you have P.C trouble. The tech will tell you to bring in the P.C for a CLEAN&WIPE as they understand that once Kaza is installed a computers days are numbered for operation.

Possibly death to the hard drive if the Klez Virus made it in with the install.
I don't want to scare you or make you spend money on computer repairs I just want you to be aware of what situation you are now faced with.
Make the call to the computer store it will be well worth the effort.
Oh if you want a safe program for downloding Music Files try WinMX it has no spyware in it but it is a simple program not a flamboyant as Kazaa but Kazaa is trying to suck users in with the big sexy K and green eye pleasing control panel. Another thing users of Kazaa light get sucked into is using the light it will always say there is an update available but what they dont tell you is its not a Kazaa light update at all what it will do is load FULL version Kaza and POOF your OS is instantly corrupted again.
There will be the few idiots that reply to this post saying they feel safer in Kazaa's arms then they do suckling at their mothers tit!! Let em they are the ones facing the problem not you.

Barton 3200+ 400MHz
A7N8X Deluxe
Liquid
2x512 KinstonHyperX PC3200
GeForce FX5900
Maxtor DiamondMaxPlus9@80Gig
SONY CD 52x
SONY RW 52x/24x/52x
SONY DVD 16x/40x

Oh my good lord!

Next thing you'll tell us is that Klez is capable of taking over your garage door opener and TV! This is a patent falsehood, and I am not sure what exactly you stand to gain by perpetuating it.

Kazaalite K++ is perfectly fine and virus-free. If it had been infected, my anti-virus would have picked it up. I don't make it a habit of downloading .exe files. Now the regular version of Kazaa does indeed install spyware onto your computer... that's why I recommend Kazaalite. However, spreading rampant paranoia using half-truths and outright LIES isn't the way to make computer users aware of a problem. If you've been in the business as long as you say you have, you'd know that. Tell people the truth... be open and honest with them. As customers, they appreciate that. It's a wonder you get any repeat customers the way you talk.

Take what SoD says with a grain of salt, as Shadus says. He uses half-truths to make what he says sound believable, but in reality he knows not of what he speaks.

Also, for God's sake, Klez is NOT A MASTER BOOT RECORD VIRUS! At least look the virus up on the web to see what it actually does instead of trying to spread false info.

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>

I haven't had a computer crash on me, freeze or act up weird since i haven't used kazaa and virus protection.
Well.. except when i OC.. then it likes to die on me.. but that's my fault.

p4 2.8 533fsb
intel mobo
1gb rdram pc 800
radeon9800 pro
120gb seagate s-ata

Neither have I... and I've been using Kazaalite well over a year.

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>

By the way, I would like to add one more thing:

<b>IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DESIGN A VIRUS THAT WILL MAKE THE READ/WRITE HEADS OF YOUR HARD DRIVE 'TAP' THE SURFACE OF THE DISC. ANYONE WHO CLAIMS TO HAVE AN OUNCE OF COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE KNOWS THIS. READ/WRITE HEADS MOVE BACK AND FORTH ACROSS THE SURFACE OF THE DRIVE (there is a VERY tiny gap between the heads and the platters... the heads NEVER make contact) AND NOT UP AND DOWN. IT IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE THE READ/WRITE HEADS GO UP AND DOWN. THE ONLY WAY THIS WILL EVER HAPPEN IS IF THE DRIVE IS SUBJECTED TO SHOCK WHILE IN OPERATION.</b>

Now that that's over with, would you like to tell me how exactly you obtained your expertise? It obviously hasn't come from hands-on experience. I've been in the business of fixing computers for seven years... and never have I heard ANYTHING so ludicrous. Even when I first started out, I knew that it's impossible to force a hard drive's read/write heads to 'crash' into the platter WITHOUT subjecting the drive to some sort of physical shock.

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>

I am sorry ZORON that you are a MORON and you only know what others tell you and you have no education in computers other then the brainless activity you show here in the posts.
The hard drive read needles are in fact on a spring a Stainless plate that holds the read needles to the actuator or control arms.
A boot sector virus that infects the EEPROM can in fact send false read commands to the read needles that cause them to stutter that is where the crawling ant sounds come from and we use software provided to our computer store to run diagnostics for most drives.
Provided by Maxtor and other hard drive makers. We need to run the software to determine the fault with the drive when the software is done it reports a defect code number that we write down on the service tag so we can return the drive and get our store money back on the defective drives.

A master boot record virus can get into a computer even using anti virus software. The home owner of the P.C finds a fault in the computer cant figure out what the problem is so they wipe the drive using FDISK then reinstall Windows what they do not know is that the master boot record on the EEPROM is also infected and a command in DOS off a Floppy boot disc in safe mode is used to clean the EEPROM of any corrupted data in the PROM the base software for the prom is not effected as it is not Electronically Erasable but the old BIOS settings and read/write software that is part of the prom and is infected is cleaned.

Klez is such a virus that gets into the EEPROM and causes the read heads to stutter therefore causing contact to the platters that we as humans can hear as skating type noises it sounds more like an army of ants running around in the drive.
I have personally heard these drives fail right in the shop on the benches as the customers have brought the P.C into the shop saying that it will not post/boot correctly and the computer is making these noises.
If you want to email Maxtor and ask them be my guest post the reply with the Tech's reply number I am sure you have seen them.

Barton 3200+ 400MHz
A7N8X Deluxe
Liquid
2x512 KinstonHyperX PC3200
GeForce FX5900
Maxtor DiamondMaxPlus9@80Gig
SONY CD 52x
SONY RW 52x/24x/52x
SONY DVD 16x/40x

*Sigh*

Why do I even bother?

Look up the effects of Klez on any antivirus website, you TWIT. <b>No where, on ANY of these sites, does it mention this kind of effect by this particular virus. If some idiot at Maxtor told you this and you believed him, then you are BOTH idiots.</b>

Klez doesn't affect any EEPROM. Even if it did... it is <b>still impossible for it to have the effect you describe. DO YOU UNDERSTAND???!?? IMMMMMPOSSSSSIBLE!!!!!</b> You obviously don't know read/write noise when you hear it, do you? Listen to an older hard drive sometime... you'll hear these 'ants' as you so eloquently put it. This is NORMAL. Newer hard drives are very quiet... but if you listen VERY closely, you can hear this noise.

For the love of Pete, do some research before you come here spouting off like an idiot. Klez, nor any other virus has this effect on a hard drive. You may hear increased read/write activity, but <b>the virus CANNOT make the heads 'crash' into the surface of the platters!</b>

You keep saying the Klez is a master boot record virus, yet I can find no evidence of what you say on SARC, Panda, McAffee, or Sophos. Are you honestly trying to suggest that the all the major antivirus vendors out there are wrong and you are right? Heh. Small chance of that.

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>

I really hate making this post...

Personaly I can't stand Sodnighthawk. He is almost always, if not always wrong.

I had a friend I helped buy a computer a couple of years ago. Last year he asked if I could fix some problems with his computer (running Win98) I came over and noticed he had kazza on it. I explained this is a nasty program and I did my best to get rid of it.

A couple of weeks ago this friend of mines calls me up and wants to improve his computer so I sugest more memory formating the harddrive and a fresh (new) install of XP.

Anyway I do all that and a couple of hours later I hear what I hate to admit sounded like a lot of ants running around in the hard drive.

I asked my friend about that noise and he said it'd been doing that for a while now. I told him sounds like your hard drive gonna fail soon.

Anyway I hope its not related to kazza cause that would make Sodnighthawk right, but it makes me wonder.

If I glanced at a spilt box of tooth picks on the floor, could I tell you how many are in the pile. Not a chance, But then again I don't have to buy my underware at Kmart.

Most likely coincidence. I make sure to read up on new viruses everyday... it is important to keep up with them. I have NEVER come across a virus that has the effect SoD describes. NEVER.

I've been using Kazaa for over a year... more than two if you count the old computer I sold to my cousin. I have never heard ANY signs of my hard drive failing. My cousin has had the other computer since April... and their kids use Kazaa (Kazaalite K++, actually) even more heavily than I do or ever did. If this truly was the cause of hard drive failure, trust me, it would have died by now. I think it's just coincidence. Either that, or it could be Maxtor has a bad batch of EEPROMs and just doesn't want to admit it. Wouldn't be the first time a manufacturer didn't want to admit a fault (IBM Deskstar anyone?).

I've heard of viruses that will erase hard drives, erase BIOS (Chernobyl), and cause all sorts of wonkiness... but I have yet to hear of a virus that affects the hard drive in the manner in which SoD describes. If there is such a beast, it DEFINATELY isn't Klez.

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>

Ok sounds like you know more about this then I ever will. I just thought it a strange coincidence thats all.

If I glanced at a spilt box of tooth picks on the floor, could I tell you how many are in the pile. Not a chance, But then again I don't have to buy my underware at Kmart.

kazaa Lite is fine. I use it myself and have had no problems.

I also use ZoneAlarm and have don't have the problems you describe. I can't vouch for mcaffee AV software though - I use AVG Antivirus.

Ignore Sod. Anyone who advises disabling your firewall is a moron. I have no such lag problems, on-line or not. Provided you've allowed the game server access it'll have very little impact on speed. AV software <i>might</i> do though.

A thing to remember is that if you're downloading lots of stuff from Kazaa, it's not only taking up bandwidth (which obviously affects what's available for online gaming) but it's also constantly writing to the HDD, so if Fifa (or anything else) wants to page stuff between RAM and HDD then it'll have to wait for the heads to move from the location they're storing the File as it's downloading to the place that Fifa needs them to go (either game data or Virtual RAM), and then back again. If you want a good gaming session you could try pausing some of your downloads while playing.

As for background processes, click on RUN off the start menu, and type 'msconfig'. The right-most tab on the top of the displayed app says 'startup'. this has a list of most things that are set to run on startup. You'll probably find you can remove most of them. If you're unsure what a particular item is for, post back here with it's filename/description and someone will be able to tell you whether you need it or not.

Things like 'Office Findfast' (if you have MS Office installed) can adversely affect performance, and should be un-checked.

Let us know if you still get problems.

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<font color=red>The preceding text is assembled from information stored in an unreliable organic storage medium. As such it may be innacurate, incomplete, or completely wrong</font color=red>