captaincranky
Posts: 19,690 +8,831
I usually unplug my phone, but I was expecting a call from Verizon, so I left it on and have been answering it.
A strange man with a heavy Indian, call center accent, began babbling on about my computer, "sending out messages". So, I asked him, "what message is that"? He told me he's "from Microsoft", and he wants me to get in front of my computer so he can "give me some suggestions".
I pressured him to "tell me which one of my computers is sending these messages, and what operating system is on it". So, he tells me "it's either Windows or Mac". I hung up on him.
So he calls back! More nonsense, and I ask again which Windows OS is he talking about, "there's about 10 of them". I'm told, "this affect ALL Windows". Then he says, "I can tell you're not trusting me". (That's one perceptive dude). I tell him, "how about if I just reformat it, it's about due"? But he continues how I have to be at my computer. For laughs, I relent and tell him I'll go sit in front of my computer. I sit the phone down and head downstairs. But, "alas", the phone is dead when I get there.
Anyway, this thing has been acting strange on svchost. using huge amount of RAM and CPU, I kill the offending process(s), and drop its priority. A couple of these kills led to error messages about "Windows update", but added, "an instance of the service was already running". (If this had anything to due with M$ update, you'd think they'd have the good taste to not lock up my browser, screwing around with updates).
What's up here" Was that really M$ on the phone? Is it time to reformat this turd?
PS, I've been doing my banking from live runs of Linux
"
A strange man with a heavy Indian, call center accent, began babbling on about my computer, "sending out messages". So, I asked him, "what message is that"? He told me he's "from Microsoft", and he wants me to get in front of my computer so he can "give me some suggestions".
I pressured him to "tell me which one of my computers is sending these messages, and what operating system is on it". So, he tells me "it's either Windows or Mac". I hung up on him.
So he calls back! More nonsense, and I ask again which Windows OS is he talking about, "there's about 10 of them". I'm told, "this affect ALL Windows". Then he says, "I can tell you're not trusting me". (That's one perceptive dude). I tell him, "how about if I just reformat it, it's about due"? But he continues how I have to be at my computer. For laughs, I relent and tell him I'll go sit in front of my computer. I sit the phone down and head downstairs. But, "alas", the phone is dead when I get there.
Anyway, this thing has been acting strange on svchost. using huge amount of RAM and CPU, I kill the offending process(s), and drop its priority. A couple of these kills led to error messages about "Windows update", but added, "an instance of the service was already running". (If this had anything to due with M$ update, you'd think they'd have the good taste to not lock up my browser, screwing around with updates).
What's up here" Was that really M$ on the phone? Is it time to reformat this turd?
PS, I've been doing my banking from live runs of Linux
"