Unable to load WAN Miniport Driver, and Increased CPU Usage Questions

[skyhigh]

I have 2 questions to ask and needs help on them

As the topic say, I have recently encountered 2 problems with my Win2K.

1) Under my Device Manager, there is a "WAN Miniport (IP) #2" which Win2K says that it is unable to load the driver for it. I have tried removing it but it says that it is required to boot up the system. I have disabled it and have no problem booting up tho.

2) I have noticed that my CPU usage has been insanely high lately. (85% usage with just a Windows Explorer, a mIRC window and 2 Internet Explorer open) What could be the problem ?

Thank you for your time in reading this.

 

[Arris]

Please try and post in the appropriate forum.
This would have been much better suited in the Windows OS forum...
Also try a meaningful title so that this can be searched later by other users. Something like "Increased CPU usage with minimal applications running". Also don't be worried about posting multiple posts if you have more than one question.
I'm sure one of the Meeting Spot moderators will rename this and move it there

I have had some CPU usage problems since installing DivX 5 as it comes with some adware called Gain Gator. This runs as process GMT.exe which is eating up the processor on boot occasionally. I have taken to killing the process just after logging into Windows.
Really considering removing DivX 5 just to get rid of it.

From http://www.cexx.org/adware.htm:
Gator GAIN (GMT.exe, CMESys.exe, GAIN_TRICKLER_*.EXE) - Pops up advertising, apparently a new Gator product. No information currently available.

Maybe worth checking out the list at that site to see if you have any of the listed processes running on your PC. Have you installed any software recently?

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Check with Task Manager (taskmgr.exe), CTRL-SHIFT-ESC, which app is using the CPU. You say you've recently encountered this, did you install something that triggered this?

 

[skyhigh]

First of all, I'm sorry about posting in the wrong forum with the inapproiate topic. ^^U

The most recent piece of software I have installed is a video capture program from FlyVideo. I have already un-installed it tho.

The System Idle Process has the usage of 99 while the rest is 00. Could the usage be caused by a leaked driver ?

 

[Arris]

If your not doing anything the system idle process will show 99 usage. If you click on "CPU" it will order the processes in the order of CPU usage so you can see if something else is stealing CPU cycles/time at any point. If your system idle process is at 99, check the performance tab. You will see that its not showing 99% utilisation...

Don't worry about posting in the wrong forum, most do it first time

Are you actually experiencing performance issues (slow down, halting of the computer)?

 

[SuperCheetah]

Here is some stuff I found about WAN miniports and drivers for them:

http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/tech/network/CoNDIS-WAN.asp

http://www.osr.com/ddk/208mwan_5tuv.htm

Did you do something irregular during your installation of 2000? It sounds like most of the problems like yours having to do with people using Ethernets.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,2300218~root=pppoe~mode=flat

This is a little post that might help a bit.

What are your system specs? Do you have an Ethernet card? The drivers for WAN miniports are supposedly in the Windows 2000 CD, so it sounds like something went wrong during the installation. Try reinstalling your network card and the drivers for it.

 

[SNGX1275]

Originally posted by skyhigh
The System Idle Process has the usage of 99 while the rest is 00. Could the usage be caused by a leaked driver ?

To elaborate (on Arris's post) on System Idle Process: It does what those CPU cooling programs for win9x do. It sends a message to the CPU to be Idle. I'm sure if you do a search on Google for "Rain Cooling" you will find an exact defination on software cooling. Basically your task manager is seeing that instruction to IDLE as a process and thus shows it using up whatever else your other programs/processes are not using up. So when you are not doing anything 99% of your processor is free for the Idle process to take over.

 

[skyhigh]

A thanks to all, I was quite afraid that when I posted in the wrong forums I would be banning from posting and such. (Had a bad experience once)

As for the performance issue, I do notice "freezes" as in the the entire screen freezes and after a few moment it would be all right. Happens when I open quite a few programs (example : a few IE windows, a Window Explorer, Winamp, mIRC and stuff)

Now that you have mention it, I remembered that when I first install Win2K, there was a problem with net connection. So I un-installed the TCP/IP adapter and re-installed it. The net connection was alright but the WAN miniport #2 appear from there onwards.

 

[skyhigh]

Oops, I forgot to post my system specs.
So here it is :

=============================
AMD Duron 900MHz
640 MB RAM
Asus A7V-133 Motherboard (Updated BIOS)
MSI Geforce MX-400 64 MB
SB! Live Value
3Com Etherlink 10/100 PCI TX NIC (3C905B-TX)
Intel 8255x-based PCI Ethernet Adapter

 

[Arris]

Originally posted by skyhigh
A thanks to all, I was quite afraid that when I posted in the wrong forums I would be banning from posting and such. (Had a bad experience once)

As for the performance issue, I do notice "freezes" as in the the entire screen freezes and after a few moment it would be all right. Happens when I open quite a few programs (example : a few IE windows, a Window Explorer, Winamp, mIRC and stuff)

Now that you have mention it, I remembered that when I first install Win2K, there was a problem with net connection. So I un-installed the TCP/IP adapter and re-installed it. The net connection was alright but the WAN miniport #2 appear from there onwards.

We are strict here but not that strict

I have a problem with my laptop running win2k. If I don't have a connection my Xircom network card causes little lags. It seems to be constantly checking for the connection (as win2k now reports if you disconnect). If I unplug the PCMCIA network card completely the lagging stops. Its caused by 25% CPU usage spikes. You might be experiencing something similar. I would be tempted in your situation to uninstall your network card(s) and reinstall them and their drivers.

 

[skyhigh]

However my main computer (the one which is giving the problems) is the one providing net access to my other computer through a hub.

I'll give it a try by un-installing it and and re-installing and hopes that it solves the problem.

I do notice a longer startup time, especially from the time the RAM has finished counting to seeing the Win2K startup screen. (The interval in which the ESCD update takes place)

Could it be also be linked to the many problems that I am facing now ?