All my applications crash... in sequence!?!

[Ampa]

Here's the scenario...

Running XP with all the latest service packs and patches.
Somewhere in the region of 55 processes.
Roughly 3 or 4 significant applications running (most often Dreamweaver, Flash, Xara Xtreme).

Then something happens that causes one application to max out to 100% CPU.

System grinds to a halt, so I bring up the Task Manager and kill the offending process.

At this point everything settles down until I change the focus to a new application.  Which ever window I now move to (eg The desktop [ie Explorer] or FRR [to relaunch the crashed app] or my web-browser) will also max out to 100% CPU.

And so the process continues until every single one of my processes has gone haywire, one at a time.

The only solution is to restart the machine, which leaves me none the wiser as to the cause or a better remedy!

Anyone else experienced this bizarre phenomenon?  Any clues as to what is going on?

There seems to be no one scenario that starts the avalanche, though more often than not I seem to have Flash open; and I am 99.99% sure that the system is virus, trojan, spyware free.

I shall try to capture the process list the next time it happens and post it here for disection.

Thanks, Ampa

[mouser]

definitely try to capture the process list.

one thing known to trigger this is helpsvc.exe, so take a look at that.  someone else at this forum also found their modem driver doing this..

[Ampa]

OK here's the process list from my latest crash...

Process list saved on 16:07:46, on 27/06/2006
Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)

[pid]   [full path to filename]      [file version]   [company name]
648   C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe      5.1.2600.2180   Microsoft Corporation
780   C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe      5.1.2600.2645   Microsoft Corporation
828   C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe      5.1.2600.2180   Microsoft Corporation
840   C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe      5.1.2600.2180   Microsoft Corporation
988   C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe      5.1.2600.2180   Microsoft Corporation
1072   C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe      5.1.2600.2180   Microsoft Corporation
1384   C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe      5.1.2600.2696   Microsoft Corporation
1620   C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE      6.0.2900.2649   Microsoft Corporation
1676   E:\Utils\AVGFRE~1\avgamsvr.exe      7.1.0.365   GRISOFT, s.r.o.
1748   E:\Utils\AVGFRE~1\avgupsvc.exe      7.1.0.349   GRISOFT, s.r.o.
1792   E:\Utils\AVGFRE~1\avgemc.exe      7.1.0.371   GRISOFT, s.r.o.
1816   E:\Drivers\X.tools\System\digisc.exe      2.0.0.38   Matrox Electronic Systems
1876   E:\Program Files\Common\Microsoft Shared\VS7Debug\mdm.exe      7.10.3077.0   Microsoft Corporation
1936   C:\WINDOWS\system32\nvsvc32.exe      6.14.10.9131   NVIDIA Corporation
2012   E:\Drivers\X.tools\DSOutputEnabler.exe      1.0.0.1   
2036   E:\Comms\ZoneAlarm\zlclient.exe      6.1.744.1   Zone Labs, LLC
304   E:\Program Files\Common\InstallShield\UpdateService\issch.exe      3.10.100.1146   InstallShield Software Corporation
312   C:\WINDOWS\system32\RUNDLL32.EXE      5.1.2600.2180   Microsoft Corporation
324   C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe      5.1.2600.2180   Microsoft Corporation
344   C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe      5.1.2600.2180   Microsoft Corporation
504   C:\WINDOWS\system32\Tablet.exe      4.9.1.2   Wacom Technology, Corp.
636   C:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe      5.1.2600.2180   Microsoft Corporation
684   C:\WINDOWS\system32\ZoneLabs\vsmon.exe      6.1.744.1   Zone Labs, LLC
720   E:\Utils\PerfectDisk\PDSched.exe      7.0.0.46   Raxco Software, Inc.
1424   C:\WINDOWS\system32\WTablet\TabUserW.exe      4.9.1.2   Wacom Technology, Corp.
1532   E:\Drivers\DigiTV\DigiTV.exe      3.5.2.0   Nebula Electronics Ltd
1964   E:\Drivers\DigiTV\DigiTV.exe      3.5.2.0   Nebula Electronics Ltd
2096   E:\Utils\AVG Free\avgcc.exe      7.1.0.381   GRISOFT, s.r.o.
2148   E:\Shell\Rainlendar\Rainlendar.exe      0.21.0.0   Rainy
2184   E:\Comms\AdMuncher\AdMunch.exe         
2312   E:\Shell\Find and Run Robot\FindAndRunRobot.exe      1.0.7.15   DonationCoder.com
2512   C:\WINDOWS\system32\wscntfy.exe      5.1.2600.2180   Microsoft Corporation
2592   E:\Shell\MouseActivate\MouseActivate.exe      1.0.38.2   
2868   C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe      5.1.2600.2180   Microsoft Corporation
2936   E:\Comms\MailWasher Pro\MailWasher.exe      5.3.0.1   Firetrust Ltd
3012   E:\Comms\Miranda IM\miranda32.exe      0.4.3.48   
3096   E:\Shell\TaskSwitchXP\TaskSwitchXP.exe      2.0.4.0   Alexander Avdonin
3112   E:\Program Files\Ditto\Ditto.exe      3.2.0.0   
3200   E:\Utils\DAEMON Tools\daemon.exe      4.3.0.0   DT Soft Ltd.
3424   E:\Shell\ProcessTamer\ProcessTamerTray.exe      1.0.0.2   
3520   E:\Shell\LClock\lclock.exe      1.0.0.1   
3536   E:\Shell\PS Hot Folders\PSHotFolders.exe      1.1.0.105   PS Soft Lab
3552   E:\Shell\Taskbar Shuffle\taskbarshuffle.exe      1.0.0.127   Jay Elaraj
3568   E:\Shell\MMM\MmmTray.exe         
3576   E:\Shell\PS Tray Factory\PSTrayFactory.exe      2.0.0.147   PS Soft Lab
3860   E:\Web\Flash 8\Flash.exe      8.0.0.478   Macromedia, Inc.
676   E:\Utils\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe      1.99.0.1   Soeperman Enterprises Ltd.
2748   e:\Comms\Opera\Opera.exe      9.0.8501.0   Opera Software
3936   E:\Shell\xplorer2\xplorer2_UC.exe      1.6.0.0   ZabKat
2604   E:\Comms\TheBat!\thebat.exe      3.80.3.0   Ritlabs S.R.L.
3164   E:\Web\Dreamweaver 8\Dreamweaver.exe      8.0.0.2734   Macromedia, Inc.
1952   e:\Audio\XMPlay\xmplay.exe      3.3.0.0   Un4seen Developments
3544   E:\Shell\xplorer2\editor2_UC.exe      2.6.0.7   ZabaraKatranemia Plc
588   C:\WINDOWS\system32\taskmgr.exe      5.1.2600.2180   Microsoft Corporation

This time it was editor2_UC.exe that was the first to go.

Mouser: No sign of helpsvc.exe

[lanux128]

ampa, did you manage to solve this problem? if you did, i would like to pick your brain for i have a similar problem as posted here..

[Ampa]

I did not ever get to the bottom of the issue per say. It was finally resolved by a complete reinstall. However my pet theory was that it was a conflict between ZoneAlarm and AVG.

When I reinstalled, I chose to use Comodo Personal Firewall instead of ZA, and have not seen the behaviour since.

[f0dder]

It could've been a lot of things, since you have a lot of things running

But my guess would be things that involve drivers, services, or hooking of various kinds, or the interoperability between such apps; zonealarm, avg, admunch, hijackthis, and probably a number of other things. Wouldn't surprise me if it was zonealarm.

[lanux128]

yeah, looks like a complete reinstall is the key.. this is a good time to slipstream all the patches & security updates into one CD.. or maybe try out ubuntu or something..