[The Chalange]

So, the main problem is with the starting up of iTunes. I have the most recent version and when I start it up with Firefox and Skype already running, everything suffers a detrimental lag! On top of that, iTunes takes about 5 minutes to finally start up.

I've taken a look at my Task Manager when opening up iTunes and several executions are going berserk: spoolsv.exe; ashWebsv.exe; firefox.exe; and iTunes.exe, sometimes iTunesHelper.exe as well. As iTunes struggles to open, it is taking up to 90k of memory usage, nearly 2X as much as normal.

This began about two weeks ago and I haven't installed anything new.

Unrelated, I have an issue with my Start menu telling me there are items that can't be displayed (which I have tried to solve by deleting), and when I restart my computer, it demands that I insert an installer disk I no longer have. Clicking the cancel button on this persistently pop-up window (6X) will get it to go away.

Here is my HiJackThis Log.

My HiJackThisLog is attached.

Thank you in advance.

~The Chalange

[Made-In-Canada]

Well, if it reassures you at all there is no virus on your computer or anything that shouldn't be running from what I can tell...

Your problem is that Firefox, iTunes and Skype are piggies towards CPU usage. They are like a fat kid that doesn't know when to stop eating pie. Your best solution would be to close one of them. I'm against iTunes, I am a Winamp kind of guy but that's just me. Skype when you are in a call, automatically changes the process priority to high, so if you are in a call while trying to surf the web. I guarentee that you are going to have a problem with lag.

I hate to say this, but your best option to fix that while you are on Skype is to use Internet Explorer. That's right I said it, the gods are going to kill me now. I despise Internet Explorer, but it has one thing better than Firefox. It is incorporated with Windows therefore making it less of a CPU gobbler.

Hope that helps...

p.s. here is the link to winamp if you want to switch from itunes. www.winamp.com

[The Chalange]

Thank you for your response, MIC.

It is understood that these three apps are hungry and only fresh CPUs will satiate them. However, I've had success running all three in the past and this wouldn't explain why I have other executions running a muck when iTunes starts to open. This has never been a problem before.

Also, any ideas how to get rid of the prompt to insert the installer disk on start-up and the "Some items could not be displayed" on the Start menu? I don't have the installer disk it is asking for and I've deleted almost all of the programs listed.