techie talk (please help?)

37 processes running at the moment, including this notepad, but this notepad is the ONLY program open that I am using... two instances of iexplore are running, yet no browser windows are open... nothing is open except this notepad and the Windows Task Manager... how to copy the processes running, is there a report I can print to file or cut and paste?... do I need a system analyzer to figure out why so many processes are running even though no applications are running except this notepad?... who knows the answers?...

the Performance tab says... 633 MB of page file usage, whatever that means...

Totals
Handles 11113
Threads 446
Processes 37

Commit Charge (K)
Total 647284
Limit 2523088
Peak 994804

Physical Memory (K)
Total 1045996
Avail. 627400
Cache 387300

Kernel Memory (K)
Total 65068
Paged 43844
NonPaged 21220

what's all that means?... Networking tab says Local Area Connection 0% Network Usage, Speed 100 Mbps... Operational... User is Panda, the name that this laptop defaults to... I am going to end some processes now to see what that does... starting with iexplore.exe... I got the warning that it could cause system instability and not allow the process to save whatever it's doing, but what is it doing when there's no windows open?...
and the next iexplore.exe will be closed now... same warning, no change... the only one using CPU is "System Idle Process" and it is using 99... does that mean it is using 99% of the CPU?... it is just 16K Mem Usage... I am going to try shutting that down now... the message said operation could not be completed. the operation is not valid for this process... is that what has slowed the system down and stopped stuff from working?... is it malware or something wrong?... there are still 34 processes besides this notepad running... I can identify maybe half of them... I think I'm gonna take this laptop into a geek squad place and see how much they want for a check up or just at least to tell me what all these processes are...

I tried to run Spybot, but the computer will not let it run... the System Idle Process seems to be sucking all the CPU... let's look at the processes running...

there's Ymsgr_tray.exe which I figure is the Systray icon for the Yahoo Messenger I installed which stays there even when the program is closed... Panda is the User Name...

iPodService.exe, AppleMobileDeviseService.exe, iTunesHelper.exe, are probably related to the iTunes program, but why they are running, I do not know... SYSTEM is the User Name... collectively they are using about 17,000 K memory...

ApntEx.exe, no idea... Panda is the User Name...

explore.exe is the OS, I think... Panda is the User Name... it is using 22,000+ memory...

TeaTimer.exe is the Spybot monitoring program I know about... Panda is the User Name... it's using 40,000+ K memory...

dna.exe I have seen it somewhere, but not sure where or why it is running... Panda is the User Name...

apdproxy.exe... no idea... Panda is the User Name...

ctfmon.exe... I remember it, but not sure... Panda is the User Name...

spoolsv.exe... no idea... Panda is the User Name...

Apoint.exe, I recall seeing it somewhere, but not sure where or why it is running... Panda is the User Name...

svchost.exe is running six instances... I believe it is needed for DSL connection, but six instances seems wrong...
LOCAL SERVICE is the User name for one instance and NETWORK SERVICE is the User name for two of the services and SYSTEM is the User name for the other three... this is puzzling..alg.exe is unknown, but it is the only other LOCAL SERVICE User Name... they are using different amounts of memory, from 35,244 at a high to 4,468 as a low...

realsched.exe sounds like it is something to do with Real software (and just mentioning it here seems to have moved it to the top of the list of processes... or perhaps it is a coincidence... very odd)...

wuauclt.exe just moved up to the top of the list and now there are 37 processes running again including this notepad... it seems to me that something is going on that should not be...

HydraDM.exe, atiptxx.exe, ati2evxx.exe are probably processes related to the ATI video card, I think... Panda is the User Name...

wscntfy.exe sounds like it is some program that notifies someone about something... it's gonna be one I remove to see what happens after I finish listing them all... and after rebooting, I'm gonna run Spybot to see what it can tell me about all these processes and turn off as many as possible...

Spybot.exe is Spybot, though it is not running and lists at 27,040 K memory usage...

Isass.exe is unknown, SYSTEM is the User Name...

services.exe is unknown, SYSTEM is the User Name...

winlogon.exe must be what it sounds like, SYSTEM is the User Name...

crss.exe, unknown, SYSTEM is the User Name...

smss.exe, unknown, SYSTEM is the User Name...

slserve.exe sounds like it might have something to do with DSL, but unknown and SYSTEM is the User Name...

mdm.exe I recall seeing, but do not remember where or why, SYSTEM is the User Name...

taskmgr.exe is the Windows task manager, I guess... Panda is the User Name...

notepad.exe is this...

System is unknown, SYSTEM is the User Name...

System Idle Process is last and the only one using more than an occasional 01 CPU... it could be as simple as the Windows Task Manager monitoring the idle status of the CPU... and now that I listed them all, I shall start ending some...

starting with wscntfy.exe... ah, the pop up "Your computer may be at risk popped up telling me that Antivirus software is not installed" at the moment I ended that process... it also popped up and started itself at the top of the list... and realsched.exe popped up right above it a moment later... ok, I'm shutting down and then running Spybot...

and so, now, a few shut downs and two run throughs of Spybot later, including deleting several things from the start up folder and disabling a few others and tweaking a few other features, the results are 160 PF Usage and 28 processes running, including this notepad, windows task manager, and six of that svchost.exe file, which is very strange... unless each port needs one of those running... anyway, I'm gonna plug in the Ethernet cable not and see what happens... ... just a blink and the laptop is connected... there was an scvhost.exe at the top of the process list and that is what blinked...

the rest of the numbers look like this:

Totals
Handles 5315
Threads 341
Processes 29

Commit Charge (K)
Total 172692
Limit 2523088
Peak 176800

Physical Memory (K)
Total 1045996
Avail. 773378
Cache 231360

Kernel Memory (K)
Total 46548
Paged 28288
NonPaged 18284

the Performance tab has two windows for CPU usage, so maybe it does have two CPUs... or maybe a Pentium 4 is
hyper threaded and appears as two... am I on the verge of starting a techie blog?... very amateur and begging for information, if I did, so I won't, since the only people who read me regularly are right here, after all (I don't think anybody who reads me at MySpace have much techie background, but then, I could be wrong, but then, MySpace is more for creative stage presentation and not intended to be as personal or as interactive...

so there are the numbers and the information from the System Manager... unfortunately, the Runtime errors continue, which suggests that it is either IE7 or one of the plug-ins I installed, like IE7Pro, which sucks because I'm not sure what to do to fix it except maybe try to uninstall IE7 and the rest of the plug ins and reinstall IE6 and hope the script error pop ups and Runtime error pop ups go away...

cuz so far, this laptop is losing it's fun real fast...

maybe it is time to chuck it and go to the Mac...

wish I had techie friends to help... are you techie friends who can help?... maybe I do not have to accept the $350 loss and junk this laptop?... there's always hope...