Windows XP often hangs for 10 – 15 minutes after it is started and I am unable to do anything on the computer. The Task Manager shows two processes which are using up to 90% of the computer memory – “ccSvcHst.exe” and “svcHost.exe”. A second problem is when the screen saver attempts to activate an error message appears saying “Cannot find Flash.ocx” and the screen saver does not activate. I found an internet site promoting a registry fix for this problem, but they want credit card details and $9.95. How reputable are such sites? The computer is a Pentium 4 2.66 GHz with 512 MB RAM running Norton 360.

The “ccSvcHst.exe” process is related to Norton 360. The “svcHost.exe” process is a Windows system process, but given the amount of resources being consumed I would consider that the two are linked and it is likely that Norton 360 is doing something which requires the “svcHost.exe”. You are correct that Norton 360 can be quite a resource hungry application, and given your description of the problem it is quite possible that this program is causing the slow down and apparent hang on your computer, particularly because your computer does not have a very large amount of memory (512 MB versus 4096 MB which is becoming the standard now). However, the only way we can definitely test whether Norton 360 is the culprit is by uninstalling the product and then checking whether the problem stops. Before embarking on this process I would recommend that you disconnect your computer from any networks, including the internet connection, as you are potentially going to leave your computer temporarily vulnerable when you uninstall Norton 360. Having disconnected any networks from your computer, uninstall Norton 360. Once this has completed, give your computer a few restarts to clear any residual elements of the program and then check whether you still encounter the delay on startup. If the problem stops then you have located the source of the problem. In this case you may wish to look at alternative solutions for virus protection which do not have such a large footprint on your system. Most reputable antivirus products are available in a trial version so you can try before buying to ensure that you don’t encounter the same problem again.

If you find that the problem continues after uninstalling Norton 360 then it seems some other process is causing the delay on startup. In this case, before reinstalling Norton 360, let’s try to narrow down the process causing the problem. Go to the “Start” menu > “Run” and type “msconfig” (without the quotes) and click OK. The System Configuration Utility window will appear. Click the “Startup” tab. This will list all of the processes which load on Windows startup. Note down all the processes which are currently ticked (enabled) to load on startup. Once this is done, click the “Disable All” button to disable all the processes from loading on startup. Click OK to save and close, then restart the computer. Upon restarting, no background programs or processes should load and you will likely find that the problem has stopped at this point. Be aware, you may see a message warning that you are running in Selective Startup mode. This is nothing to be concerned about, as it is simply a warning that some processes are not loading on startup. You can safely dismiss this message.

Now that the problem does not occur it is a process of elimination to determine the background process causing the delay. Return to the System Configuration Utility > “Startup” tab and re-enable one of the previously enabled processes, click OK, restart and then check whether the problem occurs. Repeat this procedure until the problem reoccurs, at which point you know that the most recently enabled process is the cause of the problem. At this point you should disable that particular process, re-enable all the other processes, then restart the computer. Finally, reinstall Norton 360. In the short-term you could leave the problematic process disabled, but you should do some research to determine its purpose in case it is an important process. If you do find that it is non-essential, then you can just leave it disabled. However, if it is essential then please contact me for further advice and we can look at ways to perhaps fix the process so it doesn’t cause the delay on startup.

Regarding your second question, the message that appears when the screen saver starts indicates that you are using some kind of custom screen saver which has become corrupt and it cannot load itself. The simple fix for this problem is to change the screen saver to something that works. Go to the “Start” menu > “Control Panel” and open the “Display” control panel (you may need to first select the “Appearance and Themes” category). In the Display Properties window, select the “Screen Saver” tab. In the drop-down box under “Screen saver”, select something else such as “Windows XP” (which is the standard Windows XP screen saver) then click “Preview” to ensure that it works. If all looks good, click OK to save and close.

In the event that you want to use the screen saver that currently doesn’t work, then you will need to uninstall and then reinstall that screen saver and the error message indicates some kind of corruption in the screen saver itself. This is most likely due to missing Flash animation files, the discussion of which is beyond the scope of this answer, so the easiest method is to reinstall the screen saver. If you find that reinstalling the screen saver does not work, make sure you also have the latest Flash Player on your computer as that seems to be a requirement for the screen saver to function. You can download Flash Player for free at www.adobe.com and click the “Get Adobe Flash Player” button. If you continue to have issues then please contact me again, as we could spend an entire column discussing how to resolve that particular error in its various incarnations!