Every afternoon at roughly 3pm ish (PST) DL.exe starts to use 100% cpu, which, in the end, causes me to have to reboot my pc. Very irritating.
I have only a hardware firewall (cisco router) (no software firewall, including Windows Firewall switched off), and I can download forecasts fine.
I’m using Weather Watcher 5.6.6
Any suggestions?
I assume you’re running Windows XP SP2?
Does DL.exe ever stop running on it’s own? How frequently are you updating WW? If you shutdown WW does DL.exe shutdown also? Does it’s CPU usage drop when you shudown WW?
Rather than rebooting, shutting down Weather Watcher and then manually stopping DL.exe if it’s still running would seem quicker.
Ed</font id=“blue”></font id=“size2”>
Yes, a fully up-to-date XP.
I’ve waited up to an hour and DL.exe hasn’t stopped on its own.
If I shut down WW then DL.exe stays running.
If I force DL.exe to close on its own, the pc generally dies shortly afterwards (explorer.exe stops responding).
CPU doesn’t drop after WW is closed.
Not sure how often WW updates - whatever the default is.
Check that your AntiVirus definitions are up to date…if you are using Norton AntiVirus, download a full current set of definitions at http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/download/pages/US-N95.html. Then run a full AntiVirus scan. To be on the safe side, you can also run an online AntiVirus scan at http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp?cid=13121 or http://security.norton.com/sscv6/default.asp?productid=nsw5.0&langid=ie&venid=sym.
This is not to say your computer is infected, but your description lends itself to something other than normal activity for Weather Watcher’s DL.exe. A file of the same name is associated with the W32.Bagz@mm mass mailing worm and with the backdoor trojan Backdoor.NTHack.
What is the date and size of your DL.exe file? Mine is 28,672 bytes with a creation date of Dec 16, 2005. You could also scan the hard drive for DL.exe and see if there is more than one present.
Not sure if it’s related or not but 3:00 is when weather.com switches from Today & Tonight forecasts to Tonight and Tomorrow forecasts and back.
Ed</font id=“blue”></font id=“size2”>
quote:
[i]Originally posted by Bill McMurry[/i]
Check that your AntiVirus definitions are up to date...if you are using Norton AntiVirus, download a full current set of definitions at [url]http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/download/pages/US-N95.html[/url]. Then run a full AntiVirus scan. To be on the safe side, you can also run an online AntiVirus scan at [url]http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp?cid=13121[/url] or [url]http://security.norton.com/sscv6/default.asp?productid=nsw5.0&langid=ie&venid=sym[/url].This is not to say your computer is infected, but your description lends itself to something other than normal activity for Weather Watcher’s DL.exe. A file of the same name is associated with the W32.Bagz@mm mass mailing worm and with the backdoor trojan Backdoor.NTHack.
I researched a fair bit before posting here, and that was my first thought too. No viruses present, and the registry is clear of the files associated with that trojan.
The next step I would suggest is carefully check your Weather Watcher settings…Options, Auto Update tab. Are you Auto Updating your wallpaper? Check the Wallpaper tab in Options too.
DL.exe file size of 28,672.
Auto update set to update every 5 minutes. All check boxes on that options tab are unchecked.
I don’t have wallpaper updating.
This is perplexing. Did you try EdP</font id=“blue”>'s suggestion of scanning your hard drive for any other occurrences of DL.exe? Go to Folder Options (Control Panel) and the View tab…under ‘Hidden files and folders’, select the second option ‘Show hidden files and folders’ and two lines below that, uncheck ‘Hide protected operating system files’. OK to close Folder Options. Now, search your system for DL.exe.
Yep, that was one of the things I checked when checking it wasn’t the virus associated with a file called dl.exe.
I am fairly certain that the problem with DL.exe I am having is because WW cannot download information properly at 3pm (or sometime close to that time), and so DL keeps running.
Try changing your refresh time to 20 mins or more. And set the top and bottom options on. That’s not a fix but is what I have and I don’t have the problem you’re experiencing.
As weather.com switches time periods they may be switching servers and DL could be getting caught in the switch. Highly speculative but possible, and not frequently.
Ed</font id=“blue”></font id=“size2”>
Based on the way WW behaves on my system, I cannot even force DL.exe or Weather Watcher to duplicate your problem. I have a router (acting as a hardware firewall) and a software firewall (Kerio Personal Firewall v4). The XP firewall is worthless, therefore it is completely disabled. If I halt all traffic through Kerio and then attempt to retrieve/update WW weather, Weather Watcher tries and immediately quits…dl.exe doesn’t continue trying to make a connection nor does it continue running…and all in the space of about one second. Therefore, I adjudicate yours to be, in the most technical of terms, screwed! As EdP</font id=“blue”> suggested, try changing your Auto Update rate to something longer and see if that is a solution. If not, copy your Weather Watcher “skins” folder and Maps.ww to another location, then take the Microsoft approach…completely uninstall Weather Watcher, reboot and reinstall WW…copy your skins folder and maps.ww to the new Program Files\Weather Watcher folder. If that doesn’t solve the problem, stand up and scream at the top of your lungs “MIIIIKE!!! I NEED YOUR HELLLLLP!!!</font id=“red”>”[:D]