Windows XP SP3 with all patchesAfter a clean boot with no applications running there is still content disk I/O. Checking Task Manager I see the following items with I/O incrementing:svchost.exelsass.exeLMS.exeAll of which are running in the SYSTEM security environment.What could be causing this and how do I find it and kill it? 1 person needs an answerI do too

Hi saberman,- Is the hard drive constantly making noise?There will always be some activity in the background, it shouldn’t be noticeable unless the computer is idle and defragmenting the drive. It’s possible to be a virus or malware, so a scan to check would be good.Regards,Divya R – Microsoft Support.Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

>There will always be some activity in the background.No there shouldn't be otherwise no machine would ever enter sleep mode.>It’s possible to be a virus or malware, so a scan to check would be good.A virus or malware is always possible but (1) this machine is behind a hardware firewall and (2) it has a realtime anti-virus product and a software firewall running. Scans report nothing.