CPU at 100% load

FARGO

FARGO

FARGO

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5 Aug 2010
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1,990
Hey all,

Pc has started hitting 100% load and I'm not sure why. Started today and after several reboots / components out and putting them back in, it still happens each boot.

I've run malbytes, cc cleaner and checked to see if anything untoward is running but as far as I can tell it isn't.

I uninstalled the latest version of adaware two days ago as the new features slowed my poor old system down - it ran better than ever for those two days - Windows and files openned speedily and even steam was pretty snappy.

Is it likely that I have picked a virus up which malbytes can't find?

I am running Winxp 32 bit, AMD 64 Athlon of some description and 1 gig of DDR RAM.

Aside from scraping it, does anyone have any advice :p

Thanks in advance .
 
Probably a mixture of things running in the background like Skype, msn etc then Windows might be trying to install/download updates in the background (which could take a while with 1GB RAM)

But as Pho said, you can most likely find the problem if you use task manager to see the CPU usage.
 
Nothing is "meant" to be running in the background - turned almost everything off in msconfig ages ago.

CPU is AMD 64 3200+ . The core speed is fluctuating from 1997.1 Mhz to 1989.9 Mhz according to CPU-Z... should it be doing that? Never overclocked it as its very old.

Bit confused as to what has changed recently. According to taskmanager, System Idle Process is jumping between 67 and 99 CPU... does that mean anything to anyone?
 
Pho said:
What does Process Explorer show as the process using the most CPU?
Click to expand...


Finally got it started - afraid I don't know how to read/understand the results but in Process Explorer, under the CPU header System Idle Process is fluctuating up to 15 and "Interrupts" is fluctuating up to 90. I'd take a screen shot but my pc can't handle FireFox/paint, etc atm. I'm posting from my mobile.

There are lots of instances of svchost.exe though...

Just noticed that my computer thinks it is 2004... going to try a system restore point and hope for the best.
 
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svchost.exe (or Service Host) is a system process that runs one or more services. Services are typically background tasks like Windows update or the print spooler. Multiple svchost.exe instances are nothing to worry about. Disabling startup items in MSConfig would have no effect on the services running.

System Idle Process does what it says - it's essentially soaks up unused CPU cycles. It's was a design decision to implement it this way.

I'd wager something in the background is churning away such as Windows update. With only 1GB of RAM and patch Tuesday occurring last week I'd just leave it on for a few hours and it'll likely sort itself out. It's probably the malicious software removal tool scanning the system.
 
Thanks for the input chaps. I restored to an earlier point but still have the same issue. There's no indication of any updates going on but I guess it's certainly possible. It's never done this in the 7 years worth of updates its been through though :(

I've powered down for the night now but will try again tomorrow. I could leave it on for the day while I gotm to work but I'm a little worried about something untoward whirring away and doing some more harm.
 
If it's the same install for 7 years it's probably that!

Open the task manager go to the processes tab and click on the CPU header and post which process is using the highest number.
 
:p I know, it's done me well. Alas, my OS CDs were lost years back. It's always updated quite regularly and correctly though. At work atm but will report back later.

After some more digging I came across this thread... does this sound like a likely culprit?

http://winhlp.com/node/10?PHPSESSID=fe09507cc10e1650c2da6b83b9197931#39;

I'll see if I can follow the steps suggested there and see if that helps too.
 
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FARGO said:
Finally got it started - afraid I don't know how to read/understand the results but in Process Explorer, under the CPU header System Idle Process is fluctuating up to 15 and "Interrupts" is fluctuating up to 90. I'd take a screen shot but my pc can't handle FireFox/paint, etc atm. I'm posting from my mobile.

There are lots of instances of svchost.exe though...

Just noticed that my computer thinks it is 2004... going to try a system restore point and hope for the best.
Click to expand...

The higher the system idle one the better, interrupts however doesn't want to be high. High interrupts suggests your PC is spending a lot of time servicing hardware requests.

I wonder if your hard drive has reverted to PIO mode which causes a large CPU dependency and makes things run terrible.

Can you try following this guide? It's not as bad as it looks as you only need the first bit really.



edit: I was writing this before you posted your last reply, that's the same thing I listed above :).
 
Awesome - at least you think it's worth a try and possibly on the right lines. I hope it is fixable with the above link. This miser doesn't want to open his purse strings :p

Thank you
 
Put a new battery in the pc if the time keeps going wrong. Probably windows update going mental because the time is wrong.

And yes, idle is a good thing
 
bledd. said:
Put a new battery in the pc if the time keeps going wrong. Probably windows update going mental because the time is wrong.

And yes, idle is a good thing
Click to expand...

Hi bledd., thanks for the input - I'm at work at the moment and for the life of me can't think of what sort of battery sits in the motherboard. Is it the wide/fat version of a watch battery? If so, do you mind letting me know if there is a universal make/model/size which I could pick up on my way home?

It can't hurt to get a new one after all this time, thanks :)
 
Bit of an update.

Just for giggles I bought a TIM kit and reapplied the thermal paste as well as putting a new motherboard battery in.

On booting up Windows tried to install various bits and pieces but didn't say what they were - for about an hour it flashed up small boxes which said Windows is preparing to install files. However, the messages were all the same and only flashed up for about 2-3 seconds each during this period.

It then tried to install Ad-aware for some reason but kept failing each time as there were no files to install from. It was as if Windows was trying to repair Ad-aware as it wasn't opening up a Lavasoft programme.

I managed to cancel the Ad-aware installation box which failed five times. I couldn't remove the various Ad-aware files which were dotted around my computer as the there was "an installation in progress". In the end I had to re-download it then install it and then uninstall it.

HOWEVER, I ran Malbytes again and this time round it found a Trojan and something else which contained reference to Ad-aware...

Managed to get it removed and after several scans I'm apparently clear now. However, the machine is still struggling with simple tasks. I tried to install AVG but the PC just gave up.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! :p
 
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