CPU usage 100%

caesman · February 13th, 2008, 01:11 PM

Hi, this is my first post, I'm very sorry if my english is kinda bad

I have a Dell inspiron 6400 with a 2.0 Centrino duo running on Windows XP home, 2gb ram and
100gb HD, Ati Radeon mobility x1400, got it a year ago

It started to become kinda slow like 2 weeks ago, i used to run some programs like spybot, ccleaner, adaware, online antivirus to improve speed without formating, but this time didnt work, so I decided to format.

after i format it, it has only the basic windows home and the drivers, it become slow again, when i checked the task manager it was again at 100%cpu usage, i cant really tell you wich process takes the cpu usage, cause it changes all the time, for example, i start watching a video on WMP and it takes like 60%, if i close it, then system and explorer go up to 50%, if I keep closing all the processes
that use de cpu it start taking the processes i cant close without closing windows.

it occurs ramdomly, sometimes as soon as i get the laptop on, its slow, sometimes takes a while, sometime like right now, it was slow, now its totally fine without reboot or anything.

i used the hardware test cd provided by dell, all test passed good, also bitdefender, house call and panda (all 3 online), before format i had nod32, after format i got Avira, also used system mechanics, spybot, checked a lot of this forum and tryed some patches from M$

so, its no a virus, nor spyware, its not any program instaled, cause it was happening just after format, i dont think its heat, what else can it be?

i've been trying to fix it for 5 days now, im really tired, pls help me

Keymaker · February 13th, 2008, 02:39 PM

When you are in Task Manger you can click the [CPU] option above so that in will arrange the highest CPU usage to lowest or lowest to highest. Find out this way.

Every program uses the CPU at different percentages. Now if this is a constant CPU load that you see in Task Manger, then we have a problem. Click the performance section too (shown in the picture below), is this at a constant CPU load? For example 50 % of usage all the time?

You could check the error log. Right Click My Computer | Manage | System Tools | Event Viewer.

You could give HijackThis a try

To take a snap shot-
Press the Print Screen key on the keyboard and go into paint, choose paste.

caesman · February 14th, 2008, 01:15 AM

Hi Keymaker, and thaks for the reply so fast...

I know about the "order by" cpu usage in the task manager, i do it all the time to see wich one is taking the highest usage.

When the problem is happening the amount of cpu usage is not constant on each process, it changes all the time, even the task manager takes up to 20% of the cpu. Most of the times 2 or 3 processes take all 100% of the cpu, but also the processes changes, if I close one with a ~50% of cpu usage, another process goes up and start using the cpu, not including the idle cpu process thingy (i dont really know the name in english).

About the performance section, when the problem is happening (not right now) the graphics shows the cpu usage contant at 100%, as soon as I have the problem again (it occurs ramdonly as I say before) I'll take the snapshots and paste them.

I tryed the HiJackThis also, and the awesome tool to automaticaly check the log, its says there are 3 unkwnown entries, all 3 from the system mechanics, 2 from the antivirus are possibly nasty but it mark them as ok and all the rest are ok. I can post the log if any1 wants to check it out. Thanks again for the help

caesman · February 14th, 2008, 04:02 AM

Snap shots

Blitzkreig75 · February 14th, 2008, 09:40 PM

What are the core temps? An overheating laptop will run like a 486. :P

Blitzkreig75 · February 14th, 2008, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by caesman

.... i dont think its heat, what else can it be?

Without eliminating overheating, you cannot be sure. SpeedStep may be kicking in. You need to get a temp reading.

caesman · February 15th, 2008, 12:04 AM

Hi Blitzkreig75, I did run a hardware test and it came out ok, im trying to install the intel active monitor but im having some troubles, if You know about any software that can help measure the cpu temperature, or maybe that and more ill be happy to try it, I'll keep looking around to see if I can find one myself, thanks for the opinion!

Blitzkreig75 · February 15th, 2008, 11:01 AM

Everest Home will, though the free version is mildly out of date...

You may have an option in BIOS under 'PC Health Status'

Another thing is can you hear the CPU fan kicking on frequently? IDK how loud/quiet that units fan is...

caesman · February 15th, 2008, 12:28 PM

Hi again Blitzkreig75, I found one, Core Temp 0.95, the info is:

58°C en el core 0
54°C en el core 1

dont think that is too high

about the fan is pretty quiet most of the time, but it goes loud as the cpu need it, so some times it get a little loud, nothing to get alarmed.

also this is a Laptop, and to keep the vents ok i used it on a plain surface, not on the "laptop", carpets, or anything that could get in the way of the heat getting out.

I'm really out of ideas

Keymaker · February 15th, 2008, 12:42 PM

It may be some corruption of one form or another. Either in the hard drive or certain programs. You had Windows Media player open as shown in the picture? It's WMplayer.exe

Post that hijackThis log. I'm thinking maybe there is some interaction with spyware or another program like a keyloger.

Right after you reformatted the hard drive you had a high CPU percent? There was no time laps between this point? If so, then there may be a hardware failure, like the hard drive.

You can give hdtune a try.