Services running high and CPU usage high

[Johncobb]

Hello everybody,
Lately my HD is spinning like crazy and fans too.
I looked in Task Manager and I can see that services are running very high
and CPU usage is high also even when I do not perform any tasks.
I scanned my computer for viruses and it seams that it is clean.
A few weeks ago I installed Spybot and BitDefender but I uninstalled them
soon because I thought that they may interfere with eachother.
I ended unnecessary processes - now running 30.
I have also unticked non essential Start Up programs and Services - that did
not help.
To me it looks like there is something running in the background but how can
I detect it ??? It must be hidden somewhere.

My computer parameters:
IBM ThinkCentre
CPU 3 Ghz
RAM 2 GB
HD 233 GB (194 GB free space)
WIN2000 Pro with SP 4.
AV software- Avast.

I have this problem for the last few weeks and it is driving me crazy. I
spent countless hours trying to find the cause.
Please provide any suggestions.
Thank you in advance.
John

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hello everybody,
Lately my HD is spinning like crazy and fans too.
I looked in Task Manager and I can see that services are running very high
and CPU usage is high also even when I do not perform any tasks.
I scanned my computer for viruses and it seams that it is clean.
A few weeks ago I installed Spybot and BitDefender but I uninstalled them
soon because I thought that they may interfere with eachother.
I ended unnecessary processes - now running 30.
I have also unticked non essential Start Up programs and Services - that
did
not help.
To me it looks like there is something running in the background but how
can
I detect it ??? It must be hidden somewhere.

My computer parameters:
IBM ThinkCentre
CPU 3 Ghz
RAM 2 GB
HD 233 GB (194 GB free space)
WIN2000 Pro with SP 4.
AV software- Avast.

I have this problem for the last few weeks and it is driving me crazy. I
spent countless hours trying to find the cause.
Please provide any suggestions.
Thank you in advance.
John

I would run procexp.exe (www.sysinternals.com) to identify the service
that's hogging the CPU.

 

[Johncobb]

Thank you Pegasus for your help.
I have downloaded the Sysinternals Suite, it is a great tool.
I hope that I am using it correctly.
I see in Services properties and under the Threads tab that most of Services
usage goes through RPC (Remote Procedure Call).
I studied it and learned that it is a necessary service and can not be
disabled or stopped because other services depend on it.
Do you have any idea why RPC is using so much CPU?
I have another older computer (Pentium 3) and on that one everything is fine.
I just opened for services the lower pane and under Handles there I can see
that there are many items: for example many emply "Mutant" and "Semaphore"
handles. Would that make any problem?
I am using this tool for the first time and I don't know how to interpret
all data that I see.
Do you have any idea why my RPC is using so much CPU?
Your help will be greatly apreciated.
Thank you in advance.
John

 

[Johncobb]

Thank you Stubby for your info.
I checked my WINNT folder and I can not see any "logfile" file, only files
with extention .log and they seam to be in place because there are some of
them with loging info but not excesive files as you have suggested.
In Event Viewer there are some logs with errors but nothing relating to RPC.
Any other suggestions???
Please help!!!
I am just about to get a nervous brakedown because this issue/problem.
If anybody had problem with RPC and managed to resolved it please let me
know.
I am waiting for more comments and suggestions.
John

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have no idea why the RPC should be consuming so much CPU time.
There are a couple of thoughts that went through my mind:
- When you invoke the command "services.msc" then you can
see all your current services, including RPC. After double-clicking
it and checking the "Dependencies" tab, you can see the many
services that depend on it. By disabling some of them selectively
from the main Services screen, you may be able to rack down
the culprit.
- WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) is a known hog
of CPU time. You can turn it off from the Command Prompt like
so: net stop "Windows Management Instrumentation" without
any ill effect. If it is the culprit then the excessive CPU loading
will stop immediately.
- Virus scanners and background indexing tools (e.g. Copernic)
can also cause a lot of background activity. I would temporarily
uninstall my virus scanner and third-party firewall.

 

[hutgreever]

Sorry to intrude on your discussion but perhaps you could help me. I'm
having similar CPU usage problems which cause intermittent lockups in
explorer. I'd like to "untick[ed] non essential Start Up programs and
Services" as you described but don't know how. Way back in WinME I could
access programs that launch on startup using Start/run/msconfig (?) but that
doesn't work on my Win2000. How can I modify what launches when I sart
Win2000 and how can I identify what actually needs to do this (i.e. what
Win2000 needs?)

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Sorry to intrude on your discussion but perhaps you could help me. I'm
having similar CPU usage problems which cause intermittent lockups in
explorer. I'd like to "untick[ed] non essential Start Up programs and
Services" as you described but don't know how. Way back in WinME I could
access programs that launch on startup using Start/run/msconfig (?) but
that
doesn't work on my Win2000. How can I modify what launches when I sart
Win2000 and how can I identify what actually needs to do this (i.e. what
Win2000 needs?)

You can download msconfig.exe from here:
http://www.svrops.com/svrops/dwnldoth.htm

 

[legg]

Sorry to intrude on your discussion but perhaps you could help me. I'm
having similar CPU usage problems which cause intermittent lockups in
explorer. I'd like to "untick[ed] non essential Start Up programs and
Services" as you described but don't know how. Way back in WinME I could
access programs that launch on startup using Start/run/msconfig (?) but that
doesn't work on my Win2000. How can I modify what launches when I sart
Win2000 and how can I identify what actually needs to do this (i.e. what
Win2000 needs?)

You can run msconfig.exe in W2K by adding it to the OS directory.

Simply ignore the non-functional sections and click through to
start-up environment.

This still may not cover all processes - cpu hogs can be started later
by basic system processes.

You can get some idea of process activity from taskmon, or other
discrete tools like process explorer, giving you something more
definite to aim at.

RL