100% CPU usage but no processes taking up timme

[Guest]

In using XP SP2 on a laptop, I am frustrated that there are times when the
CPU seems to be preoccupied - task mannager shows 100% usage but the few
apps open don't add up to more than 15%. the CPU is busy doing something -
i've virus and ad-scanned, gone thru the microsoft optimizationn steps, have
enough rAM..any suggestions for what may be keeping the processor so busy?
thanks - dom

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi Dominick - There are a number of possibilities, including a malware
infestation. One thing to eliminate right off is the most common cause of
this, that is svchost running at or near 100% while checking the catalog as
part of the Windows Update procedure.

Even if you're not experiencing this problem, the following would be a good
idea and will cause no harm:


- First, you will need to install or re-install the updated KB927891. See
here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/927891.mspx and here
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=927891 for a complete fix.

- Then install the newly released 'standalone' version of Windows Update
Agent 3.0, v. 7.0.6000.374, for 32 bit machines which is available here:
http://download.windowsupdate.com/v7/windowsupdate/redist/standalone/WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe

It may say "Install is not needed since Windows Update Agent is
already installed." If so, then run the exe with the command line switch
/wuforce , like this:

WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe /wuforce

to force the install.

Then re-boot. Now re-boot again. (Yes, twice.) Now be sure that the
Windows Update service (Start, Administrative Toos, Services) is set to
Automatic and Started, and that Background Intelligent Transfer service is
set to at least Manual.

You will then need to go to Windows Update,
http://www.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us,
and re-download some newer update components. There may also be updates
detected; if so, then go ahead and install them.


If this doesn't help, please post back and we'll see what else might be
going on.




--
Regards, Jim Byrd,
My Blog, Defending Your Machine,
http://defendingyourmachine2.blogspot.com/



In Dominick <[email protected]> typed:
|| In using XP SP2 on a laptop, I am frustrated that there are times
|| when the CPU seems to be preoccupied - task mannager shows 100%
|| usage but the few apps open don't add up to more than 15%. the CPU
|| is busy doing something - i've virus and ad-scanned, gone thru the
|| microsoft optimizationn steps, have enough rAM..any suggestions for
|| what may be keeping the processor so busy? thanks - dom

 

[Patrick Keenan]

In using XP SP2 on a laptop, I am frustrated that there are times when the
CPU seems to be preoccupied - task mannager shows 100% usage but the few
apps open don't add up to more than 15%. the CPU is busy doing
something -
i've virus and ad-scanned, gone thru the microsoft optimizationn steps,
have
enough rAM..any suggestions for what may be keeping the processor so
busy?
thanks - dom

Download and run Process Explorer, and you should get a good idea of what it
is that's taking the cycles.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/processesandthreads/processexplorer.mspx

HTH
-pk

 

[Foamhunter]

In using XP SP2 on a laptop, I am frustrated that there are times
when the CPU seems to be preoccupied - task mannager shows 100%
usage but the few apps open don't add up to more than 15%. the CPU
is busy doing something - i've virus and ad-scanned, gone thru the
microsoft optimizationn steps, have enough rAM..any suggestions for
what may be keeping the processor so busy? thanks - dom

I just went through an issue like this with a failing hard drive. If you
haven't backed up your important data, I'd recommend it.

If you have a hardware diagnostic program that came with your computer,
load it and run a test on your hardware. Let it run through the full
diagnostics test, including memory and disk drive tests. It may take
quite a while, but that is how I located my problem.

In my case, I believe the page file must have become damaged or corrupt
by a failed sector on one of the infamous IBM/Hitachi "Death Stars,"
creating a heck of a mess. Computer still worked, but the CPU cycles
were always way up there, sometimes pegged at 100% for minutes at a
time, even though none of the processes were taking up anywhere near
that.

Luckily I got all my irreplaceable photos and important files backed up,
but still lost some miscellaneous things when a it failed on either the
boot sector or on a sector where the OS resided, and the drive flat
refused to boot after that.

I still haven't pulled the cover off my old Death Star to see if I have
see-through platters yet. ;-) I want slave it later on and try to
salvage the information off it before I start tearing it apart.

 

[Gerry]

Dominick

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

How much RAM memory?

How large is your hard disk and how much free space.

What are your anti-virus and anti-spyware arrangemrnts?

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Guest]

wow - thanks to all of you. I will be taking all of these steps later today
and will repost to let you know how things go. The hard drive is relatively
new about a year old - 80 gig with about half occupied - disk defragmenter
says it is OK. I've run ad-aware and spybot on the machine, as well as
Mcafee virus scan already. i have 640mb ram. I'll let you know how things
go and I do appreciate everyone's help.

 

[Gerry]

Dominick

What is using 100% CPU? You can ignore any SystemIdle % as it is merely
the difference between what is being used and 100%.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Guest]

Gerry, Jim, Patrick and Foamy -

Commit Charge – total 930,000, Limit 1131084, Peak 934624

System Idles is about 85%, and a few others are less than 5% each.

640 mb ram

80gb hd with 3.5gb free

I use MacAfee, Ad-aware, Spybot - all recently run and clean.

I will be implementing the advice you gave me last week or two ago sometime
this weekend. Also, the fan is running all the time and the processor gets
hot so it appears to be working very hard, despite task manager telling me
that nothing is going on!

Thanks again, sorry for the delay – work has been busy! I appreciate your
advice.

Dom

 

[Guest]

jimmm - Cann you explain in more detail how to force the install of windows
updaater? I don't know where to apply the /wuforce exchange. Dom

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi Dominick - You'll need to open a Command window in the folder where
you've downloaded the WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe. Then enter on one line
at the command prompt:

WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe /wuforce


Here's how: Right click on that download folder and see if you have 'Open a
Command Window Here' in the context menu for the folder; if so, then click
it and enter the /wuforce line. If not then go to Start|Run and enter
"Cmd" without the quotes. Now in the DOS window that opens enter:

cd c:\{fully qualified path name to the folder where you downloaded
WindowsUpdateAgent}

For example, if that folder was named Downloads on your C: drive: cd
C:\Downloads

The prompt should now show that folder's name, and you can then enter the
/wuforce line from above.

Try that if I haven't totally confused you.


--
Regards, Jim Byrd,
My Blog, Defending Your Machine,
http://defendingyourmachine2.blogspot.com/



In Dominick <[email protected]> typed:
|| jimmm - Cann you explain in more detail how to force the install of
|| windows updaater? I don't know where to apply the /wuforce
|| exchange. Dom
||
|| "Dominick" wrote:
||
||| Gerry, Jim, Patrick and Foamy -
|||
||| Commit Charge - total 930,000, Limit 1131084, Peak 934624
|||
||| System Idles is about 85%, and a few others are less than 5% each.
|||
||| 640 mb ram
|||
||| 80gb hd with 3.5gb free
|||
||| I use MacAfee, Ad-aware, Spybot - all recently run and clean.
|||
||| I will be implementing the advice you gave me last week or two ago
||| sometime this weekend. Also, the fan is running all the time and
||| the processor gets hot so it appears to be working very hard,
||| despite task manager telling me that nothing is going on!
|||
||| Thanks again, sorry for the delay - work has been busy! I
||| appreciate your advice.
|||
||| Dom
|||
|||
||| "Gerry" wrote:
|||
|||| Dominick
||||
|||| What is using 100% CPU? You can ignore any SystemIdle % as it is
|||| merely the difference between what is being used and 100%.
||||
||||
|||| --
||||
||||
||||
|||| Hope this helps.
||||
|||| Gerry
|||| ~~~~
|||| FCA
|||| Stourport, England
|||| Enquire, plan and execute
|||| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
||||
|||| Dominick wrote:
||||| wow - thanks to all of you. I will be taking all of these steps
||||| later today and will repost to let you know how things go. The
||||| hard drive is relatively new about a year old - 80 gig with about
||||| half occupied - disk defragmenter says it is OK. I've run
||||| ad-aware and spybot on the machine, as well as Mcafee virus scan
||||| already. i have 640mb ram. I'll let you know how things go and
||||| I do appreciate everyone's help.
|||||
||||| "Gerry" wrote:
|||||
|||||| Dominick
||||||
|||||| Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the
|||||| Performance Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the
|||||| Limit and the Peak?
||||||
|||||| How much RAM memory?
||||||
|||||| How large is your hard disk and how much free space.
||||||
|||||| What are your anti-virus and anti-spyware arrangemrnts?
||||||
|||||| --
||||||
||||||
||||||
|||||| Hope this helps.
||||||
|||||| Gerry
|||||| ~~~~
|||||| FCA
|||||| Stourport, England
|||||| Enquire, plan and execute
|||||| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
||||||
||||||
|||||| Dominick wrote:
||||||| In using XP SP2 on a laptop, I am frustrated that there are
||||||| times when the CPU seems to be preoccupied - task mannager
||||||| shows 100% usage but the few apps open don't add up to more
||||||| than 15%. the CPU is busy doing something - i've virus and
||||||| ad-scanned, gone thru the microsoft optimizationn steps, have
||||||| enough rAM..any suggestions for what may be keeping the
||||||| processor so busy? thanks - dom

 

[Gerry]

Dominick

Your Commit Charge figures indicate your system is resorting to use of
the pagefile, which is of course slower than RAM. You need to set the
pagefile maximum higher but that brings you up against another problem
insufficient free space on your hard disk space. You need to increase it
from 3.5 gb to a minimum of 12 gb and preferably 16 gb.

McAfee could be a problem as it creates a large footprint. Consider
using an alternative , which is not so much a resource hog. Are you
using Adobe Acrobat Reader as this is another programme where Foxit
offers a better alternative if you are using Acrobat solely to read pdf
files.

It is likely that an allocation of 12% has been made to System Restore
on your C partition which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700
mb. Right click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and select System
Restore. Place the cursor on your C drive select Settings but this
time find the slider and drag it to the left until it reads 700 mb and
exit. When you get to the Settings screen click on Apply and OK and
exit.

Another default setting on a large drive which could be wasteful is
that for temporary internet files especially if you do not store
offline copies on disk. The default allocation is 3% of drive.
Depending on your attitude to offline copies you could reduce this to
1% or 2%. In Internet Explorer select Tools, Internet Options,
General, Temporary Internet Files, Settings to make the change. At the
same time look at the number of days history is held.

The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive. Change to
5%, which should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer place the cursor
on your Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global and
move the slider from 10% to 5%. However, try to avoid letting it get
too full as if it is full and you delete a file by mistake it will
bypass the Recycle Bin and be gone for ever.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp to
Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.

Whether you can successfuly run Disk Defragment will depend on how
successful you have been in creating more free disk space.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[deebs]

The software side of things seems to be covered pretty well by earlier
posters.

Have you checked for fluff and stuff blocking vents or cooling mechanisms?