CPU at 100%... with no applications running

[Guest]

My computer is acting up.. right after i finish starting up, before I even
launch an application, the cursor will show a flickering hour glass (like
it's processing something), however nothing is running. And when I do try to
launch an application (something as simple as IE) it takes forever to load. I
clicked "control-alt-delete" to see my task bar -- it shows no tasks being
performed, but on the performance tab it shows CPU at 100%. I thought maybe I
had a virus, so I did a scan using Trend Micro PC-cillin, but no viruses were
detected. I'm at a loss... I just bought this computer 5 months ago, and it's
already giving my headaches.

Help please... thanks!

 

[Guest]

Click on the Processes tab in Task Manager to see what process is consuming
your CPU - it may not read 100%, but it should be a large percentage. Once
you've determined which process is causing it, it should be a simple matter
to find a fix.

- John

 

[Orin Oríg]

My computer is acting up.. right after i finish starting up, before I even
launch an application, the cursor will show a flickering hour glass (like
it's processing something), however nothing is running. And when I do try to
launch an application (something as simple as IE) it takes forever to load. I
clicked "control-alt-delete" to see my task bar -- it shows no tasks being
performed, but on the performance tab it shows CPU at 100%. I thought maybe I
had a virus, so I did a scan using Trend Micro PC-cillin, but no viruses were
detected. I'm at a loss... I just bought this computer 5 months ago, and it's
already giving my headaches.

Help please... thanks!

I am having the same problem with CPU usage at 100%. I believe this is the
aftermath of the Zotob worm.

In my case, CPU usage at 100% occurs sporadically when the following apps
are running: screen saver, Internet Explorer 6, Zone Alarm, event viewer,
DX diagnostic tool, Windows Media Player and others that I have not detected
yet.

The effect of the worm can be stopped by restarting the computer, however,
after running for a while, the problem returns. On the other hand, my
computer refuse to shutdown that made me think that the authors of the Zotob
worm knew that the worm can be made temporarily benign by shutting down the
computer.

I am anticipating a breakdown of one of my hardwares. It could be my video
card this time.

Beside event error 407, I am now getting event error 1000 which I labeled as
"The user is a moron error."

According to CNET news, Microsoft has no comment on these kind of problems.


Orinello

 

[Gerry Cornell]

In Task Manager make sure that the user of the CPU is not System Idle as
when this is 99% it means that actual processes running are only 1%.

Viruses are only part of security. What internet security (firewall)
programme are you
using?

What are you doing with regard to removing spyware?

You need to always have up to date virus definitions. A free anti-virus
programme:
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

Also the Microsoft Anti Spyware Beta is considerably better than it was
at first:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/default.mspx

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Using invalid email address

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[paul]

I am having the same problem with CPU usage at 100%. I believe this is
the
aftermath of the Zotob worm.

In my case, CPU usage at 100% occurs sporadically when the following apps
are running: screen saver, Internet Explorer 6, Zone Alarm, event viewer,
DX diagnostic tool, Windows Media Player and others that I have not
detected
yet.

The effect of the worm can be stopped by restarting the computer, however,
after running for a while, the problem returns. On the other hand, my
computer refuse to shutdown that made me think that the authors of the
Zotob
worm knew that the worm can be made temporarily benign by shutting down
the
computer.

I am anticipating a breakdown of one of my hardwares. It could be my
video
card this time.

Beside event error 407, I am now getting event error 1000 which I labeled
as
"The user is a moron error."

According to CNET news, Microsoft has no comment on these kind of
problems.


Orinello

Same exact problem here!
The only way to get around it for awhile is to restart, but as mentioned
above it returns.
MVP's to the rescuce! PLEASE!

 

[Gerry Cornell]

What anti-virus programme is installed and are virus definitions up to
date?

The link which follows gives access to a Zotob removal tool:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.zotob.removal.tool.html

Viruses are only part of security. What internet security (firewall)
programme are you using?

What are you doing with regard to removing spyware?

You need to always have up to date virus definitions. A free anti-virus
programme:
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

Also the Microsoft Anti Spyware Beta is considerably better than it was
at first:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/default.mspx

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Using invalid email address

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Trax]

|>My computer is acting up.. right after i finish starting up, before I even
|>launch an application, the cursor will show a flickering hour glass (like
|>it's processing something), however nothing is running. And when I do try to
|>launch an application (something as simple as IE) it takes forever to load. I
|>clicked "control-alt-delete" to see my task bar -- it shows no tasks being
|>performed, but on the performance tab it shows CPU at 100%. I thought maybe I
|>had a virus, so I did a scan using Trend Micro PC-cillin, but no viruses were
|>detected. I'm at a loss... I just bought this computer 5 months ago, and it's
|>already giving my headaches.

Download and run Process explorer
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html
Much better than the task manager

Double clicking on a process will let you view it's image and where to
start.

 

[Ken Blake]

In

My computer is acting up.. right after i finish starting up,
before I
even launch an application, the cursor will show a flickering
hour
glass (like it's processing something), however nothing is
running.
And when I do try to launch an application (something as simple
as
IE) it takes forever to load. I clicked "control-alt-delete" to
see
my task bar -- it shows no tasks being performed, but on the
performance tab it shows CPU at 100%. I thought maybe I had a
virus,
so I did a scan using Trend Micro PC-cillin, but no viruses
were
detected. I'm at a loss... I just bought this computer 5 months
ago,
and it's already giving my headaches.

You may not have a virus, but you may have spyware running. Which
anti-spyware programs do you use and do you keep them current?

 

[Guest]

i get this problem too every so often, when i do a process check. Its the
process System thats taking up all the CPU... and this happens when i leave
the computer sitting idle. When im working on it, this doesn't happen as
often. Also, done a virus check, there are no viruses detected. I run a
PC-cillin antivirus, but i also did a similar check using the antivirus
applications avaliable from Mcfee

 

[paul]

i get this problem too every so often, when i do a process check. Its the
process System thats taking up all the CPU... and this happens when i
leave
the computer sitting idle. When im working on it, this doesn't happen as
often. Also, done a virus check, there are no viruses detected. I run a
PC-cillin antivirus, but i also did a similar check using the antivirus
applications avaliable from Mcfee

When I get this problem here the culprit is usually EXPLORER.EXE

 

[paul]

When I get this problem here the culprit is usually EXPLORER.EXE

I had previously run Spybot S&D, AdAware, and Norton AV
Just ran MS AntiSpy, and it found a severe threat the others didn't
Let's see if this solves the problem...

 

[Trax]

|>
|>|>>
|>> |>>> My computer is acting up.. right after i finish starting up, before I
|>>> even
|>>> launch an application, the cursor will show a flickering hour glass (like
|>>> it's processing something), however nothing is running. And when I do try
|>> to
|>>> launch an application (something as simple as IE) it takes forever to
|>> load. I
|>>> clicked "control-alt-delete" to see my task bar -- it shows no tasks
|>>> being
|>>> performed, but on the performance tab it shows CPU at 100%. I thought
|>> maybe I
|>>> had a virus, so I did a scan using Trend Micro PC-cillin, but no viruses
|>> were
|>>> detected. I'm at a loss... I just bought this computer 5 months ago, and
|>> it's
|>>> already giving my headaches.
|>>>
|>>> Help please... thanks!
|>>
|>>
|>> I am having the same problem with CPU usage at 100%. I believe this is
|>> the
|>> aftermath of the Zotob worm.
|>>
|>> In my case, CPU usage at 100% occurs sporadically when the following apps
|>> are running: screen saver, Internet Explorer 6, Zone Alarm, event viewer,
|>> DX diagnostic tool, Windows Media Player and others that I have not
|>> detected
|>> yet.
|>>
|>> The effect of the worm can be stopped by restarting the computer, however,
|>> after running for a while, the problem returns. On the other hand, my
|>> computer refuse to shutdown that made me think that the authors of the
|>> Zotob
|>> worm knew that the worm can be made temporarily benign by shutting down
|>> the
|>> computer.
|>>
|>> I am anticipating a breakdown of one of my hardwares. It could be my
|>> video
|>> card this time.
|>>
|>> Beside event error 407, I am now getting event error 1000 which I labeled
|>> as
|>> "The user is a moron error."
|>>
|>> According to CNET news, Microsoft has no comment on these kind of
|>> problems.
|>>
|>>
|>> Orinello
|>>
|>>
|>>
|>
|>
|>Same exact problem here!

Finally some honesty, very few people will admit to the "The user is a
moron error."



|>The only way to get around it for awhile is to restart, but as mentioned
|>above it returns.
|>MVP's to the rescuce! PLEASE!
|>

 

[Guest]

Try going into Task Manager/ Process Tab and checking to see which process is
taking up all your CPU. After finding out look into that process to determine
what is going wrong. Since you say this happens at startup, try going into
MSCONFIG from the run command in your start menu then at the STARTUP tab look
for that process that was taking up all your CPU and unchecking that process
from startup. This should stop your system hang problem until that process is
started manually or by an application.

Hope this helps...

 

[Box134]

When I get this problem here the culprit is usually EXPLORER.EXE

If explorer.exe is at 100% this is supposed to be the cure. ( Found this
somewhere on the web, can't remember where.)

"This will fix it:

The obnoxious bug in XP that causes Explorer to read the entire contents of
broken AVI files before allowing any access to them is caused by bad
behavior of shmedia.dll.

This problem manifests itself by causing Explorer to read the entire
contents of an AVI file, regardless of its size or location any time the
mouse pointer is hovered over it, or an attempt is made to access it in
windows explorer. This causes 'permission denied' errors when trying to
simply move, copy or delete these files as they cannot be changed while
Explorer has an open handle on them.

This also causes a DoS situation where large AVI's are stored on remote
shares and Explorer keeps reading the files from beginning to end each time
they are accessed.

To correct this misbehavior in Windows XP, remove the following registry
key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}\InProcServer32

This will prevent Explorer from loading shmedia.dll in response to file
property queries on these files. This will not effect your ability to play
files, get file attributes, or even view thumbnails. Say goodbye to all
explorer.exe 100% CPU issues.

And Solution #2 (basically does the same thing, except you are inactivating
the file attributes option)...But it WORKS--No more locked .avi files:

Well windows seem to have a REALLY big problem when it comes to reading AVI
files. It seems that when you click on an AVI file in explorer, it'll try to
read the entire AVI file to determine the width,height, etc. of the AVI file
(this is displayed in the Properties window). Now the problem with Windows
is that if you have a broken/not fully downloaded AVI file that doesn't
contain this info, Windows will scan the entire AVI file trying to figure
out all these properties which in the process will probably cause 100% CPU
usage and heavy memory usage.

To solve this problem all you have to do is the following:

1. Open up regedit
2. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAs
sociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler
3. Delete the "Default" value which should be
"{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}"

Please note that this will no longer provide you with the windows properties
displaying the AVI file information such as width, height, bitrate etc. But
its a small price to pay for saving you resources."

 

[Orin Oríg]

Finally some honesty, very few people will admit to the "The user is a
moron error."

That is correct. That is very perceptive, dahling.

Newsgroups are usually for pretenders who belong to a cloister group that is
mostly in the celebrity category.

But sometimes you will find morons like me, probably a hoi polloi, that is,
with no sophistication at all, joining a newsgroup.

OK! I got that over with.

Now, I use Zone Alarm with Anti-Virus Version 6.0.667. I have the latest
definitions of anti-spyware, anti-phisher, identity theft protection, and
anti-scam from my ISP. However, I do not have anti-troll software. Do you
know where I can that?

BTW, I do not use any Symantec product anymore. (Maybe that is my problem.)


Orinello

 

[Orin Oríg]

Maybe I should write to Martha Stewart about my problem.

If she can show Donald Trump how to fold a shirt real easy, then, she should
have answers for this CPU Usage at 100% problem of mine.

BTW, this morning when I cold started my computer, I do not have any errors
in my event viewer log. The logs were simply not there. As a moron, I
interpreted it as "Good news! Finally, after 6 weeks of doing the 'Texas
Bull's Eye Method of PC Repair,' I did not get any "The User is a Moron
Error."


Orinello

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Did you read my post yesterday?


--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Using invalid email address

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Plato]

My computer is acting up.. right after i finish starting up, before I even
launch an application, the cursor will show a flickering hour glass (like
it's processing something), however nothing is running. And when I do try to
launch an application (something as simple as IE) it takes forever to load. I
clicked "control-alt-delete" to see my task bar -- it shows no tasks being
performed, but on the performance tab it shows CPU at 100%. I thought maybe I
had a virus, so I did a scan using Trend Micro PC-cillin, but no viruses were
detected. I'm at a loss... I just bought this computer 5 months ago, and it's
already giving my headaches.

Disable system restore. Download spybot and adaware to a folder on your
hard drive. Boot to safe mode and install and run them. The reboot
normally, update both anti-spyware apps and run them again.

 

[Orin Oríg]

Yes I did.

But did you understand my post?


Orinello

 

[Gerry Cornell]

I could be enlightened on what you mean by "anti-troll software".