CPU usage at 70%

[The Catcher]

According to the Windows Task Manager / Preformance metre, the cpu is always
running at 70-75%. the Processes list shows nothing, system idle process is
90-97%.
The pc is perdy much unuseable.

Just installed SP2 and all updates.
Just installed the new drivers for ATI Video.

any ideas?

 

[Ken Blake]

In

According to the Windows Task Manager / Preformance metre, the
cpu is
always running at 70-75%. the Processes list shows nothing,
system
idle process is 90-97%.

These numbers seem to contradict each other. System idle process
is the name for what the computer is doing when it isn't doing
anything. If it's 90-97%, that leaves only 3-10% for what it's
doing, not 70-75%.

 

[CWatters]

system idle process is 90-97%.

That's normal.

Try running antivirus and antispyware scans. If those are ok... what about
you hard drive? Is it possible your HD is failing? Perhaps the seeks times
are going up. Could try running a hard drive test prog.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to bring Task Manager and select the Process Tab.
What is the Commit Charge?

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
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[Guest]

I have exactly this same sutuation. The CPU usage in Task Manager (TM) shows
70% or more all the time (in the lower TM status bar, in the TM "Performance"
chart, and in the minimized TM icon in Windows Taskbar), while none of the
processes in TM "Processes" tab show any meanigful usage. System Idle
Process is in the 90% + range for CPU usage, yet the overall TM CPU usage is
simultaneously showing 70% +. The computer is slow; it is behaving like the
CPU usage is at 70% utilization, not 90% idle. The Commit Charge is at
312,568k / 639,580k. I have tried several Anti-spyware, anti-virus, and worm
removal tools, and I have also defragged. Nothing has helped. Any
recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Guest]

Ken,
I have the same issue as Catcher (please see my earlier post for more
details). You are correct, the numbers contradict one another. While most
of Task Manager shows high CPU utilization (70% or more), and the system is
slow (behaving like it's 70% utilized), the detailed processes in Task
Manager show that the CPU is predominantly idle (90% idle). Any thoughts?

 

[Guest]

CWatters,
Although the 90 to 97% system idle process is normal, the situation which
The Catcher describes, and which I am also experiencing, is not normal: At
the same time the system idle process is 90%+, Task Manager overall is
contradicting itself by showing high CPU usage (70%+). Please see my two
earlier posts.

 

[Guest]

Gerry,

I have the same issue as The Catcher (please see my earlier posts). My
commit charge while this is occurring is 312,568k / 639,580k. Any ideas?

 

[Guest]

Catcher,
As I noted in an earlier post, I encountered this same issue, which I could
not solve with virus scans, defragging, SP2 update, other XP updates, or
several Anti-spy tools. Another post regarding high CPU usage pointed to
several anti-spyware tools as possibilities for solving other high CPU usage
problems. I had already tried them except for one: SpySubtract. I tried it,
and it detected serveral items which the other anti-spy tools missed. After
running SpySubtract, cleaning up it's discoveries, I rebooted. When I'm not
activly using an application that consumes CPU, the CPU usage is back down to
the 2% to 4% range, and it matches the corresponding 98% to 96% system idle
process, and my system resonse time is back to normal. Spysubtract has a
free online scan, and a free 30 day trial. I opted for the 30 day trial.
This may sound like a paid advertisement, but trust me it's not. I was at
wits end with this problem, and SpySubtract was the only tool that fixed it.
Here's the link. I hope it works for you.
http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract/free_spyware_scan.html

 

[Guest]

Update on this topic:
I have bad news, good news, and more bad news.

The bad Unfortunatly, I need to retract my earlier solution. Within a
matter of hours, my CPU utilization issue returned.

The good I found a tool which at least identifies the problem: Process
Manager (freeware by Sysinternals) identified that the cause of the problem
is Hardware Interrupts.

The more bad I have not identified the menas for resolving my Hardware
Interrupt / CPU utilization issue.

For full details on the problem, please refer to my recent post in this
forum, entitled "70% CPU Usage Due to Hardware Interrupt Conflicts".

Hoepfully someone can use this additional info to come up with a solution.

Thanks!

 

[Malke]

Update on this topic:
I have bad news, good news, and more bad news.

The bad Unfortunatly, I need to retract my earlier solution.
Within a matter of hours, my CPU utilization issue returned.

The good I found a tool which at least identifies the problem:
Process Manager (freeware by Sysinternals) identified that the cause
of the problem is Hardware Interrupts.

The more bad I have not identified the menas for resolving my
Hardware Interrupt / CPU utilization issue.

For full details on the problem, please refer to my recent post in
this forum, entitled "70% CPU Usage Due to Hardware Interrupt
Conflicts".

Hoepfully someone can use this additional info to come up with a
solution.

You know, from all your posts (and it would have been much better to
keep to one thread), I believe you said you have a fairly new Dell. Why
are you not calling their tech support? If the machine is still as it
came from the factory - you didn't install any hardware yourself - you
should not be having these problems. This leads me to believe you have
a physical hardware problem. The machine is still under warranty; don't
mess around with this any more.

Malke

 

[Guest]

Sorry for the new post, but the old post seemed to have gone cold. Forgive
me, but I'm somewhat of a newbie at the posting process. Actually, the
machine is a couple of years old and is no longer under warranty.

What I meant by "as shipped" is that I restored it to exact state it would
have been in when it was shipped. I stripped it back to only the components
that were installed with it when shipped, and I used the XP CD and driver
backup CDs that were provided by Dell back then. I thought that since it
worked correctly when shipped, and since I was doing a full re-install, that
using the original XP and drivers would get me to a solid basic install, and
I could systematically update back to SP 2 and new drivers. The reason for
this conservative approach is that Dell indicates that some of their drivers
and hardware have some proprietary tweaks so using the "standard"
manufacturer drivers could cause problems.
I hope that clarifies it.

Having said all that, do you have any suggestions?

 

[Mak]

Try this:

remove your Mojave Dazzle Device and uninstall associated drivers / software
for now.
Disconnect all USB devices that you don't need (except for keyboard / mouse,
if they are USB).
Get chipset drivers either from viaarena website (preferred) or Dell,
whichever is newer.

The problem with high cpu usage (hardware interrupts as shown in
sysinternals ProcessExplorer) are usually caused by bad drivers, USB is the
first suspect.

If the problem is still there, proceed with updating all of your drivers one
step at a time.

Ignore devices share same IRQ - it's normal and not a problem in XP.

 

[Guest]

The problem was with the PCI card for the Mojave Dazzle device:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...315e77-f31d-47d3-978f-fe0221543a62&sloc=en-us

Thanks for the help!