CPU Usage Problem

[Paul Lady]

My relatively new Dell desktop is showing abnormal cpu usage.

Task manager shows a normal list of processes when I am the only user signed
on. when I select all users, a bunch of "system" processes (about double)
are added to the list, and some of them (svchost, etc)are consuming 40-70%
cpu.

what's going on? how do I stop this?

TIA, pjl

 

[Michael N. Swain]

My relatively new Dell desktop is showing abnormal cpu usage.

Task manager shows a normal list of processes when I am the only user signed
on. when I select all users, a bunch of "system" processes (about double)
are added to the list, and some of them (svchost, etc)are consuming 40-70%
cpu.

what's going on? how do I stop this?

TIA, pjl

This is usually an indication that the users are still logged in ... They
might be up on the screen but they are logged in... Login as them and
choose LOGOUT rather then switch users.

 

[Paul Lady]

Thx for suggestion. I could not make it work. there is no other user shown
logged on. the task manager shows that the "other user" is called SYSTEM
and it only shows when I check the show other users in task manager. the
processes that are consuming about half the cpu are: nt kernel and system,
windows modules installer and host process for windows services.

It acts like a phantom user that has something going that I cannot get a
handle on to stop.

any more ideas? I have tried the diagnostics and show critical events that
the tool labels bad, but no idea how to stop or fix the problem.

pjl

 

[Paul Lady]

Sounds like the exact same problem.

Are you saying upgrade to SP1?

Thx, pjl

 

[Fesoj]

I had same problem few lines down. I reinstalled Vista. Yes it helped and I
know this is not good solution but fastest. I don't trust to release
candidates because I need stable operating system as much as it can be.
Every time when I started computer the CPU usage raised to 50% and only
thing which helped was kill "process" system. But it's temporary. After
reboot it was the same.

 

[Paul Lady]

I had same problem few lines down. I reinstalled Vista. Yes it helped and I
know this is not good solution but fastest. I don't trust to release
candidates because I need stable operating system as much as it can be.
Every time when I started computer the CPU usage raised to 50% and only
thing which helped was kill "process" system. But it's temporary. After
reboot it was the same.

I finally got the Dell tech on the phone, spent an hour, they said it was
"no problem".

Does not seem right to me, however. I know this behavior is relatively new,
and I suspect related to something I have changed or some app has changed.
Sure wish someone would shine some light on this.

pjl