cpu usage spikes

[Guest]

Hi, I've been having a few problems lately with a usually very stable
system. I've noticed over the last few days the mouse pointer 'jumping'
across the screen and audio/video 'stuttering' every few seconds. Looking at
the performance tab in Task Manager or Tuneup Utilities, the CPU usage graph
is 'spiking' to around 25% when the system is idle. I've tried ending
virtually all non-necessary tasks to no avail. I've carried out full virus
scan and spyware scan with no significant results.
I cant see any processes running likely to cause a problem but who
knows...... Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Guest]

Hi, I've been having a few problems lately with a usually very stable
system. I've noticed over the last few days the mouse pointer 'jumping'
across the screen and audio/video 'stuttering' every few seconds. Looking at
the performance tab in Task Manager or Tuneup Utilities, the CPU usage graph
is 'spiking' to around 25% when the system is idle. I've tried ending
virtually all non-necessary tasks to no avail. I've carried out full virus
scan and spyware scan with no significant results.
I cant see any processes running likely to cause a problem but who
knows...... Any help would be greatly appreciated

Presumably have you tried Safe Mode as well (?)

Regards,
Ka2H

 

[Guest]

just been monitoring processes in task manager, and it seems 'System' is the
one appearing every few seconds with between 6 & 14% usage.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the response. Yes I've tried safe mode, exactly the same. Approx
every 5 secs a spike on the cpu graph. with the very occasional high spike up
to 100%, looks like someones ECG. Whatever is causing it doen't seem to show
when viewing the process list. There are the usual processes using 1 or 2%
from time to time but nothing showing itself using 20-25% every few seconds.

 

[Guest]

just been monitoring processes in task manager, and it seems 'System' is the
one appearing every few seconds with between 6 & 14% usage.

From your findings so far I would say it is hard to decide whether the
culprit is software - or hardware related, assuming you are confident that
the scan for virus and spyware (malware?) is (are) done extensively. As you
know it takes quite a few approaches to get some kind of confidence that the
PC is "clean". And you wrote: "- with no significant results" ?

I assume there are no errors in the Event Viewer logs, nor no "warnings" in
the Device Manager or nothing suspect in the System Information
(msinfo32.exe).

A System Restore to a time before "over the last few days" might be a step,
if already not carried out.

A reinstallation of Windows XP is of course something, although a tough one,
thus not the first next step to carry out.

Then you might provide us with details about your "system", e.g. the PC, OS
(with or without SP and updates), external devices etc, which would be
helpful to give more precise advices rather than just guess.

Regards,
Ka2H