Excessive CPU Usage

  • Thread starter Thread starter Knack
  • Start date Start date
K

Knack

Win XP Media Center SP3
Internet Explorer 7.0.5730.11
Athlon 64 X2 dual core CPU 3800+; 2 GHz
RAM 1.00 GB

From the get-go, Internet Explorer takes forever to display a web page, even
though I have cable internet service. And then, after a couple hours of
surfing, it locks up ("not responding"). After terminating the process
iexplore.exe I see in Windows Task Manager that the Performance tab displays
an oscillating CPU Usage range of 64-75%, yet the Processes tab displays
System Idle Process being the main user @ 22-47% CPU with no other process
in the list using greater than 1% CPU.

Several years ago I had *farrr* better performance using Win NT 4 SP5 using
hardware that was only Celeron 466 Mhz with 128 MB RAM. Disgraceful!!

Is there some utility I can get that will automatically diagnose and fix
this darn problem that has persisted for months?
 
I'd check the Add-ons you may have enabled in IE. Also some of
the security suite products have "Safe Browsing" hooks that would
cause page loads to be slower than expected. As a test you could
load either Opera 10.0.1 or Google Chrome 3.0 and compare the
load times on certain sites with those browsers compared to IE.
 
Hi,

Disable COM Addons - Tools>Internet Options - Advanced tab, uncheck "Enable
third-party browser extensions".

Turn off the Phishing filter if you have Anti-Virus or anti-malware
installed and you rate your surfing experience as Moderate (and you know the
sites you visit regularly)

If these test still do not speed up your browser, download the fiddler tool
from http://www.fiddlertool.com and run it without IE open to see the Call
Home traffic from some of your "Windows Startup" list.

Quicktime, GoogleToolbarUPdater.exe (depereciated) and the AOL updater have
been causing problems for ppl.

You can turn off Quicktime auto updates from its control panel. Ditto AOL
updates.

You should not have the GoogleToolbarUpdater.exe in your windows startup
list. Make sure you have downloaded and installed the latest version from
toolbar.google.com (v6).

Regards.
 
What anti-virus application or security suite is installed and is your
subscription current? What anti-spyware applications (other than Defender)?
What third-party firewall (if any)? Were any of these applications running
in the background when you installed IE7?

Has a(another) Norton or McAfee application ever been installed on this
machine (e.g., a free-trial version that came preinstalled when you bought
it)?
 
Avast! 4.8-1335 antivirus
Spybot S&D
No 3rd party firewall

As I recall, there was free trial version of either Norton or McAffee AV on
the machine when it was purchased. I uninstalled it after it expired.
Neither program appears in Contol Panel's 'Add Or Remove Programs' applet.

I'm very careful to close various applications and end various processes
when installing new software.
 
Avast! 4.8-1335 antivirus
Spybot S&D
No 3rd party firewall

As I recall, there was free trial version of either Norton or McAffee AV on
the machine when it was purchased. I uninstalled it after it expired.
Neither program appears in Contol Panel's 'Add Or Remove Programs' applet.

I'm very careful to close various applications and end various processes
when installing new software.
Click to expand...


Just because you don't see it in the Add/Remove Programs in the Control
Panel doesn't mean that there still might be registry entries and
services still on your PC. Go to Symantec's website and download the
Norton Removal Tool to make sure that it's completely gone. You can get
it here:

http://service1.symantec.com/Suppor...5033108162039?OpenDocument&seg=hm&lg=en&ct=us
 
Hi Jacob,

Yep. You have a horked install of the Google toolbar (The version is in the
Help context menu). (Google made a number of changes to their toolbar just
before the IE8 release. One was a fix for the 'Memory read' error you had.

Uninstall your Google toolbar from the Add/Remove Programs applet.

Reboot. !important

If you want to continue using the Google toolbar you can go to
toolbar.google.com and install the latest version(6)

The Google Mail notifier may also cause you problems if you have it
installed and allow auto-login at windows startup. I turn it off and only
log on to GMail manually.

Regards.
 
The Version of Avast installed has *3* vulnerabilities, none Critical:
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/5162/?task=advisories_2009

Upgrade it by *right* clicking the Avast icon on the Taskbar and choose
Updating > Program Update.
That will put Avast at Build: Sep2009 (4.8.1368)

In addition, Avast acknowldges a "bad" virus definitions update that
came out yesterday:

Win32:Delf-MZG false positive issue statement
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=51647.msg436938

VPS version 091203-1 resolves the FP issue.

MowGreen
===============
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
===============

banthecheck.com
"Security updates should *never* have *non-security content* prechecked"
 
Norton applications are notorious for not uninstalling cleanly.

1. Download the Norton Removal Tool, saving it to your desktop:
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/removal_tools/Norton_Removal_Tool.exe

2. Close all open applications (i.e., anything with an icon on the taskbar).

3. Double-click on the file you saved in #1 above to run the utility. Don't
TOUCH your keyboard until the run completes, then reboot.
 
Your Welcome.

JacobH said:
That seems to have changed it!!!
now shows 6.xxx....
Version: 6.3.1106.427/en-GB (GGLL)
Notifier Version: 5.4.4525.1752
Under Abaht Google Toolbar, which I don't think I saw before.
Never use Gmail, so don't need that bit. go now check not got toolbar
notifier.

Than You kind Sir!

--
--
Geoff
ExploitEd

Wisdom and experience come with age, they say, but I do wish I could
remember the darn question
Click to expand...
 
Back
Top