Nearly 100% CPU Usage

[Paul Calcagno]

My wife's Dell laptop has really slowed down. She's running XP SP3 with 1.2
gigs of RAM. When I look in Task Manager, the Performance tab shows CPU
usage almost nearly constant at 100%, although it spikes downward to a few
tens of % occasionally. This doesn't sound correct.

I've got CA (Road Runner) Security Suite running, plus
MalwareByte's-AntiMalware, plus Ad-Aware 2009 installed. None of these show
any viruses, etc. on this machine (occasionally a tracking cookie). Just
today I uninstalled SuperAntispyware Professional simply because I could
never get the program to open up, even after a 10 minute wait. The program
used to run just fine. I've never, ever used a Registry Cleaner on this
computer as I've been warned they can do more harm than good.

I've tried Disk Cleanup on the C drive but that program basically hangs up.
After 5 minutes of waiting for it to calculate how much disk space would be
save, I closed it. The C drive has 15 Gbytes of free space and 45 Gbytes
used. RAM seems to show over 500 MB available. I haven't defrag'ed this
drive in a long time.

Can someone tell me if 100% CPU usage is the reason why everything takes
forever to open, and what would cause such CPU behavior? I have had what I'd
call `cooling problems' due to a dirty fan (fixed) and poor airflow
underneath the computer so I took care of that by cleaning the fan and
propping the laptop up so more air can flow under it. Is it possible the CPU
got damaged from excessive heating? (The CPU shut down a few times a month
ago, seemingly because it got too hot, but that no longer happens).

Thanks in advance................Paul C.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

There is a very good chance that you are seeing the effects of a hijackware
infection!

NB: If you had no anti-virus application installed or the subscription had
expired *when the machine first got infected* and/or your subscription has
since expired and/or the machine's not been kept fully-patched at Windows
Update, don't waste your time with any of the below: Format & reinstall
Windows. A Repair Install will NOT help!

Microsoft PCSafety provides home users (only) with no-charge support in
dealing with malware infections such as viruses, spyware (including unwanted
software), and adware.
https://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?&prid=7552&st=1

Also available via...

Consumer Security Support home page
https://consumersecuritysupport.microsoft.com/

Otherwise...

1. See if you can download/run the MSRT manually:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx

NB: Run the FULL scan, not the QUICK scan! You may need to download the
MSRT on a non-infected machine, then transfer MRT.EXE to the infected
machine and rename it to SCAN.EXE before running it.

2a. WinXP => Run the Windows Live Safety Center's 'Protection' scan (only!)
in Safe Mode with Networking, if need be:
http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/center/howsafe.htm

2b. Vista or Win7=> Run this scan instead:
http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/center/whatsnew.htm

3. Now run a thorough check for hijackware, including posting requested logs
in an appropriate forum, not here.

Checking for/Help with Hijackware:
.. http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
.. http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/tshoot.html
.. http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/Malware_Defence.htm
.. http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

**Chances are you will need to seek expert assistance in
http://spywarehammer.com/simplemachinesforum/index.php?board=10.0,
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/viewforum.php?f=5,
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/cleanup,
http://www.bluetack.co.uk/forums/index.php,
http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30 or other appropriate forums.**

If these procedures look too complex - and there is no shame in admitting
this isn't your cup of tea - take the machine to a local, reputable and
independent (i.e., not BigBoxStoreUSA) computer repair shop.

 

[db]

you might try booting into
safe mode and see if there
is any improvement with
the performance.

my guess is that there will
be an indication that the
o.s. runs better in safe mode
than normal mode.

therefore, what you might
then execute is a "clean boot"

the clean boot will disable all
the non microsoft programs
and services that start up with
normal boot.

it is likely that disabling these
services, windows will be
normalized again.

-----------------

the enter safe mode just hold
down the f8 key after rebooting.

the diagnostic boot menu should
show up and then you can begin
your analysis

--
db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- @Hotmail.com
- nntp Postologist
~ "share the nirvana" - dbZen

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

 

[Jose]

My wife's Dell laptop has really slowed down.  She's running XP SP3 with 1.2
gigs of RAM.   When I look in Task Manager, the Performance tab shows CPU
usage almost nearly constant at 100%, although it spikes downward to a few
tens of % occasionally.  This doesn't sound correct.

I've got CA (Road Runner) Security Suite running, plus
MalwareByte's-AntiMalware, plus Ad-Aware 2009 installed. None of these show
any viruses, etc. on this machine (occasionally a tracking cookie).  Just
today I uninstalled SuperAntispyware Professional simply because I could
never get the program to open up, even after a 10 minute wait. The program
used to run just fine. I've never, ever used a Registry Cleaner on this
computer as I've been warned they can do more harm than good.

I've tried Disk Cleanup on the C drive but that program basically hangs up.
After 5 minutes of waiting for it to calculate how much disk space would be
save, I closed it. The C drive has 15 Gbytes of free space and 45 Gbytes
used.  RAM seems to show over 500 MB available. I haven't defrag'ed this
drive in a long time.

Can someone tell me if 100% CPU usage is the reason why everything takes
forever to open, and what would cause such CPU behavior? I have had what I'd
call `cooling problems' due to a dirty fan (fixed) and poor airflow
underneath the computer so I took care of that by cleaning the fan and
propping the laptop up so more air can flow under it. Is it possible the CPU
got damaged from excessive heating? (The CPU shut down a few times a month
ago, seemingly because it got too hot, but that no longer happens).

Thanks in advance................Paul C.

You can determine the cuplrit(s) with 100% certainty (no trial and
error) using Process Explorer:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

Then you can resolve it without consuming otherwise productive cycles
of time by guessing.

SAS hanging is not a good thing, but it can take a while to start...

Make sure MBAM runs clean, then fix the 100% thing after PE tells you
what the problem is.

 

[VanguardLH]

When I look in Task Manager, the Performance tab shows CPU
usage almost nearly constant at 100%

When in Task Manager's Processes tab and clicking on the CPU header to sort
by CPU usage (you might have to click twice since the first sort is
ascending but you want descending to put the highest usage processes at the
top), what process(es) is(are) eating up the most CPU usage? If it is
System Idle then that means the computer is mostly idle. All values for CPU
usage are to add up to 100% so System Idle is included to take up the slack.

 

[Daave]

When in Task Manager's Processes tab and clicking on the CPU header
to sort by CPU usage (you might have to click twice since the first
sort is ascending but you want descending to put the highest usage
processes at the top), what process(es) is(are) eating up the most
CPU usage? If it is System Idle then that means the computer is
mostly idle. All values for CPU usage are to add up to 100% so
System Idle is included to take up the slack.

In mine, System Idle Process is at the top with a figure of 99. But all
this means is all the other processes combined at the moment I am
looking at it total 1% (or lower). OP stated that CPU *usage* is close
to 100%. This is different. No matter which tab in Task Manager is
selected, there will always be three figures at the bottom: Processes,
CPU Usage, and Commit Charge. *That* is the CPU Usage OP is referring
to, not the column from the Processes tab.

Since Task Manager provides incomplete information, I also recommend
using Process Explorer:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

This page might be helpful to OP:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial129.html

 

[Lem]

My wife's Dell laptop has really slowed down. She's running XP SP3 with
1.2 gigs of RAM. When I look in Task Manager, the Performance tab
shows CPU usage almost nearly constant at 100%, although it spikes
downward to a few tens of % occasionally. This doesn't sound correct.

I've got CA (Road Runner) Security Suite running, plus
MalwareByte's-AntiMalware, plus Ad-Aware 2009 installed. None of these
show any viruses, etc. on this machine (occasionally a tracking
cookie). Just today I uninstalled SuperAntispyware Professional simply
because I could never get the program to open up, even after a 10 minute
wait. The program used to run just fine. I've never, ever used a
Registry Cleaner on this computer as I've been warned they can do more
harm than good.

I've tried Disk Cleanup on the C drive but that program basically hangs
up. After 5 minutes of waiting for it to calculate how much disk space
would be save, I closed it. The C drive has 15 Gbytes of free space and
45 Gbytes used. RAM seems to show over 500 MB available. I haven't
defrag'ed this drive in a long time.

Can someone tell me if 100% CPU usage is the reason why everything takes
forever to open, and what would cause such CPU behavior? I have had what
I'd call `cooling problems' due to a dirty fan (fixed) and poor airflow
underneath the computer so I took care of that by cleaning the fan and
propping the laptop up so more air can flow under it. Is it possible the
CPU got damaged from excessive heating? (The CPU shut down a few times a
month ago, seemingly because it got too hot, but that no longer happens).

Thanks in advance................Paul C.

You have 3 (or 4) antivirus/antimalware apps installed. Some of these
apps can be used in a scan-on-demand mode or in "realtime" protection
mode. Sometimes this depends on which version of the app you have
installed. Although it's good practice to have several antimalware
scanners available so that you periodically can scan your system, you
really don't want multiple realtime scanners operating at the same time.

Task Manager or Process Explorer should help you pinpoint what's
consuming your CPU cycles, but if I were you, I'd make sure to configure
your various apps to make sure that you have only one antivirus
application active.

You also might be interested in the following MS KB article, which
explains how to deal with a common reason that Disk Cleanup hangs (or at
least appears to hang):
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/812248

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

My wife's Dell laptop has really slowed down. She's running XP SP3 with 1.2
gigs of RAM. When I look in Task Manager, the Performance tab shows CPU
usage almost nearly constant at 100%,

Very symptomatic of a malware infection.

although it spikes downward to a few
tens of % occasionally. This doesn't sound correct.

I've got CA (Road Runner) Security Suite running, plus
MalwareByte's-AntiMalware, plus Ad-Aware 2009 installed. None of these show
any viruses, etc. on this machine (occasionally a tracking cookie). Just
today I uninstalled SuperAntispyware Professional simply because I could
never get the program to open up, even after a 10 minute wait.

Very symptomatic of a malware infection.

The program
used to run just fine. I've never, ever used a Registry Cleaner on this
computer as I've been warned they can do more harm than good.

Correct, and it's good that you didn't run one.

I've tried Disk Cleanup on the C drive but that program basically hangs up.
After 5 minutes of waiting for it to calculate how much disk space would be
save, I closed it. The C drive has 15 Gbytes of free space and 45 Gbytes
used. RAM seems to show over 500 MB available. I haven't defrag'ed this
drive in a long time.

Can someone tell me if 100% CPU usage is the reason why everything takes
forever to open,

Yes.


and what would cause such CPU behavior?

It's *highly* likely that you are infected with malware

 

[Paul Calcagno]

PA Bear, thanks for your response. I've never had no virus applications
installed. No subscriptions have ever expired and this machine is fully
patched with WU's. Paul C.

 

[Paul Calcagno]

Thanks, Jose. Can you please tell me if Process Explorer cares about what
OS I'm using. I'd like to try it out on my Vista Home Premium machine and
then on my wife's XP laptop.
And what's MBAM? I may have given everyone the impression that I know what
I'm talking about but there's tons I don't know.
Paul C.

 

[VanguardLH]

In mine, System Idle Process is at the top with a figure of 99. But all
this means is all the other processes combined at the moment I am
looking at it total 1% (or lower). OP stated that CPU *usage* is close
to 100%. This is different. No matter which tab in Task Manager is
selected, there will always be three figures at the bottom: Processes,
CPU Usage, and Commit Charge. *That* is the CPU Usage OP is referring
to, not the column from the Processes tab.

And why I *first* asked "what process(es) is(are) eating up the most CPU
usage?" The comment about System Idle was due to experience in LOTS of
users thinking that was an actual process.

I wasn't going into using SysInternal's Process Explorer to delve into which
service under an instance of svchost.exe was generating all the CPU usage
since the heavy hitters might easily be identified by a lone process name,
not a process that rolls up several services.

 

[Paul Calcagno]

Lem, thanks for the comments about multiple real time scanners running. Not
to put too fine a point on it but of all my antivirus/antispyware programs
only Ad-Aware runs realtime, as well as the e-mail AntiSpam feature of CA.
Do you still think that's too many?

Paul C

 

[Paul Calcagno]

db, can you please explain what's a clean boot? Paul C

 

[Paul Calcagno]

Correction to my reply back to Lem: The A/V portion of CA is also realtime
so I guess I have 2 A/V's running realtime simultaneously plus the Antispam
feature of CA for my e-mail.

 

[Jim]

MBAM = Malware Bytes Anti Malware.
Jim

Thanks, Jose. Can you please tell me if Process Explorer cares about what
OS I'm using. I'd like to try it out on my Vista Home Premium machine and
then on my wife's XP laptop.
And what's MBAM? I may have given everyone the impression that I know
what I'm talking about but there's tons I don't know.
Paul C.

 

[Paul Calcagno]

VanguardLG.

Something I forgot to mention regarding items inside of Task
Manager(Processes tab) on my wife's XP laptop: I noticed that there are 6
entries for svchost.exe as follows:

Network Service
Local Service
System Service
Network Service
Local Service
System Service
System Idle 98%
For the first 6 items all have different amounts of Memory usage shown.

Does that list of svchost.exe entries make sense to you or anyone else?
Can I delete any of them or will that cause issues? Paul C

 

[Paul]

My wife's Dell laptop has really slowed down. She's running XP SP3 with
1.2 gigs of RAM. When I look in Task Manager, the Performance tab
shows CPU usage almost nearly constant at 100%, although it spikes
downward to a few tens of % occasionally. This doesn't sound correct.

I've got CA (Road Runner) Security Suite running, plus
MalwareByte's-AntiMalware, plus Ad-Aware 2009 installed. None of these
show any viruses, etc. on this machine (occasionally a tracking
cookie). Just today I uninstalled SuperAntispyware Professional simply
because I could never get the program to open up, even after a 10 minute
wait. The program used to run just fine. I've never, ever used a
Registry Cleaner on this computer as I've been warned they can do more
harm than good.

I've tried Disk Cleanup on the C drive but that program basically hangs
up. After 5 minutes of waiting for it to calculate how much disk space
would be save, I closed it. The C drive has 15 Gbytes of free space and
45 Gbytes used. RAM seems to show over 500 MB available. I haven't
defrag'ed this drive in a long time.

Can someone tell me if 100% CPU usage is the reason why everything takes
forever to open, and what would cause such CPU behavior? I have had what
I'd call `cooling problems' due to a dirty fan (fixed) and poor airflow
underneath the computer so I took care of that by cleaning the fan and
propping the laptop up so more air can flow under it. Is it possible the
CPU got damaged from excessive heating? (The CPU shut down a few times a
month ago, seemingly because it got too hot, but that no longer happens).

Thanks in advance................Paul C.

For the sake of completeness, there is one other explanation for slow
performance.

There are some Dell computers with a throttling problem. When the
computer gets hot, the CPU clock rate is radically reduced. The
terms coined recently in the high tech news for this was
"Throttlegate", as it took some convincing, to get Dell to
do something about it.

You may want to do a search on the model number of the Dell,
to see if it is one of the affected models.

That probably doesn't explain all your symptoms. It could still
be malware for example. But some of the people with the affected
machines, got dog-slow performance, and initially they were
blaming the OS. When it was how the hardware was getting
adjusted.

If a Dell laptop drops to 100MHz operation, then virtually any
computing activity causes the CPU to look like it is "pegged".

Paul

 

[Paul Calcagno]

Great information, Paul.

Is there any easy way for me to tell how fast individual operations are
running? I'm kinda clueless about that. Paul C.

 

[Daave]

VanguardLG.

Something I forgot to mention regarding items inside of Task
Manager(Processes tab) on my wife's XP laptop: I noticed that there
are 6 entries for svchost.exe as follows:

Network Service
Local Service
System Service
Network Service
Local Service
System Service
System Idle 98%
For the first 6 items all have different amounts of Memory usage
shown.
Does that list of svchost.exe entries make sense to you or anyone
else? Can I delete any of them or will that cause issues?

Once more:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial129.html

"How to determine what services are running under a SVCHOST.EXE process"

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Nevertheless...

PA Bear, thanks for your response. I've never had no virus applications
installed. No subscriptions have ever expired and this machine is fully
patched with WU's. Paul C.