Processor runnning at 100%

[Stuart Roberts]

Hi,

Just recently my system slows right down for no apparent reason.
Today I had only three I.E. 6 windows open and Outlook Express. To open a
new message for this text took about 5 seconds or more. I have my Task
Manager open and performance shows my CPU at 100% constantly. Everything has
slowed to near on stand still.
Now I only have Outlook open to type this but to open anything else is
taking a long time. Even a right click menu takes up to 6 - 7 seconds to
appear!
Why does this happen?

My system:

PIII 933 mhz
512MB memory
30GB HDD in 2 partitions (C: is just under half full & D: is just over half
full)
I'm running Win XP

Can you help me?

 

[Corutney]

Hi,

Just recently my system slows right down for no apparent reason.
Today I had only three I.E. 6 windows open and Outlook Express. To open a
new message for this text took about 5 seconds or more. I have my Task
Manager open and performance shows my CPU at 100% constantly. Everything has
slowed to near on stand still.
Now I only have Outlook open to type this but to open anything else is
taking a long time. Even a right click menu takes up to 6 - 7 seconds to
appear!
Why does this happen?

My system:

PIII 933 mhz
512MB memory
30GB HDD in 2 partitions (C: is just under half full & D: is just over half
full)
I'm running Win XP

Can you help me?

No, but you can help yourself.

What is taking up the processor time? You can check by bringing up the
Task Manager and clicking on the Processes tab. Click on the CPU column
heading to sort from high to low. If System Idle Process is at the top,
your system is not at 100%. That is a looping process that is run
whenever nothing else needs the system. (Remember that the CPU is always
running at 100%. If it isn't, we call that a crash.)

Run Ad-Aware, Spybot Search & Destroy, and Spyware Blaster (in that
order). All are free, excellent ad remover programs.

Update and run your antivirus software,

Finally, get a decent firewall installed, if you don't have one. At the
very least, enable the firewall that comes with XP.

courtney sends....

 

[Stuart Roberts]

My system idle is at the top of the list, I assume this is where it should
be.
Hopefully if I run the software in the order given it'll sort some things
out.

Ta

Stu