System CPU usage spikes

[Guest]

My "system idle" on the Task Manager is regularly in the 90s. But, every 30
seconds or so, it drops down to near zero and "system" spikes up to 100. None
of my other processes are changing in terms of cpu usage.

This causes a problem in that my applications run slow or hang. Even my
download speed seems affected.

I suspected a virus, but have run several different virus programs and
several different spyware programs.

 

[Maurice N ~ MVP]

Make very sure your system does not have malware.
See <http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware>

 

[Guest]

Thank your for your response. I've followed your advice, and didn't find any
malware. When in safe mode, however, I discovered another program using up
the processor (Spysweeper, which didn't use up resources under its own
process, but did so under "system"). When I removed that program, everything
turned out right.

Now I just have to figure out why my downloads are so slow, but that's for
me and adelphia to figure out.

Thanks again.

 

[Maurice N ~ MVP]

Plotinus,
You're welcome. I suppose the settings for Spysweeper were too aggressive. In any event, you could have just set it to not load at each startup. And then only use it occasionaly to run checks.