taskmgr.exe constanly running 15% CPU

[gls858]

I was trying to help someone with a Dell laptop that was running
slow. I found that they had a failed SP2 upgrade listed in the
update history when I went to the windows update site. It was from
last October! Anyway when I checked the task manager it was always
running around 15% of the CPU. I removed SP2 through Add and remove
programs and re-installed. Install was successful. Went back to
windows update site and picked up the rest of the updates, 20 to be
exact. Everything installed OK, but taskmgr.exe is still taking up
about 15% of the CPU. I tried killing taskmgr.exe and it did in fact
close the task manager so I don't think it's a "look alike" malware
process running. Any ideas?

 

[Clark]

When you used the Task Manager, did you see any processes that were using
CPU time?

Clark

 

[gls858]

When you used the Task Manager, did you see any processes that were using
CPU time?

Clark

Yep a couple related to Music Match, mim.exe and MMdiag.exe, and
a couple of windows processes occasionally. System idle never got
above about 80% and taskmgr.exe was pretty constant at about 15%
the other 5% was being bounced about in the other processes above.

I'm guessing she hosed something pretty good during the SP2 update.
She told me it was taking to long so she just stopped it :-O

Younger generation just doesn't have any patience She continued
to use the computer and load software after this. I suggested several
options. Remove the P2P software, remove any thing else she had loaded
recently. If that didn't work a repair install, if that didn't work
full restore. Thought I would check here first before taking one of
the last two steps, since I just got it all updated.

I did forget to mention I ran 2 anti virus programs Norton which was on
the laptop and Housecall from Trend Micro. Also ran Spybot S&D and
Adaware. All came back clean.

gls858

 

[Clark]

On mine, probably like yours, system idle is normally 99% if I am not
running anything. Try shutting down the processes that show all the
activity when nothing else is running.

Or use msconfig.exe to check for them starting up and stop it there if you
can.

If she messed up the update, I suppose there could be other problems. You
might also look at whether the CPU utilization changes if she is not
connected to the internet. Heck, who knows, maybe she is spamming the
world! ;-)

Clark

 

[gls858]

On mine, probably like yours, system idle is normally 99% if I am not
running anything. Try shutting down the processes that show all the
activity when nothing else is running.

Or use msconfig.exe to check for them starting up and stop it there if you
can.

If she messed up the update, I suppose there could be other problems. You
might also look at whether the CPU utilization changes if she is not
connected to the internet. Heck, who knows, maybe she is spamming the
world! ;-)

Clark

Checked the activity off net and it was the same thing. Something is
causing taskmgr.exe to run all the time. When I stop this process all it
does is close the task manager. Almost look like something is wrong
with the task manager itself.

gls858

 

[Sharon F]

Checked the activity off net and it was the same thing. Something is
causing taskmgr.exe to run all the time. When I stop this process all it
does is close the task manager. Almost look like something is wrong
with the task manager itself.

Have you customized what information Task Manager shows? If yes, try
disabling some of those extras to see if performance changes.

As a test, I used View while on the Processes page and checked all items in
the first column (normally only have 4 checked). With all items checked,
Task Manager would frequently spike up to 27 under CPU usage. With just my
usual 4 items checked, it hovers between 2-4 and once in a great while
blips in at 7 or 8.

I suspect that "which" items are being tracked, as well as "how many," will
influence the outcome.

 

[gls858]

Have you customized what information Task Manager shows? If yes, try
disabling some of those extras to see if performance changes.

As a test, I used View while on the Processes page and checked all items in
the first column (normally only have 4 checked). With all items checked,
Task Manager would frequently spike up to 27 under CPU usage. With just my
usual 4 items checked, it hovers between 2-4 and once in a great while
blips in at 7 or 8.

I suspect that "which" items are being tracked, as well as "how many," will
influence the outcome.

Thank for the input. I'll check it, but I don't remember seeing anything
but the standard columns. Just for a test I marked all of the columns to
show on machine here at work and initially when I open task manager I
get a hit of about 20 to 25% but it very quickly goes back to 99% idle.

gls858