CPU usage.

[GRAV888]

My orange light on my tower is on permanently and has been for nearly a month, but now things are getting really slow.
It keeps losing an internet connection and will reboot itself whenever it feels like it.
I have scanned for viruses etc, but none have been found.
I also noticed, that the CPU usage is nearly allways 90%.
I have 70% free memory available.
Any ideas, or smash it up and get another one?

 

[masqueraid]

Does sound like your hard drive might be on its way out. How old??

 

[GRAV888]

Does sound like your hard drive might be on its way out. How old??

2.5 - 3 yrs tops.

 

[masqueraid]

Don't want to condemn it from a distance. If is was a commercial "always on" machine I would probably consider impending hardware failure, any noises that suggest the drive is struggling? Any error messages?

Rebooting spontaneously could be overheating. Always worth giving the case a thorough hoovering.

It could be something quite innocent like the drive running low on free space and or very fragmented.

What have you used so far for "scanned for viruses etc".

 

[Dieselman]

But grav says the CPU is running, something must be using it.

Grav can you go into Windows Task Manager and processes then sort by CPU. This should highlight the offending programme. Kill it off and see what happens.

 

[pammy]

What AV are you running? Sounds like you've got some proggy running in the background that you don't know about.

What's on you start up list? Might be something in there that's not loading properly.

 

[GRAV888]

I've got mcaffee pro installed.
It runs at every startup.
I did think of the overheating problem and cleaned all the fluff out last week.
I even took the case apart.

Will, I'll try what you suggested.

The fan seems to run fast, then slow.

 

[GRAV888]

Found this:

Image name ............User name......CPU....... Memory usage
System idle process ....SYSTEM........93 .....42,050k

 

[robert.saunders]

What processes have you got running, a la Dieselman?

 

[Dieselman]

Found this:

Image name ............User name......CPU Memory usage
System idle process SYSTEM 93 42,050k

So idle is using processing power, how odd. Just close applications and programs until something happens.

 

[GRAV888]

So idle is using processing power, how odd. Just close applications and programs until something happens.

I only have AOL running.
No other programs are running.
All other processes seem to be using between 0 and 5%, then drop off again.

 

[masqueraid]

Assume that this is pretty much continuous rather than just for a few minutes or so after starting, and that the orange light in your original post shows when the drive is being accessed. (How are you for free space on the drive?)

Task Manager is only going to give you an overview of what's running.
Try this (unzip onto your desktop and run) and look through the entries for anything you don't recognise.

-------------------------
EDIT: You don't have to go through the whole list . You can use the program to generate a list of running processes ("expand all"/"copy to clipboard") and get someone else to hunt out anything suspicious.

 

[Rob77]

You don't say what spec PC this is but you could usefull try this:

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

And this:

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/supertweaks.htm

I'm assuming you're running XP. Also, if the PC's been running fine for 3 years and this has started now then I'd suspect either a teenage user that is dowloading allsorts or the PSU may be on its way out.

 

[Dieselman]

Also, if the PC's been running fine for 3 years and this has started now then I'd suspect a teenage user that is dowloading allsorts .

That'll be Grav then..

 

[zmaster007]

System Idle Process is just where all the cpu cycles are put when nothing else is using them - nothing to worry about.

 

[pammy]

That'll be Grav then..

Yup - sounds about right

 

[GazCaff]

Just Clean out your browser cache and then download and run Spybot S&D and Adaware and you'll be fine.

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

 

[jpskiller]

If system is running slow, then it could be winows update service in background (common problem some updates cause this), do a google search and u will find the fix for this.

 

[Dieselman]

Also when was the last time you carried out hard drive maintenance?

Clean out all unused fies, then perform scandisk, then defragment.

At least that way you know the HDD is ok and working at it's best.

 

[Rory]

If system is running slow, then it could be winows update service in background (common problem some updates cause this), do a google search and u will find the fix for this.

I was going to mention that, as it happened on one of our 4 laptops (why it only affected one is a mystery to me).
However the CPU was spending most of its time looking for updates, not being idle, so it wouldn't seem to fit the bill here.
I think just applying the latest Windows update fixed it.