constantly high cpu utilisation when pc is idle

[marcdauncey]

Hi there, I have a problem with a new pc that a friend built for me. The PC has an Athlon XP2000 processor in a ASRock K78X motherboard. I am running win2k (sp4), the memory in the machine is 512mb ddr.

The processor utilisation is frequently at 90-100% when the pc is idle for long periods of time. I checked the taskman for programs that may be consuming a lot of cpu time or power and there is nothing. System Idle is taking most of it, nothing else seems to be tying it up.

I stripped out the soundcard and wi-fi card and did a fresh install of windows. All that is installed now is the gfx card drivers (matrox g400) and a usb adsl alcatel modem.

The pc will be ok for a while and runs normally. After an hour or two it starts slowing down dramatically with cpu utilisation at 100%. Sometimes windows takes 3 minutes to boot. If I switch it off for a while it is ok again.

I wonder whether anyone has come across this. I wonder whether the bus speed is too high for the processor or even the fan is not making contact correctly meaning the processor might be getting too hot.

If anyone could give me some advice I would be most grateful.

Regards


Marc Dauncey

 

[ceh4702]

I have seen this in WinXP. The OS uses some kind of IDLE Process that only uses the idle time. So is the overall processing rate 99-100% or just one category for this sysem idle process?

I think this is some kind of windows flaw in how it reports what is going on.

I have seen other programs interrupt the operating system on XP. The autosave program that backups your settings can cause everything else to pause completely it is quite annoying.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[marcdauncey]

Thanks for your reply! I think the idle task taking 99% of processor time is normal - however the utilisation isn't. it means i can't run more than a couple of programs at once on a box which should be a total workhorse. To give an example, last night i was downloading a file from the net and playing an mp3. The audio was stuttering because winamp was struggling to get a slice of processor time.

My feeling is that there is a hardware problem, maybe with the fan but i don't know that much about maintaining and building pcs and therefore can't verify it!

 

[ceh4702]

One other thing to check is to look for Spyware. Some times when you download programs or files you also download stuff that sends info back to websites. This is spyware. Look for a program that detects spyware. A virus can also cause similar problems. I am always leary of downloading stuff from the Internet. This can cause more problems than it is worth.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[bcastner]

I agree with you that having the idle process high is normal, but not at the same time as CPU utilization.

ceh4702 is I believe on the right track: a trojan or virus could well explain this anomaly.

Download and run SpyBot:

http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=download811151

Do an on-line anti-virus scan. There are several, one I like:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

 

[mikecro]

Marc,
I've suffered similar symptoms whilst running W2K on a laptop. Its really annoying because the fan goes continually on the Laptop to try and cool down the stressed out processor!
My solution was to use task manager to try and tie down which processes started around the time the fan kicked in. It turned out to be a bad scanner driver. When I started the laptop docked - no problem, but when the laptop was started away from the docking station and away from the scanner the driver couldn't handle it (race condition I'd guess) and 100% utilisation resulted.
Interestingly when the problem exhibited itself the 100% processer time was against the "System" process and not the driver process itself. When I killed the driver process manually everything returned to normal.
I'm sure this isn't your exact problem but it sounds similar and a rogue driver could be the root cause of your problem. The lesson I learnt was don't believe Task Manager when it is assigning processor utilisation.

Mike C

 

[moonpig]

I agree with Mikecro, these things are usually caused by a bad peice of software rather than a hardware fault. Typically a hardware driver or program that executes at start up will be to blame.

When you look at Task manager/processes click the CPU heading to sort the percentage of use in that order to show what is taking up all the CPU's time. The system idle process always consumes around 96% but look to see whats also at the top. It may drop position from time to time but the problem process always sits near the top.

Do you have Kazaa or Kazaalite running? If you do reply to this and I'll tell you what the problem is.

Also, download a program called processor Viewer. from here:

http://www.prcview.com

and try killing of non-windows essential processes one by one to find the culprit.

 

[oregonmike]

Howdy all,
I'm going to jump on the spyware bandwagon.
2 days ago I went to a customers house who was complaining about a sluggish computer (1.7-gHz P4, win2k Pro, 256-MB).
The first thing I did was pulled up Task Manager to check resource usage and CPU activity. The available resources were well below normal range and the CPU was running from 60% to 90% constantly.
Checked to see what programs were installed (using JV16 Powertools) and found Audio Galaxy Satellite, Grokster, Bonsi Buddy, Gator, BuyPal, etc..
Ran AdAware and it it found 435 objects, 6 processes, 36 Registry Keys, and umpteen files that were suspicious.
Deleted them all and CPU usage went back to normal at idle (0%-4%), and available RAM went from 118-MB up to 190-MB (using MemTurbo).
I let her know that some of the deleted items might cause some of her kid's filesharing programs to not work, and that she should have them use Bearshare instead, and run AdAware often to avoid such problems in the future.
-Peace

 

[snowcatt]

I had a similar problem with my networked Dell C800 Latitude, where it ran 30-50% utilization all the time caused by spoolsv.exe, and the virtual memory usage gradually increased to the point where it was full. Rebooting cleared the memory for a time, but the cpu still ran 30-50%. The solution was to install the latest Novell client.

 

[euston]

The CPU can't be allowed to stop when it has nothing to do so all operating systems have a 'backstop' or 'idle' process. It is very low priority (the lowest of the low) so that when processing is needed for something useful, the backstop is immediately suspended. The 99% to 100% spoken of is simply book keeping to account for the total time that the CPU is available for use.

Now, if another process is hogging CPU time, that's another matter. You have to identify it, decide if it is doing something useful and if not, then stop it from starting in the first place.

 

[marcdauncey]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Bizarrely the pc is working normally now although I haven't changed anything to fix it. This bothers me as I don't feel like I've got the bottom of the problem.

Euston, the idle task taking 99% of the utilisation makes sense - however what didn't make sense was for the pc to be slowing down to a crawl when its a p4 and theres only two apps running (winamp and notepad). This always seemed to happen about two hours after startup - again not starting loads of programs, just watching what happens with it with a couple of apps open over a period of time.

I examined taskman during a slow-down and there was nothing significant in utilisation or processor time (beyond the idle task). I originally put it down to hardware but I just don't know.

Since it has been running normally it rarely goes over 50% utilisation even when theres 10 or more apps running (audio production s/w, multiple instances of IE, etc). ???

 

[euston]

When you started this thread, the CPU was an Athlon XP2000. It's changed to a P4! If a processor gets too hot, it stops.

Win2K SP4 works great for me. SP4 got rid of all sorts of screwups.


Some suggestions (these are things I would try if it was my problem): -

Look at Task Manager and see which processes are the little greedy guts.

Do you use MS Office and, if so, is FindFast working?

Is the HDD light flickering?

Try installing another OS. Have you an old spare HDD and Win98 (preferably Win98SE)? See if the problem remains.

I would think of rerunning the BIOS setup (using standard performance defaults but PLEASE WRITE DOWN YOUR OLD SETTINGS FIRST) and checking if there are relevant BIOS updates which deal with a known problem which looks something like what you are battling with.

Run a virus scan. I'm wondering why it's slow to boot.

mikeoregon's AdAware suggestion makes good sense. And it's free!

Windows 2000's performance monitor might shed some light on things (Control Panel->Administrative Tools).