CPU usage too high 2

[mastervader]

Hey everybody, I just found this forum and was hoping someone out there could help me. I am running Windows XP Pro SP2 and the CPU time is routinely running between 75% - 100%. There are no processes running that are taking up CPU time. When I view Kernel times, it shows that all the CPU usage is Kernel time. As you can imagine, this slows down the computer quite a bit. Does anyone have any ideas what could be going on? I have done 2 clean reinstalls of the OS and it does the same thing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DragonQ0105]

Spyware/Adware/Viruses?

 

[micker377]

Where do you get a reading of "kernal" time? The only "high" usage on mine, is "idle" time. This should be high when nothing is running.

 

[ITdude]

Try Process Explorer at

http://www.sysinternals.com

 

[domino1879]

9 times out of 10 it's caused by either spyware or viruses (virii?). even if you do a clean install of the OS, if you don't wipe the hard drive completely, viruses can still remain. i recommend two things:

ad aware at

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,7423,00.asp

and trend micro housecall (free online virus scan) at

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

before you use either of these though, i recommend bringing up your processes tab in the windows task manager, finding the items that are taking up all your processing resources, and ending those processes. if they are running when trying a virus scan the antivirus will not be able to effectively remove it. like the post above said already, the only process that should have a high number is the system idle.

 

[mastervader]

oh, sry, I ran Spybot, Microsoft's spyware program and Ad-Aware. Nothing came up.

 

[mastervader]

As for how do i get the kernel time, I run Task Manager and view Performance. I then click on View and then Show Kernel Times. It shows up as red in the graph and takes up all the CPU time being used.

 

[mastervader]

Sorry, maybe I am not being clear. When I open the Task Manager and view the Processes tab, I get System Idle Process at 99%. This is should be this way. When I view the Performance tab, I get very high CPU usage. I then click on View, Show Kernel Times and then I see that all the CPU usage is kernel time. I have run 3 different anti-spyware programs and run Norton anti-virus Pro 2005. I am at a loss as to why this is occuring. I thought it might be some sort of hardware problem? Any ideas? Thanks everyone for responding.

 

[cdogg]

It might not be an infection. Kernel time is from applications or devices that are using kernel operations, which is separate from the end user CPU usage you see on the Processes tab.

So, to troubleshoot where it's coming from, you need to nit-pick your way through your applications and processes list, along with your Windows startup group. Disable a handful at a time, reboot when changing startup items, and repeat the process until you see the kernel time go back to normal. Then you can narrow it down from there to see what's using it.

Indexing services and some peripherals can use a lot of kernel time. So also take a gander in services.msc (which can be started from the Run menu).

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[Seumas13]

System Idle Time at 99% means one of two things:
1: The system isn't very busy
or
2: Some malware has named itself, "System Idle Time"

 

[Frank4d]

This problem can also be caused by inadequate memory. How much memory do you have installed?

It can also happen if your antivirus program is configured to check all write requests to every file on your hard drive.

 

[firewolfrl]

Microsoft's AntiSpyware software sometimes randomly causes a slowdown and CPU usage when realtime protection is enabled...

try disabling realtime protection for a day or two and see if that works

SpywareGuard 2.2 is a better realtime protection tray program then Microsoft and it uses the CPU more efficiently and it's FREE

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html

that may help

 

[lumiogirl]

Hi - I am also new to the site, found you guys as i am having exactly the same trouble as mastervader (though running windows XP home - also done all the virus/malware scans and a reinstall). just wondering if he managed to solve it?

 

[zoobio]

Ok, I am having pretty much the same problem with Windows XP Pro. When I run the task manager, I find that the cpu time is being used anywhere from 28%-100% though it averages out at about 50%. There appear to be no other processes running. I have sat and watched the %cpu by process and nothing shows up that could be causing the actual use. I have used msconfig to disable all services and startup items that are not microsoft ones. I have run adaware and norton antivirus 04 with recent updates. I have 734 mb of memory on a toshiba laptop with a celeron m processor and it's plugged in.
I have installed the os twice. I formatted the hard drive each time I did this.
One interesting thing is this: the problem went away for about a week after I did a windows update. At the time, I figured that one of microsoft's update patches must have been causing the problem, and that they had fixed it with a newer update. However, the problem came back. I promptly did another windows update but the problem remains. Definitely something is running in the background and I can't figure out what it is! I strongly suspect it is a windows problem and that it is related to an update. It's interesting to note that at least 2 other people have the same problem.

 

[lumiogirl]

Well I guess it is good not to be alone! Just to add, this is the second time i have had this problem, last time a reinstall and reformat of hard drive fixed it, but two months later it was back, this didn't seem to be related to any updates or software installs. I have noticed that it seems to coincide with a problem with allocation of resourses to the COM1 port. Don't know if this is cause or effect. Do you guys see this too?

 

[thedon57]

Hi have you checked nortons because that itself is power hungry and looking at both posts both of you have nortons installed.

See my own website at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Selfbuilt_conputer.

 

[lumiogirl]

sorry - should have said - i use F-secure anti virus not norton

 

[PitterPat]

I too have the same problem: very high cpu utilization along with high idle time and no processes taking significant cpu time.

I've run several spyware checkers: Ad-aware, Spybot, PestPetrol, HijackThis. And a full virus scan with etrust ezAntiVirus.

So far I have not been able to find a solution.

Please post any ideas or fixes.

 

[intelwizrd]

I had a similar problem though it didnt result in my CPU running at 100%. I noticed that all of the processes should have only been using 5% or so but my CPU was running at 30% or over. I noticed that when I disconnected my ethernet connection it stopped. I ran a packet analyser (ethereal) and noticed a lot of SNMP and ICMP traffic. Found out I had set up a device to send SNMP traps to my computer. I fixed the problem and since then my CPU utilization has been in sync with the reported running processes.

----------------------------
Josh
CCNA, MCSE 2003(in progress)

 

[PitterPat]

Thanks intelwizrd.

I tried disabling my internet connection but in my case it didn't help.

I don't think your fix works in my case. My network comm rate is hugging zero when I'm not explicitly accessing the net.

Thanks again, PP