cpu usage

  • Thread starter Thread starter val
  • Start date Start date
V

val

Anyone know why my cpu is running at 100% when there are
no open applications? The computer performance is degraded
significantly. It's a 2.4 Mhz 1gig RAM dell. The cpu
column in processes doesn't show cpu activity that seems
to have any relation to the usage. All the updates have
been downloaded from the windows site.
 
When this happens (no usage in processes but the CPU is
at 100%), the common culprits are usually hardware
drivers, or the hardware itself.

Disconnect any network cables, USB devices, IEEE 1394
devices, etc, that you have and see if the problem goes
away. Another key question is the timeframe that this
started. Has this always happpened? Did it just start
up? Did you install or change anything on the system
around the time it started happening?

A virus scan is probably also a good idea just to make
sure nothing sinister is lurking.
 
I recently went through the same thing on a HP computer
running the Windows XP Home Edition operating Sytem.
Everyone kept telling me it was a hardware problem or a
virus. I was searching this news group and found out that
someone else had a similar problem and was told one of
the XP updates that was downloaded was the problem. It
seems that one of the downloads caused the CPU to run at
100% when there were "certain battery conditions". I
don't know what those conditions were but I went into the
control panel and clicked on "Add & Remove Programs". I
clicked on the bottom "windows XP update" and removed it.
I then went from the bottom to the top and removed all of
the updates one by one until they were all gone. I was
fortunate that I had another machine to run my hard drive
on because this process would have taken days with
the "bad CPU". After I deleted all of the Windows XP
Updates, I put the hard drive back in the original
machine and it still didn't work. ARRGHHH. I then took
out the battery and reinstalled it. From that point on
the machine worked perfectly. Please e-mail me if you
need any more info. I know how frustrating the problem is.
 
Thanks Dave, thanks Chris. Dave was right. I pulled out
the last thing I installed which was a CF card reader a
few wks ago. Normally they run cool. This one ran hot so
there was prob something wrong with it. Before my eyes the
cpu went from 100 to 0-2. Hee hee. Many thanks. I was
lucky for once.
 
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