Computer help - CPU suddenly running at 100%

I had this issue with my Windows XP machine and it seemed to be one particular security update. The way I figured this out is by using System Restore to roll my machine back to a time before I started experiencing the problem. Then as soon as it downloaded security updates, the problem started happening again. So I rolled back again and this time specifically disallowed that particular security update. (Usually this is a bad idea, because you do need to install the security updates, but in this case I felt it was justified.)

So you might try that if nothing else works. If you have System Restore enabled, that is.

Whenever my CPU starts operating at 100 my fan whirs loudly, regardless of the reported temperature, as a safety measure.

That’s a fairly common but not universal feature. Usually it’s tied to the CPU temperature; if the temperature crosses some threshold the computer cranks up the fan speed. But even with computers that have this feature, some CPUs won’t produce enough heat (or are well-cooled) such that they never cross that temperature threshold, even at 100% CPU use. Or the fan speed increase may not make enough noise to be noticeable.

I don’t know how long the problem has been going on. I don’t have System Restore set up, I don’t think. The fan isn’t whirring.

The followg has improved performance to the point where the system isn’t dragging too badly, but still shows CPU 100%:

cc cleaner
check hard drive for errors
defrag hard drive

Does anyone want to look at a HijackThis log if I run it and post it? Pretty please?

I used Revo last time, so I guess I should do that too.

System Restore is usually turned on by default, so unless you specifically turned it off, it might be available. Go to Start --> All Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools --> System Restore and fire it up, and see if you have any restore points in there.

It shows a claendar and says the dates in bold have system resotre points in them. Every day is bolded going back to October 27, 2011. When I click randomly on each date, it shows “Software Distribution Service 3.0.”

Yeah, Software Distribution Service is Windows updates. System Restore will create a restore point before installing them. It’s weird that you have one every single day though. You might try rolling back to a point before you started experiencing the maxed-out CPU problem and see if the problem is fixed and/or recurs.

I don’t know how long the problem has existed by I noticed it only yesterday.

I picked a random restore date of January 11, 2012, and restored to that date. The CPU usage appears to be fluctuating normally instead of just being pegged at 100%. Operation is smoother.

Should I try to figure out on what date it went bad and try to figure out the cause?

Well, if you didn’t install anything between now and then, I’m going to guess that it was either malware or it was a Windows update. If it was a Windows update, you’ll figure it out pretty quickly because as soon as your computer downloads the update again, you’ll have the same problem. When the update dialog box pops up, you can specifically disallow certain updates, so that’s what I’d do if that turns out to be the case. (Can provide more specific instructions if you need them.)

Dropbox. I can’t recall anything else.

Later on, I will advance the restore date to maybe January 22 and see what happens.

Done and working fine. I’ll just leave it here and maybe run ccleaner again to see how it goes. Should I create a new restore point?

I probably wouldn’t bother, no. If the problem recurs, you can just go back to the same restore point you used previously. It only rolls back your system software and any recently-installed apps, so you won’t lose documents or other data. And Windows automatically creates new restore points (assuming you have the feature enabled, which you do) before each new update, so you’re covered that way too.

Glad it seems to be fixed! Tentatively, anyway. :slight_smile:

Thanks!

Following up with a some hard drive questions:

It says I have 90.2 GB hard drive with 17.8 GB available.

  1. How do I see what’s taking up the space so I can perhaps free some up?

  2. My wife is going to download the iPad content to iTunes, and it says the iPad has about 14 GB of stuff. How much hard drive can I use and still expect reasonable performance?

  3. I have an external hard drive on a USB port. Is there any issue with using the external hard drive to run applications? I am just using it now to store backup documents. There are no applications on it.

Looking again, the iPad has 14GB capacity but only 3GB used and 11GB free. Still, I wonder how much I can put on a 92GB hard drive until things start to slow down. Thanks!

If I remember correctly the defrag process in XP needs 15% of the disk free to work, so I wouldn’t go below that. It’s a decent rule of thumb anyway. To find out what is using the space use a utility such as WinDirStat http://windirstat.info/

Try to bring it to computer shop, and have it fixed professionally.

Try reading the whole thread. :stuck_out_tongue: