# cpu usage spikes to 100% sometimes...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cpu-usage-spikes-to-100-sometimes/308294>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 14, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cpu-usage-spikes-to-100-sometimes/308294 "2005-06-14T23:56:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![destroypower](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@destroypower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/destroypower)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cpu-usage-spikes-to-100-sometimes/308294/1 "2005-06-14T23:56:55Z")

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just a minute ago i was installing Sim City 4. during the installation my cpu usage jumped to 100%. This isnt normal on my computer. Also, often my computer freezes for a couple seconds… the cursor will freeze as well as anything else going on. right before it unfreezes it goes “dee-doo, doo-dee” as if i unplugged a usb cable and plugged it back in. anyone have any idea whats going on?

my systems:  
asus k8n-e  
athlon 64 3000+  
3gb pc2700  
ati radeon 9800pro  
sound blaster audigy 2 zs platinum  
120gb hd (xp)  
120gb hd  
80gb hd

thank you.

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**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cpu-usage-spikes-to-100-sometimes/308294/2 "2005-06-15T00:44:58Z")

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If the spikes occured while you were installing a program, spikes to 100% could be entirely normal; for example, it could have been uncompressing part of the program.

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**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cpu-usage-spikes-to-100-sometimes/308294/3 "2005-06-15T04:34:59Z")

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Is it repeatable? If not I wouldn’t give it a second thought. If it is, pull up the task manager, click the processes tab, click on CPU twice (usually). This will sort the processes by what is using the most. Watch it when it spikes and see what it is that’s doing it. If you don’t recognize it, head over to [www.answersthatwork.com](http://www.answersthatwork.com) and find it on that website. They usually also have a discription of it and explain what to do, if anything, about it.

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**Author:** ![Fromage\_A\_Trois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fromage\_A\_Trois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fromage_A_Trois)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cpu-usage-spikes-to-100-sometimes/308294/4 "2005-06-15T12:18:46Z")

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Worth considering is what kind of antivirus you’ve got on there. The company I work for provide software, and sometimes our customers would find parts of it (including the installation) particularly slow on an otherwise fast computer. Normally it turned out that the antivirus software was scanning every single piece of data that was applied to the computer - CPU % on task manager showed that it was the antivirus software that was using the processor.

This would be fixed by adding our program to the “exclusions” list - the antivirus left it alone then. This may not be possible for you (especially not for installing something - you can’t exclude it till it’s installed) and presumably you do want to actually have your antivirus do some scanning 😃