Community Newsletter: Q&A: CPU keeps going to 100%--any suggestions to remedy?
- 2/28/08 2:46 PM
drivers
by deaths_little_helper - 2/16/08 9:17 AM In reply to: CPU keeps going to 100%--any suggestions to remedy? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Check all drivers, and software for updates. I've seen this on older computers running XP Pro, as they age the drivers get behind and never get updates. The CPU maxes out, as the hardware asks for more and more unneeded resources. In my experience you can either update the drivers for suspected hardware, check for software updates, and if all else fails, rebuild your system from a saved/backed up setting.
Speed up your PC! Great info
by angelcaller - 2/16/08 9:18 AM In reply to: CPU keeps going to 100%--any suggestions to remedy? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
clean up your startup with this detailed step by step informational video!http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1004943/decrap_your_computer_optimize_memory/
30 day free trial: works wonders! http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/
Use Task Manager to see what is eating at your cpu.
by ACE MC - 2/16/08 10:02 AM In reply to: CPU keeps going to 100%--any suggestions to remedy? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have experienced this problem too, and what I did was to use the task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) looking within the processes to see what is abusing your poor cpu. My problem was actually my anti-virus, scanning and constantly checking for updates whenever i turned-on my laptop. I hope this helps trace the source of your problem.
This fixed mine!
by capt124 - 2/23/08 7:19 AM In reply to: Use Task Manager to see what is eating at your cpu. by ACE MCMine was doing the same thing. After investigating, it seemed to be WINDOWS DEFENDER, an anti spyware program from Microsoft. After removing it from all 3 of my computers, they all run normally again. I hope this will help everyone.
(NT) Defender becomes corrupted but just needs reinstall
by gregrocker - 2/28/08 4:06 PM In reply to: This fixed mine! by capt124Processes
by Ricklw - 2/16/08 10:30 AM In reply to: CPU keeps going to 100%--any suggestions to remedy? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I had the same trouble and searched back to an HP Network Devices Support. After I disabled this particular process in MSCONFIG (type the same in the RUN window) I have hardly had any problems. In the processes tab of Windows Task Manager it showed up as an scvhost.exe. When I shut down the one using 90% plus of my cpu it would stop. Did this for a long time until I used procexp to find which program was the problem. That did it.
I also deleted Firefox as I found it used a lot of system resources also.
task manager - Find Windows XP CPU hogs
by switheyw - 2/16/08 10:58 AM In reply to: CPU keeps going to 100%--any suggestions to remedy? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Use the task manager program to discover which programs are consuming your system's resources.
To start the task manager, hit the following 3 keys at the same time
CTRL ALT DELETE
to bring up the task manager. Task manager shows a list of running programs, and, most importantly, under the CPU column, it shows how much of the processor's power is being consumed by each task. If most of the processes show 0 or 1 or 2 in the CPU column, we know that they are not resource hogs - seeing 10 or 20 or more in this column pinpoints this program as being a heavy resource user. If you are able to pinpoint a resource hog, then you must decide if you need to have that program running or not. If you decide that the program does not need to be running, then you must determine how it is started and remove that startup item.
My own preference was to disable the file indexing (XP indexes all file locations in order to speed up file searches). To disable:
o click on My Computer
repeat for each disk:
o right click on drive icon
o select properties
o at bottom of window, see "allow indexing ....." uncheck.
The Driver Might Be The problem
by mtaghif - 2/16/08 11:04 AM In reply to: CPU keeps going to 100%--any suggestions to remedy? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi there
I have a GeForce FX 5500 graphic adapter and when i installed its driver i found my PC reaches 100% percent after a while. And when i searched for the problem i found that it installed a file that uses the whole CPU when i work with it after a few minutes. The name of the file is Rscmpt.exe in blow directory:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Rscmpt.exe
Simply disable this file by a program like tune up utilities or system Mechanic or you can do it with MSCONFIG!!!
I hope it works
Taghi from the night!!!
Answer for Anthony --CPU keeps going to 100%
by yes746 - 2/16/08 11:04 AM In reply to: CPU keeps going to 100%--any suggestions to remedy? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Your problem might be as simple as you do not have enough memory or , you just might have too many programs [Such as Virus,Spyware Scans or program updates] running in the background at the same time. This answer might not solve your problem but,it might turn you in the right direction before you start fooling around with your registry.
A.W.
Loop of death!
by NoxTheOx - 2/16/08 11:21 AM In reply to: CPU keeps going to 100%--any suggestions to remedy? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Anthony,
This is most certainly a software issue. Whether it is related to device drivers or Windows applications and services is hard to say at this point. Luckily, it is fairly simple to start the diagnosis.
Here is what I would do:
1. Continue to use your computer until the next time it starts to slow down due to the processor being overused.
2. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL on your keyboard to bring up the Windows Task Manager.
3. Go to the "Processes" tab in the Windows Task Manager.
4. Sort the list of processes by "CPU". This is a percentile representation of how much processing power each program or service that is running under Windows is using. A service is a program that runs invisibly in the backgrowund.
5. Determine which program is using all your computing power. It will be at the top of the list with a high percentage if you sort it by descending processor usage.
6. Once you know the name of the program that is hogging your juice, Google around a bit to answer these questions...
6.a. Do other people have the same problem?
6.b. Is this a virus, trojan or spyware program?
6.c. How is it fixed?
6.d. If it cannot be fixed, how is it removed?
6.e. What is the answer to the universe?
---------------------------
In conclusion, there are one or more programs on your computer that are misbehaving and you can mostly likely fix the situation by doing one or more of the following:
A. Applying updates to your software.
B. Modifying your configuration for either Windows or the afflicted program.
C. Removing the afflicted program.
It is not necessarily true that this program is in any way malicious, and I would not be too alarmed at this point. Some further investigation (With the power of Google and CTRL+ALT+DEL) will shed a lot more light on the situation.
Good luck, Anthony.
- Rob
100% CPU usage
by pmishler - 2/23/08 10:10 AM In reply to: Loop of death! by NoxTheOxI also had the problem of my system slowing to a crawl and, using the System Processes panel of the Windows Task manager, I found the culprit to be Corel Paint Shop Pro X.
I added 1GB of memory (previously only 512MB) and upgraded to Paint Shop Pro XI. Paint Shop still uses most of the CPU cycles (75-95%), but I can still do other tasks as well with little delay.
100% usage on CPU
by hazellezah - 2/16/08 11:31 AM In reply to: CPU keeps going to 100%--any suggestions to remedy? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I read your query with interest as I have a similar problem myself. It seems to be very much worse if I dare to try to use media player to watch any files I have saved on my computer. The computer freezes and needs rebooted. This also happens if I try to move files I have recorded on to the computer (video files from an old camcorder recorded through a tv card). I am also running XP pro second edition and the problem seemed to develop mainly after the last media player upgrade so if you decide to roll back to the preious edition and it helps I'd like to know! 
CPU useage at 100%
by Foxylady48180 - 2/23/08 8:35 AM In reply to: 100% usage on CPU by hazellezahProblem could be data execution; had a problem with that. Check there and see if Windows is not allowing something to run that needs to. If this just started to happen, check out anything you may have installed recently, including an IP.
hazellezah - media files 100% usage
by stanislavf - 2/25/08 5:37 PM In reply to: 100% usage on CPU by hazellezahThere is an old problem with XP and (probably) on Vista too, with media files. In particular videos that have a small corruption in them. Opening the folder that has a file (video) that is corrupted will lock up the computer. The Explorer (the file explorer, not Internet Explorer) tries to capture some meta data on all files and gets stuck on the corrupted videos. The only solution is to delete the corrupted video file (or never navigate to the folder with it).
I have seen this a number of times and have not seen a fix in the past few years. This can be a MPG or AVI or other file that Explorer "recognizes."
Uninstalling media player does NOT help.
You can, in task manager, kill the explorer process and then restart it (you need it as your entire desktop and menu bar, etc are dependent on it), as an alternative to rebooting.
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