Windows XP forum: Why is my CPU running at 100 percent, when only three windows are open?!

there are many factors to why a cpu would go to 100%, but the main few are: malware (viruses and the like, do a scan with a fully updated anti-virus), Adobe flash, Programs (anti-virus scanners, windows update, and badly coded and incompatible programs and drivers) and Computer age (computers from 2000 and older, never ran XP quickly, as XP is a bit heavier then 2000, despite being built on it, since XP has alot of new features and a heavier theme)

This usually happens to me when I use firefox. Find out what software is hugging your cpu usage. ALT-CTRL-DEL Click on "Processes" and then click on "Mem Usage" to find out which program has the highest memory use. Highlight this program and "End Process"

Now click on the "Performance" tab. Hopefully, the CPU usage will be lower than 100 percent.

If this does not work, check your computer for virus, worms, etc.

Hope this helps.

philip

I totally agree, There needs to be more system info then just the operating system "like RAM" and defiantly what three programs are running. If they know how to check task manager and see the processes running they should surely check the Performance tab and see how much Memory the system is using and post it as well. Right there you could see which program launched causes the biggest spike in cpu usage.


You can't say for sure it's spyware if your running 3 memory hungry programs. Say for instance your running a photoshop or video program and used all your physical ram up now your computer's running off the set aside virtual memory and using extra cpu power to transfer data across the hard drive ! That defiantly makes a computer crawl to a screeching halt.

I've also seen corrupt software and drivers that can peg a computer's CPU usage. I once had a multimedia keyboard that turned out to be the culprit. I uninstalled all the fancy button features and it fixed my 100% issue immediately.

I recently found the same problem on a fairly new Dell desktop running Vista Home Premium edition (i.e., with only IE open, it was at 83 to 100 percent CPU usage). The culprit was some sort of Dell executable, and as I recall, it was a version of SQL Server. It was contained in the preinstalled Dell directory, and I don't know whether it was related to the backup or the online storage that Dell offers. But once I renamed the executable file, and rebooted, so that it wouldn't restart, the CPU was back to normal. Use Task Manager to see what processes are running to help identify the culprit on your machine.

It has been my experience that this could be caused by your anti-virus or internet security program. Usually because of a bad install or update of the anti-virus or internet security program. The best way to check is to turn off your internet modem then shut down your anti-virus or Internet security program. Check your CPU usage via the Task Manager's Performance Tab. To get to the Task Manager in XP hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete keys. If the CPU continues at 100% start shutting down tasks one by one until you notice on the Performance tab that your CPU usage drops to a normal level.

I have a similar problem on my XP Home system. I find that it is caused by a program hanging such as AOL when I try to close it. It looks like it is closed but it still is running in the background. Sometimes it may be another program. I use Ctrl+Alt+Delete to bring up the Task Manager to close the program that is hanging or not responding.

I had this same problem, it was caused by Adobe Acrobat Reader updating in the background. It popped on with no notice and everything just stopped working while the CPU was at 100%. While I killed Adobe Update by uninstalling it, my ultimate solution was to uninstall Adobe Reader and replace it with Foxit Reader here: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/ Foxit's free reader is much smaller and not prone to security glitches.

Another thing to get is Process Explorer: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx Process Explorer will show all the process running on your box and allow you to kill any one you find suspicious or hogging resources, such as Adobe Update.

Go to this link, http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx ...and download the tool. It is a great tool and will show you everything running on your machine, the CPU that they are using and a whole lot more. You will find that a lot of programs start auto when you boot up your machine. You can then go and stop them from starting when you open windows. I was having a similar problem and it didn't take long to solve after getting the tool. Oh ya, it's a free download.
Good luck, Dan

You can't run two anti-virus REAL TIME protection schemes together, you can run as many anti-virus scanners as you want, but only ONE realtime protection process can be running.

You can only have ONE firewall too; this can put you in pretty dangerous territory trying to run two at once, but not as dangerous as two anti-virus utilities.

You can run as many malware utilities as you want, if they are designed correctly, they will get alone with each other and your other security tools too!

It helps to pick malware utiities that all approach the malware/greyware problem from different angles.

SpywareBlaster, MBAM, and AdAware all use totally different technologies to keep the cr@p-ware off your PC and also do it in REAL TIME! My clients run them and Comodo Firewall, and Avast, and they never have the problems everyone else has.

P.S. - Using CCleaner to get rid of cookies and all temp files alone with AdAware with AdWatch turned on, will speed your browsing up very significantly.

Hello:
Sounds to me like you have a bunch of viruses and or trojans running on your machine.
I repair computers and do networking for a living, and I take out viruses FREQUENTLY.
If you have Norton Antivirus, or almost all of the free ones, except AVG and Malwarebytes and possibly avast!, you have some nasties running in the background.
Some of those processes running are "bad guys".
I use Webroot Antivirus. I have been using this for about 8 or 9 years.
I remove viruses almost every day. This is what I use to get rid of most of them.
I suggest you get this antivirus. Then TURN OFF SYSTEM RESTORE. Then do a sweep in the regular mode if you can.
After you find the 5 to 10 things running (It will take a little time, they have over 1,950,000 definitions of viruses and trojans), click on the quarantine button. Then, to make sure you get them all, put your computer in Safe Mode, and do another sweep. Sometimes you can't fully remove anything running, so in Safe Mode (usually), the viruses are not running. Some are bad, and are able to run in safe mode, but not many.
I suggest you leave System Restore off, but if you must have it, you can turn it back on again after the second sweep. Also, if you want you could then set a new restore point.
This should solve your problem. If however, your machine is very, very, infected, some of your operating system files may be corrupted and you may have to back up your files and do a clean install of the operating system, reinstall programs, set up printers, etc.
Good Luck!

It's OK to terminate processes with Task Manager, but every time I do it, I get a rather stern warning message ending with "Are you sure you want to terminate this process"* I usually go ahead. However, on one occasion, terminating a process had a nasty result. I terminated a process I thought wasn't doing anything, explore.exe. Immediately, my desktop icons disappeared! A reboot restored them, but since then I've been much warier about terminating any process.
--
* If Microsoft manufactured automobiles, when the driver's air bag was about to deploy, the car would display the message, "Are you sure you want the air bag to deploy."

Wikipedia: "The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15, 1965 and March 6, 1968." Reruns aside, Lost in Space was last lost 42 years ago. Remembering even "DANGER, WILL..." took a major effort.

how long has it been since you ran an anti adware program to clean up all the spies on yer cpu? and how about cleaning the registry?
i ran win xp for years and it was blazing fast on a 8 yr old cpu 2.66mhz pent 4 and on several occasions i learned real quick that if you dl a program and then remove it there are always lingering files and false leads to the register and yer propbably loaded down with backups, adware malware and spy cookies.. so if i was you i would go dl "spybot" free here i think but easily found. be careful and do not change anything that you are not sure about with spybot. just run it and let it fix yer CPU..next dl "adware" from from lavasoft.com ..
and if all else fails ..run a program called "Cclean". now that baby will clean yer registry, cookies etc.. and you should notice a much faster CPU...

Disabling unnecessary Services in XP Home Edition helps improve computer speed. Computer sluggishness is usually and often caused by anti-malware and/or unnecessary services running therefore aside anti-malware scans and registry cleaners to help eliminate any cause(s) of computer sluggishness also consider disabling unnecessary services. In XP Home Edition (Start>Programs>Administrative Services>Services) some services are needed and cannot be turned off or may cause problems if stopped or disabled therefore Googling each service is recommended before attempting to experiment on stopping and/or disabling crucial services. It also helps to familiarize oneself with viewing the Dependencies Tab of each service before deciding to disabling-or-not a service via Start>Programs>Administrative Services>Services>double-click or right-click on a service> Properties>Dependencies Tab to see if a service is dependent upon other services, and/or what other services may or may not be dependent upon the service in question. The following list is only a single example of a home desktop 80MB hard drive with 640 available RAM with Road Runner basic services used for browsing, writing and printing. I correspond only by email and do NOT use any messaging, voice nor webcam applications. As a result of disabling unnecessary services the sluggishness had disappeared and thus far I have had no problems with any of my usual applications but please consider the following list only as a vague and quick individual guideline subject-to-change:

.NET Runtime Optimization Service v2.0.50727_X86; Manual.
Alerter; Disabled.
Application Layer Gateway Service; Manual.
Application Management; Manual.
ASP.NET State Service; Manual.
a-squared Free Service; Manual.
Automatic Updates; Automatic; Started.
avast Antivirus; Automatic; Started.
avast! Web Scanner; Manual; Started.
Background Intelligent Transfer Service; Automatic; Started.
ClipBook; Disabled.
COM+ Event System; Manual; Started.
COM+ System Application; Manual.
COMODO Internet Security Helper Service; Automatic; Started.
Computer Browser; Disabled.
Cryptographic Services; Automatic; Started.
DCOM Server Process Launcher; Automatic; Started.
DHCP Client; Automatic; Started.
Distributed Link Tracking Client; Disabled.
Distributed Transaction Coordinator; Disabled.
DNA Client; Automatic; Started.
Error Reporting Service; Disable.
Event Log; Automatic; Started.
Extensible Authentication Protocol Service; Manual.
Fast User Switching Compatibility; Disabled.
Folder Size; Automatic; Started.
Google Update Service; Manual.
Health Key and Certificate Management Service; Manual.
Help and Support; Automatic; Started.
HTTP SSL; Manual.
Human Interface Device Access; Disabled.
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service; Manual.
Indexing Service; Disabled.
IPSEC Services; Manual.
Java Quick Starter; Manual.
Logical Disk Manager; Manual.
Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service; Manual.
McAfee SiteAdvisor Service; Automatic; Started.
Messenger; Disabled.
Microsoft Antimalware Service: Automatic; Started.
MS Software Shadow Copy Provider; Manual.
Net Logon; Disabled.
Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service; Disabled.
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing; Disabled.
Network Access Protection Agent; Disabled.
Network Connections; Manual; Started.
Network DDE; Disabled.
Network DDE DSDM; Disabled.
Network Location Awareness (NLA); Manual; Started.
Network Provisioning Service; Disabled.
NT LM Security Support Provider; Disabled.
NVIDIA Display Driver Service; Disabled.
Performance Logs and Alerts; Disabled.
Plug and Play; Automatic; Started.
Portable Media Serial Number Service; Disabled.
Print Spooler; Automatic; Started.
PrismXL; Disabled.
Protected Storage; Disabled.
QoS RSVP; Manual.
Remote Access Auto Connection Manager; Disabled.
Remote Access Connection Manager; Disabled.
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager; Disabled.
Remote Procedure Call (RPC); Automatic; Started.
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator; Disabled.
Removable Storage; Manual.
Routing and Remote Access; Disabled.
Secondary Logon; Disabled.
Security Accounts Manager; Manual.
Security Center; Manual; Started.
Server; Disabled.
Shell Hardware Detection; Automatic; Started.
Smart Card; Disabled.
SSDP Discovery Service; Disabled.
System Event Notification; Disabled.
System Restore Service; Automatic; Started.
Task Scheduler; Manual.
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper; Manual.
Telephony; Automatic; Started.
Terminal Services; Disabled.
Themes; Automatic; Started.
ThreatFire; Automatic; Started.
Uninterruptible Power Supply; Disabled.
Universal Plug and Play Device Host; Manual.
Volume Shadow Copy; Manual.
WebClient; Disabled.
Windows Audio; Automatic; Started.
Windows CardSpace; Disabled.
Windows Driver Foundation; Manual.
Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS); Disabled.
Windows Image Acquisition (WIA); Manual.
Windows Installer; Manual.
Windows Management Instrumentation; Automatic; Started.
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service; Disabled.
Windows Presentation Foundation Font Cache 3.0.0.0; Manual.
Windows Time; Disabled. [Instead I use TClockX.]
Wired AutoConfig; Manual.
Wireless Zero Configuration; Automatic; Started.
WMI Performance Adapter; Disabled.
Workstation; Disabled.

I too run one of my computers on Windows XP Home edition. I have come across this problem which tends to slow the computer greatly. I have found that many programs which run in the background, or terminate and stay resident, and appear in notification area are quite taxing on the processing capacity. Try eliminating some of the unwanted programs. It would certainly help.