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General discussion
CPU keeps going to 100%--any suggestions to remedy?
Hi, I'm running Windows XP Pro SP2 and I have developed a
problem where by the CPU keeps going to 100% and either
freezes the PC or slows it down to virtually standstill. I
have searched on the net and found that quite a few people
have this problem. I tried some of the fixes suggested, but
they didn't work. I have to reboot the PC and then it?s fine
for awhile. What could possibly be causing this problem? Is
this a problem with the operating system or is it a hardware
problem? I hope you can help with this problem. Cheers!
--Submitted by Anthony K.
Answer voted most helpful by the CNET Community newsletter readers:
CPU Usage Stuck at 100%
There are many things that can cause a computer to show 100% when you display the CPU usage. Spyware, viruses, bad drivers or damaged programs can all lead to this type of problem. In some cases, it can be a known issue with your specific model computer, so you should first check the website for your computer to see if you see anything there regarding this issue. If not, then there are several ways to approach this problem.
1. BACKUP Your Data ? Sorry but I can never say this enough. You should never work on a computer without first backing up any critical data.
2. As mentioned above, check your manufacturer?s website for any known problems with your specific computer model.
3. System Restore ? If the problem just started within the last few days, there is always a fair chance that running a Windows System Restore and setting your computer back a few days may solve your problem. But if you have had the problem for awhile OR you have installed a bunch of programs or updates recently then this may not work at all. System Restore can be found by going to START > ALL PROGRAMS > ACCESSORIES > SYSTEM TOOLS > SYSTEM RESTORE. Note: I would not recommend going back more than a week or so.
4. Virus and Spyware ? I can only assume that you already did this but a computer that is infected with viruses and/or spyware can exhibit this type of behavior. So make sure that your computer is totally clean by running full virus and Spyware scans. You may even want to double check by running one of the many free online virus scans.
5. Identify the Process - See if you can identify a specific process that is using the most CPU percentage. Use Ctrl+Alt+Del to open task manager and click on the processes tab. Scroll down through the list for any process that has the highest CPU percentage. You can try to end that process and see if that helps and then Google the name of the process to help figure out what it is. You may luck out and find the exact program to uninstall or update to fix the problem. But, in most cases it will turn out to be one of the many generic windows processes and may not really give you any real clue as to the exact problem.
6. Disconnect Peripherals ? Shut down your computer and unplug all external devices such as Printers, Scanners and Backup Drives. Leave only your Mouse, Keyboard and Internet Connection plugged in and reboot your computer to see if the problem is still there. If the problem goes away, plug things back in, one at a time until you have isolated the problem device.
7. Shut Down Startup Items ? Use msconfig to Shut down all startup programs and reboot the computer to see if the problem goes away. If it does then go back and methodically turn back ON individual startup items until the problem returns. Once you isolate the offending program, you can Google the name of the file to find out which program it is related to. To use MSCONFIG click on START and then RUN and type msconfig in the run box and then click on OK. Click on the STARTUP tab and you will be presented with a list of items that are going to run automatically every time the computer starts. You can select or deselect any items the you want to start when your computer boots. Now click on OK and reboot your computer. You can go back anytime and run msconfig to turn back on any items that you choose until you find which one is causing your problem.
8. Update all drivers for your computer ? Go to the website for your computer and download and install the latest drivers for your computer. Start with Chipset, Video, and Sound drivers first, followed by network, modem and others.
9. Update Bios ? In some cases the Bios may need updating, but I would stay away from this unless you really know what you are doing, because you can permanently damage your computer if you mess up during this process.
10. Problematic Programs ? There are many programs that have been known to cause this type of problem. For example some earlier versions of Kodak Easy Share software had this problem. Norton and some other antivirus software can become corrupt and cause this issue as well as software and drivers associated with many All-In-One printers. You should suspect any program that calls home for updates as well as file sharing programs like kazza and limewire. Other VOIP software such as Skype can also be a problem. I would suggest uninstalling any programs that you do not need at this moment to help isolate the problem. NOTE: Do not uninstall anything you want that you do have a way to reinstall such as having the original CD?s or downloads.
11. Full Recovery or Reinstallation ? If all else fails then you may have to resort to a full system Recovery or a reinstallation of Windows. This would be a last resort, but can rejuvenate a computer to like new condition and for some problems, may even be less time consuming.
Good Luck and Please keep us posted as to what you find.
Dana
Wayland Computer
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=284007&messageID=2705924#2705924
Submitted by waytron
If you have any additional suggestions or experience of your own to share with Anthony, please click the reply link and post away. Please be detailed as possible in your answers. Thank you!
Discussion is locked
121 - 150 of 339 Posts
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well done dana nearly every thing right but move answer number 5 to answer number 2.
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I had a similar problem which lasted for weeks & there was no specific reason as to when this would occur!
It seemed completely random & usually happened at least once a day but at no specific time!
It usually resulted in the explorer.exe process hogging 100% of resources with no let up & although the system had ground to snails pace it never actually froze completely, albeit the clock would not update from when this occured!
I tried waiting....and terminating (eventually) all other programs but as soon as explorer was termianted (unsurprisingly) it would result in a STOP error (I think 0x4e? but that's from memory)!
Eveything that I tried resulting from searching this error was all in vain and due to the infrequency of the problem became more than a nightmare to resolve. I started using system as best I could with restricted programs running, but that's easier said than done, but after several weeks of trialling various combinations, i found the problem!
It all pointed to Panda Antivirus & Firewall 2007 and whilst I had reverted back to the usually lame Windows Firewall, all seemed to be ok!
After a little more delving, I found that it was the 'Heuristic' scanning option for 'Protection against unknown threats' that was the root cause of all my problems and whilst it may be good for most people, it appeared that when I was going to use the system for relatively simple tasks, such as copying a file, etc (Although not all the time), this scanner would intercept this action, thinking it was a Virus/ infection of some kind & from there the hogging commenced!!!
I still use this security package on some of my systems, albeit with this scanner disabled!
Whilst my experience in this respect was with Panda (despite all it's good reviews!), I'm sure other security packages are equally as guilty in resulting in false positives & ageing their owners by 10+ years!!!
Colin
(XP Home SP2)
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the main culprit is a windows process called system idle process, unfortunatelly , as far i have been able to know , windows will not allow this process to be shut down.. so for me , the best solution is to reboot.the process then returns to the 4 or 5 % usage. hopefully, windows will someday provide a patch to this problem.
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I think that may apply to me, even though i dont use panda, i have been a loyal user of Esets Nod32 for years.
I am currently running vista home premium, so there are differences between xp sp2 and a few things that i sometimes notice hogging my systems resources.
One of the processes i sometimes see is ekrn.exe which is a Nod32 process, like you did i have all things checked, to scan for unknowns as well as anything and everything else. I wonder if having the advanced heuristics checked is the culprit behind my problem of it sometimes hanging on 100% it will be interesting to see, although it may take sometime before i see it happen again.
NOW JUST SOME GENERAL ADVICE, NOT AIMED AT THIS REPLY
I never get any viruses, and my worst offender is usually just tracking cookies, but they are pretty hard to avoid. I backup my important documents, music and video files, as well as install files for programs you just cant be without(or atleast i cant), (flash, divx, ad-aware, older azureus-not vuze, openoffice-huge file no need to download it everytime-, and many others) it saves time and since i often work as a middleman(no charge i just enjoy it) in helping people choose a good computer or laptop many of these are installed straight away for added functionality and security giving the recipient a computer to simply enjoy from the get go without all the hassle, and gives me something new to play with. Went a little off track but basically saying i take care of my systems(1pc 1laptop, and look after my bro and sisters laptops as well, so 4 systems in total) and keep regular backups on my external harddrives.
I have been the victim of my own stupidity, i never used to create backups, at one point on our first pc back when i knew nothing(about 8-10years ago, i was like 12 or so at the time), we didnt even renew the antivirus license or install a free version, no antispyware, just a defenseless system where the worst was bound to happen at some point, and it did. It suddenly one day just wouldnt bootup, i was still young and inexpeienced but if i could i would love to know how many viruses and spyware threats where on it. We used to use limewire, i dont anymore, but rest of them do, but i cant even imagine how many threats where caused by downloading anything and everything especially considering 90% of what you try and download ends up being porn(I.e your not trying for porn but you get porn anyway) probably infected in someway as well.
Basically just stating past mistakes are to be learnt from, keep a good backup, it doesnt have to everything just make sure you dont miss anything you will want/need if worst came to the worst and you had to reformat your computer or replace it. Check what you download and install, make sure its both clean and check its compatibility, even a program you have used before can have issues with a new machine or OS, remember this if your changing from XP to Vista, not everything works how it used to.
As for 100% cpu, well it can be extremely hard or extremely easy to fix, from taskmanager see what it is causing the 100%cpu, if its a program, for sake of agruement, openoffice, end task, and uninstall, restart your system(assuming it keeps happening, no need to uninstall for a 1st time offender). Now as i chose openoffice its likely you would want it back on, so download a fresh copy of the install files, incase your old one was corrupt. Now install as you normally would, restarting your computer if and when prompted to. Once installation is complete try it again, hopefully you would no longer have any issues, if you did its likely to be compatibility thats the problem, either with your system(i mean the hardware side of it here)or the programs and processes you have installed and running on it. At this point you would need to start troubleshooting again, possibly posting for help again on the forums, or find an alternative product/program.
Now if it wasnt a program, but a certain .exe in the process list, you first need to see what that process is for, 9/10 simply googling it will get you your answer to that. Now once you know what it is, you have a few possible options. 1st it maybe be a system process that can be disable, if so, google that if you dont know how to, if not just go ahead and disable it, restart your system, make sure its all working fine, and ofcourse keep an eye on your cpu usuage.
2nd it may be a part of a program that you use but didnt recognise. In this case uninstall, and restart your system. If you want the program back, make sure to install the latest version (not beta if thats an option) with any and all updates. Restart and try again, keep an eye on cpu usage.
3rd a process recognised as being tied to your system. I.e if you removed or disabled it your system probably wouldnt work at all, or you would be worse of than before you removed/disabled it. Go to any relevent sites for updates, the manufacture, windows update, anywhere that is likely to offer a update to this process, should be checked.
If none are found or they dont resolve the issue, you can assume its corrupt and the only way to get rid of the problem is to start over, so reformat. Before doing this backup any data you can backup, i would advise not to do a complete backup, just files and such that you need, documents and music and video, programs should be left pretty much alone if your backing up when you already have a problem.
Now if you have a recovery cd or partition go ahead and begin the reformat process, as you have all you need to reinstall your system. However if not and i should ask why not, many systems that dont have such things have the tools needed to create them. Others you can have added a recovery disc to your order for something like
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Hi Anthony. I'm no expert so let's get that straight! However, I have the same problem so here's how I deal with it. Keep Task Manager (ctrl>alt>del) running in your task bar. If it floods have a look at 'processes' which will tell you what app etc is hogging the cpu. In my case, nine times out of ten, it's one of my software progs, av or spyware, running a background scan that hogs the cpu and slows what I'm doing to a crawl. Simply highlight it and end the process - you can't go wrong for if it's a system process it won't let you close it. If it is software causing it consider exchanging for another proramme which has a smaller footprint
Best wishes
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your cpu might be slowing down because of a virus named schvoest.exe which you will usually find in your flash drives or pen drives
follow the steps given below:-
1. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL and go to the processes tab
2. Look for svchost.exe under the image name. There will be many but look for the ones which have your username under the username
Press DEL to kill these files. It will give you a warning, Press Yes
Repeat for more svchost.exe files with your username and repeat. Do not kill svchost.exe with system, local service or network service!
3. Now open My Computer
In the address bar, type "C:\heap41a" and press enter
Delete all the files here
4. Now go to start -> Run and type "Regedit"
Go to the menu EDIT --> FIND
Type "heap41a" here and press enter
You will get something like this "[winlogon] C:\heap41a\svchost.exe C:\heap(some number)\std.txt
"
Press DEL. It will ask "Are you sure you wanna delete this value", click "Yes"
5. Now close the registry editor
BANG! Virus is Gone!
Note: Please format all your pen drives because the virus is in that hidden in an microsoft.exe autorun.inf which you might not find. Else you might have to repeat all this everytime!
WITH REGARDS
Viraj
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All PCs do is create problems. My solution for you is to get a mac. If you bought a mac, you'd have a flawless, secure, fast machine. You'd also never have any problems. Once you've bought a mac, go take your old PC outside and piss on it!
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I have had this very problem on my mac. DON'T go touting the greatness of mac's until you have run one to death. As with most readers here I have dealt with my fair share of compy problems from Win 3.1 to openSUSE 10.3. The mac platform is a happy middle ground, yet it still has flaws.
To Mr. 100%, the easiest way to see what is going on is actually google. Assuming you keep regular backups and the other routine operations mentioned above just open task manager, find out what task is eating up your processor and Google what is controlling it; unless you are an advanced power user [read beta/alpha tester or developer] it will have happened to someone else first and most likely will be online.
Wishing Mr. 100% the best of luck and Mr Mac a serious crash (yes it will happen to you)
P.S. a mac is a PC [personal computer]
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First thing we did was to scan for adware,spyware and virus.Them we made sure that only start up programs we really needed to start up,this is very important because when you have a number of programs starting they cut resources,and them program will continue to run in the background.Lastly we upgraded our memory to the max.Its also good to get rid of programs you don't need,Try these things,hope they work for you.One last thing always check the last program you may have installed,it could have a few bad files.So good Luck.
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Keep in mind that when looking at the process column in Task Manager you can click on the title bar and automatically sort the processes in order of the amount of resources being used. You don't need to scroll up and down to find the offender.
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The CPU going to 100% would not, in and of itself, cause your system to freeze. An overheating system can cause those problems. I would suggest opening the case and checking for dust buildup around the HS/Fan assembly and around heatsinks on the motherboard. Then check your system temps. I use a utility called Core Temp which is free and can be found with a simple Google search. If cleaning doesn't do the trick, you may have to remove the CPU heatsink/fan assembly and clean the contact surfaces and reapply thermal compound.
Now for the CPU going to 100% usage (which probably uncovered the overheating issue). This is usually caused by spyware or maleware of some sort or an application locking up. Using ctrl-alt-del to open task manager may show an open program, or if not, show some process that is running at a high CPU usage. Run an anti-spyware program like Spybot Search and Destroy or Add-Aware to remove any maleware and do a good antivirus scan just to make sure you have no issues there. If you find a program that is locking up or using a lot of CPU cycles, you might want to uninstall it and try an alternative.
There are a lot of other things that can cause your problem, but those are the main two that come to mind. I wish you luck.
Regards,
Ed Medlin
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My past computer was acting up the same as yours. Eventually it stopped running completely...fried the motherboard. I suggest to back up your system now if you haven't done so already and start looking for a new computer or install a new motherboard. Sue K.
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One of the reasons of a major system slowdown is spyware, which leads to a system meltdown later. Try running a spyware scan. A CNET article I read said that a system process called svchost.exe, which many applications use, can eat up a lot of CPU. Open Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+delete), select the processes tab, click on show processes from all users and click on CPU. All the CPU hungry processes will show up either on the bottom or the top of the list. Click on mem usage to stop it from going up and down, CPU hungry processes usually eats up lots of memory too. Kill the process if your're sure it won't kill any apps your're using, or save any data and close all apps before you kill the process to be safe.
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Press these 3 keys together - CTRL + ALT + DLT - only once - and the "windows task manager" will appear. Go to processes and you will be able to see the program(s) that are using the CPU.
Write down the exact name of the program that is the main user (maybe more than one) with its extension and do a search on "Google".You will find websites that are able to pinpoint the software that is using that file name. The results may vary as to who the offender is and you will have to make the appropriate decisions. It is usually one of the "security suites" that is endlessly scanning or maybe some other installed software that is caught in a "loop".
After you have found the offender the decisions are all yours, as to what actions to take and which software to run on your PC.
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sorry about the title I DONT THINK YOU CAN ADD AN EXTRA HARDDRIVE TO LAPTOP BUT SEE THE BOX TO THE BACK OF YOUR PC...STARTS WITH "S"...SORRY FORGOT NAME I THINK ITS SVXM OR SOMETHING IT CAUSES A LOT OF PROBLEM TO ME...BURNT UP YESTERDAY... FORGET THAT... THE PROBLEM I DONT "THINK" U KNOW, BUT PRO USES MORE RAM THAN HOME... GET UR SELF HOME... (MS IS GIVING IT FREE!) PULL UR ADDITIONAL HD OUT AND FORMATT...
P.S. IF THE INFO UP WASNT USEFUL... THEN I BET THIS WILL BE...
"WHATEVER U DO... DONT GO ON REBOOTING UR COMP CREATS A BAD SPOT IN UR BUS!!! ITL ONLY MAKE IT WORSE!!!"
sorry if m not TOO helpful ya see im 13...
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baby, i salute you...if u are really 13 YEARS and can come up with that jazzy answer.keep trying, you might be the next bill gates.i will sure pray for you.keep CAPS off when you type.some of these tips have helped me a lot and my similiar probems are history now.rebooting is never the solution.why not try all the free stuff cnet is doling out.keep in touch.you are a gem.db
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I had a HP Pavillion with XP Pro. When I updated the system to SP2 I too began to have the same problem. After tearing my hair out and raising my blood pressure a couple of points, I determined that the problem was Windows Defender. Although Microsoft says that Defender was designed to run only during idle CPU time, the reality was that Windows Defender would run whenever it wanted to. And, it seemed to want to run at the most inopportune times. After disabling Defender the problem was solved.
For security I had AVG Free anti-virus from Grisoft. Ad-Aware adware blocker from Lavasoft,and Spybot search and destroy from Safer Network LTD. All of these are free and available from Downloads.com.
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I found that sp_rsser.exe which is a component of spyware terminator was stealing all my cpu. I finally got it all uninstalled and went to spybot till a new version comes out for spyware terminator. It was a chore to get it all uninstalled.
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I have been useing Advanced WindowsCare Personal an IObit SmartDefrag 100% for a year now an thay work well.
Paul
sfctracey@msn.com
( http://www.iobit.com/ )
Advanced WindowsCare Personal 100% Freeware
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This comprehensive PC-care utility has a one-click approach. Advanced WindowsCare Personal helps protect, optimize, clean, and repair your computer and Registry ?? with daily use. Free Computer Repair
IObit SmartDefrag 100% Freeware
The Fastest, Most Efficient Defragmenter
It?s free. It?s fast. It?s IObit SmartDefrag. It works automatically and quietly in the background on your PC to keep your hard disk running at maximum speed. Defragment Disk Now
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Yes, I agree that if we all owned Mac's life would work simpler. However, as I have always said, you don't buy a computer for it's hardware, but what software you are going to be running on it. At this point, Windows has that edge sewed up. We shall see next year, when Vista becomes the dominate Windows package.
So, for the time being, preforming a re-format, and a re-install, will bring your tired old beast back to that flame spewing speed daemon it once was, in the least amount of time. Best of all, you loose none of your programs, or data.
Good luck to you all, and may the force be with you.
Regards,
TMV
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Before you do anything else,Go to task manager & stop svchost.exe.
There is a problem with this process
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we need to know what process is using all the resources
so the next time this happens to you please try and open the task manager and see which processes are using all the resources
with out further details any answers will be vauge and may not address the real issue
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svhost is a windows system service so i would not recommend turning this off but there is a windows update that may fix svhost from using 100% of system resources
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I did the usual start up today by running the SpeedUpMyPC3 and when I looked at the area listed "spoolsv.exe" it was using 50%+ up to 98%. I did an open folder and found what an IT friend of mine called the "PRINTER" folder. He said,'delete this and it will improve the cpu speed. I am running a Pentium 4 3.0, and it did the trick. I went from a constant SLOOOOOW to a much improved and faster response from the cpu. Check to see if you have a stored/paused/caught-in-print document that is still trying to print even though you might have not wanted it to.
I don't know if this will completely fix the problem you have, but it might help.
Another suggestion is to 'defrag' you pc. You can either do a normal defrag or you could run a "CIPHER" and clean a lot of the unused trash/rubbish up and then defrag.
The cipher is easy to do. All you need to do is: 1)Go to Start, 2) Select Run, 3)Type cipher/ w: c:\ encrypte'd in the 'Run' bar and select OK.
I hope this is of some help. Best of luck.
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First, I would do a defrag and ask the system to check for errors (check both boxes "automatically fix file system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors."). It will complete the check up once you've rebooted. Before you reboot, update your virus and malware programs, then turn off the System Restore. Boot up in safe mode, and run your virus and malware programs. If it is still sluggish, use this site "pc pitstop" to analyze your system. This is an outstanding program for keeping the PC running smoothly. If you need to add more memory, this will suggest it.
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You havent given us a lot of info to work with but if you bought a computer made by aqualified manufacturer, hardware is probably not the problem.
The problem may be caused by fragmentation, try defraging.
The problem may be caused by registry and other errors...run a utility program to correct these errors Nortons utilities and system mechanic do a good job of all of the above.
But I suspect that you don't have enough memory for what you are doing, this includes physical memory and virtual memory. I suggest 1 gig of physical memory as minimal for xp pro and if you can afford it 2 gigs. You also must have enoug space on your hard drive for virtual memory, ie if your hard drive is near capacity this could also cause problems.
Ie, the way your CPU is constantly running it sound like it is constantly transfering data to some sort of memory,ie overworking the CPU
Also, I believe there is a 4 or so gig limit on the total memory XP can handle, but I don't think this is the case.
It would help to know more about your computers hardware and software etc
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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.
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