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General discussion

CPU Usage: 100% for no apparent reason

Dec 6, 2003 3:00PM PST

Okay, my computer is a 1.7 GHz with 512 MB of 2100 DDR memory running XP Pro(I'm not sure what other information is relevant). Anyway in addition to Norton's Auto-Protect being enabled, I run Ad-aware and Spybot almost daily (updating definitions each time) and hardly ever find anything. Normally My CPU usage is below 5%, sometimes though it shoots up to 100% at seemingly random times. When this happens my computer just crawls and if for example I try to open a folder, the inside will just be blank and the cursor turns into an hour glass and the folder will never actually open. One must Ctrl+Alt+Delete and end the task-- only to have it happen again so I always have to restart when this happens. Anyone know what's up? Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Re:CPU Usage: 100% for no apparent reason
Dec 6, 2003 8:10PM PST

you still have something on your computer. try more spyware scanners. at least you aren't likely to have a virus. when you look in Task Manager, what processes do you see running and what CPU % are they using?

Herb..

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Re:Re:CPU Usage: 100% for no apparent reason
Dec 7, 2003 4:35AM PST

It's always just explorer.exe that's listed (other than SYSTEM and LOCAL/NETWORK SERVICE processes), and when this happens it will sometimes be up to 80,000 K Mem Usage.

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Re:Re:Re:CPU Usage: 100% for no apparent reason
Dec 9, 2003 10:44AM PST

network service should never be very high. one of two things are happening. your computer is trying to access a network service that doesn't exist and spends its time looking for it, or you have a virus or something like that running and you need to scan again to look for it. scan your system with several different antivirus and spyware/adware programs and the latest definitions.

Herb....

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Re:Re:Re:Re:CPU Usage: 100% for no apparent reason
May 9, 2004 8:03PM PDT
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Re:CPU Usage: 100% for no apparent reason
May 18, 2004 8:06AM PDT

Well the problem would probably be in the condition of the computer. if you know someone who works with computers, have him take open the computer and ask him if he see's any errors, also check the condition of the pentium you have