[EUBlink]

Dell Inspiron 9100
Windows XP Home, SP2
Pentium 4, 3.00 GHz
1.00 Gb of RAM
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700

I'm having a problem with my CPU Usage wanting to stay at 100%. I can turn the computer on, and it'll run just fine for a few minutes, but as soon as I start running programs, the usage shoots through the roof. The only programs I run consistently/regularly are AIM, Firefox, LockMyPC, FreeRAM XP Pro, avast!, and sometimes uTorrent. To help with spyware and attempting to keep things running smooth, I also have CCleaner and Spybot - Search & Destroy.

I also recently installed and then uninstalled RegistryBooster 2 and SpeedUpMyPC 3, as they were suggested by a friend, but I found little to no difference in using them. However, in recent startups, RegistryBooster 2 has appeared on the Task Manager (RegistryBooster.exe). I was having problems with CPU usage before those were installed, though.

Strange thing is, most of the time, it's the System Idle Process that's in the upper 90's as far as CPU goes, and yet the CPU Usage (under Performance) is still 99-100%. And then, almost suddenly, everything will calm down, and then start back up a few minutes later.

My laptop was once amazing with PC games, but now it's just a slug with everything half the time.

Much appreciation in advance.

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With the task manager open on processes and cpu coloumn visible watch which process(es) use a lot of cpu resources when the computer slows down. Please ignore idle processes because the higher the figure there the better.

[The Skeptic]

With the task manager open on processes and cpu coloumn visible watch which process(es) use a lot of cpu resources when the computer slows down. Please ignore idle processes because the higher the figure there the better.

[1101doc]

Got to suspect a background process. Sysinternals free Process Explorer is a big help. It's what Taskmanager wants to be when it grows up. Get it here:
http://www.microsoft...ssExplorer.mspx

Ctfmon is often the culprit: http://www.annoyance...nxp/t1167888467

It seems to have settled down for the most part, but for several weeks, many users were reporting a similar problem with svchost due to Windows Automatic Updates.
To test it out, simple turn off Automatic Updates from the System applet of the Control Panel. If that corrects the problem your choices would be to either apply the required patches or to simply visit the Windows Update site manually and obtain the needed updates once a month.

For what I have learned about controlling my processes, with web addresses of useful tools and informational sites, see my Vox: http://doc1101.vox.com/
No ads, no spyware, nothing to buy(or donate). The "links" are not "live" so copy and paste the URLs to your browser address bar.

PS: About your "RAM Optimizer." This is actually not beneficial. check out Mark Russinovich (Sysinternals): http://www.windowsit...1095/41095.html

Also may wish to check out XP Myths in general: http://mywebpages.co...CD/XPMyths.html

[EUBlink]

I took your advice and deleted the RAM tool, and actually noticed a slight improvement. Not much, but a little. The program was using roughly 45,000 K.

While running at 100%, these are the programs using the most resources.

firefox.exe
172,735K

Then there are six instances of svchost.exe running, using 33,240 K.

aim.exe
17,676 K

ashServ.exe
17,428 K

explorer.exe
15,976 K

svchost.exe
13,620 K

ashWebSv.exe
10,312 K

spoolsv.exe
4,404 K

[The Skeptic]

What we need is cpu usage and not ram use. Please open task manager > processes. Can you see the cpu coloumn? If not click View > Select Colomuns > check CPU Usage > Ok.

[EUBlink]

firefox.exe
34

explorer.exe
16

uTorrent.exe
15

System Idle Process
14

ashServ.exe
10

ashWebSv.exe
06

SDMCP.exe
03

System
02

svchost.exe
01

[The Skeptic]

Is this when the computer is Idling? In idling I mean that no updates, no downloads nor any malware or whatever scans are running. In idling System Idle Process should normally be above 95%. In your computer it's 1%!!. Please test again. You can open any program like office applications, internet explorer (or firefox) etc. Let them fully load up. open task manager and take your hands off the keyboard and mouse. Wait few seconds and report again cpu usage.

[latigid]

Another source to look at.

http://www.delete-co...-cpu-usage.html[/ur


Use ccleaner daily.

[url="http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4191.html"]http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4191.html

Edited by latigid, 13 September 2007 - 08:50 AM.