[mdugan2]

Hi everybody!

I'm new around these parts, so let me first say that I really appreciate the works that forums like yours do. You are godsends. Now, on to the good stuff...

For couple of months, my computer has experienced issues with high spikes in CPU usage, rendering my laptop totally useless. I thought I had beat the problem in early September, but it as returned with a vengeance. It also conveniently waited until I had started my study abroad in South Africa before popping up again. If it takes me a while to reply, I apologize, internet here is pretty spotty. I will try and be diligent though!

I am not computer illiterate by any means, and this problem is marring my reputation as resident "tech guy". I have tried countless approaches, all to no avail. I have used both task manager and Process Explorer to try and identify the root cause of the issue, but have had no success. I've tried disabling windows auto updates, windows defender, deleting countless bloatware programs, and generally freeing up my hard drive. No dice.

One (hopefully) unrelated note: My laptop battery is pretty much toast. I keep the machine plugged into a wall outlet at pretty much all times. Not sure if this possibly could have an effect.

Please help! Let me know what I can do to "help you help me", as they say.

Cheers,
Mike Dugan

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Hello mdugan2.... Welcome to
GeeksToGo,


I'm sorry to hear about your issue. We will try to help you resolve this as soon as possible.

• Please understand we are all volunteers and we are not here all the time.
• Sometimes it may be a extended amount of time to get back to you. If it has been
  more then 3 days please shoot me a PM and I will try to get back to you quickly
  then.
• Please do the following and supply the requested information as needed. If you
  don't understand my instructions please ask and I will try to explain them
  clearer for you.
• Do not attempt any steps unless instructed or ask before to
  make sure they will not cause any further issues.
• If you are receiving assistance in any other forum site please let us know as there may be conflicting advice given.

Before we can help you need to provide the following so I can start you in the right direction.
Laptop or Desktop?

• If a name brand system then what brand, make and model is the system?
• If custom built then what brand, make and model is the motherboard
• Total memory installed
• Total hard drive capacity and free space
• What steps have you taken so far to resolve the issue

Download Autoruns from the link in my signature below:

1: Extract the Autoruns Zip file contents to a folder.
2: Double-click the "Autoruns.exe".
3: Click on the "Everything" tab
4: Remove any entries that mention "File Not Found" by right-clicking the entry and select Delete.
5: Go to File then to Export As or Save in some versions.
6: Save AutoRuns.txt file to known location like your Desktop.
7: Attach to your next reply.








Go to Start then to Run
Type in compmgmt.msc and click Enter
On left side click on Disk Management
On right side you will see you hard drive.
Now I need you to take a screenshot and attach it to your next reply. Do the following to take a screenshot while the above is open and showing on your desktop.

To do a screenshot please have click on your Print Screen on your keyboard. It is normally the key above your number pad between the F12 key and the Scroll Lock key
Now go to Start and then to All Programs
Scroll to Accessories and then click on Paint
In the Empty White Area click and hold the CTRL key and then click the V
Go to the File option at the top and click on Save as
Save as file type JPEG and save it to your Desktop


Attach it to your next reply

[rshaffer61]

Hello mdugan2.... Welcome to
GeeksToGo,


I'm sorry to hear about your issue. We will try to help you resolve this as soon as possible.

• Please understand we are all volunteers and we are not here all the time.
• Sometimes it may be a extended amount of time to get back to you. If it has been
  more then 3 days please shoot me a PM and I will try to get back to you quickly
  then.
• Please do the following and supply the requested information as needed. If you
  don't understand my instructions please ask and I will try to explain them
  clearer for you.
• Do not attempt any steps unless instructed or ask before to
  make sure they will not cause any further issues.
• If you are receiving assistance in any other forum site please let us know as there may be conflicting advice given.

Before we can help you need to provide the following so I can start you in the right direction.
Laptop or Desktop?

• If a name brand system then what brand, make and model is the system?
• If custom built then what brand, make and model is the motherboard
• Total memory installed
• Total hard drive capacity and free space
• What steps have you taken so far to resolve the issue

Download Autoruns from the link in my signature below:

1: Extract the Autoruns Zip file contents to a folder.
2: Double-click the "Autoruns.exe".
3: Click on the "Everything" tab
4: Remove any entries that mention "File Not Found" by right-clicking the entry and select Delete.
5: Go to File then to Export As or Save in some versions.
6: Save AutoRuns.txt file to known location like your Desktop.
7: Attach to your next reply.








Go to Start then to Run
Type in compmgmt.msc and click Enter
On left side click on Disk Management
On right side you will see you hard drive.
Now I need you to take a screenshot and attach it to your next reply. Do the following to take a screenshot while the above is open and showing on your desktop.

To do a screenshot please have click on your Print Screen on your keyboard. It is normally the key above your number pad between the F12 key and the Scroll Lock key
Now go to Start and then to All Programs
Scroll to Accessories and then click on Paint
In the Empty White Area click and hold the CTRL key and then click the V
Go to the File option at the top and click on Save as
Save as file type JPEG and save it to your Desktop


Attach it to your next reply

[mdugan2]

I have a laptop computer with the following specs:

HP Pavillion DV7T-2000
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU P7450 @2.13Ghz
4.00 GB RAM
60.1 GB free out of 285 GB available on C: drive.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

Attached Files

•  AutoRuns.txt   123.85KB   186 downloads

[rshaffer61]

Open Autoruns, click on "Logon" tab, and UN-check:


+ "Adobe ARM"
+ "Adobe Reader
+ "iTunesHelper"
+ "PWRISOVM.EXE"
+ "StartCCC"
+ "UnlockerAssistant"
+ "Google Update"





When done restart computer and then:



Download TFC by OldTimer to your desktop

• Please double-click TFC.exe to run it. (Note: If you are running on Vista, right-click on the file and choose Run As Administrator).
• It will close all programs when run, so make sure you have saved all your work before you begin.
• Click the Start button to begin the process. Depending on how often you clean temp files, execution time should be anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or two. Let it run uninterrupted to completion.
• Once it's finished it should reboot your machine. If it does not, please manually reboot the machine yourself to ensure a complete clean.

Download Auslogics Defrag from the link in my signature below. Auslogics Defrag in my opinion is better because:

It does a more comprehensive job at Defragging
It will actually show you what it is doing
At the end of working it will show you how much speed you picked up
You can view a online log of the files that Auslogics defragged
Please do not run any other Auslogics programs other then this one as they may cause unwanted results.

[mdugan2]

Allrighty, followed all of your instructions. I successfully disabled all of those start-up processes. TFC cleaned up 250MB of files ( I had recently cleaned most of my temporary files), and the disk-defragmenter report is attached.

Just a heads up, after I restarted the laptop following the TFC process I experienced about 10 minutes of the dreaded CPU spiking :/ However,at this moment all is quite fine. I just have no idea what causes these seemingly random and debilitating spikes.

Attached Files

•  Disk_Defrag_Report.txt   51.35KB   659 downloads

[rshaffer61]

Lets see what you have in your startup

Please click on
Start and then to Run
Type in msconfig and press Enter
Now click on Startups
Then uncheck everything and restart.
IMPORTANT! In case of laptop, make sure, you do NOT disable any keyboard, or touchpad entries.
If system boots correctly and is running smoothly and faster then we have a startup problem
Try going back into msconfig and check one item and reboot
Keep doing that till you have found the problem or all are finally checked.
Post back with the results

[mdugan2]

I disabled my start up processes one by one, and the main problem remains the same. While it does not occur on every start-up, it appears to occur randomly. Sometimes it happens almost immediately after logging on, other times after 5-15 minutes after use. It really seems random.

Also, my laptop feels VERY warm. I assume this is the result of the CPU running at near full blast for a good period of time. Thought I'd let you know.

[rshaffer61]

Download Speedfan (The download link is to the right), and install it. Once it's installed, run the program and post here the information it shows.
The information I want you to post is the stuff that is circled in the example picture I have attached.
To make sure we are getting all the correct information it would help us if you were to attach a screenshot like the one below of your Speedfan results.

To do a screenshot please have click on your Print Screen on your keyboard.

• It is normally the key above your number pad between the F12 key and the Scroll Lock key
• Now go to Start and then to All Programs
• Scroll to Accessories and then click on Paint
• In the Empty White Area click and hold the CTRL key and then click the V
• Go to the File option at the top and click on Save as
• Save as file type JPEG and save it to your Desktop
• Attach it to your next reply

[mdugan2]

I have used this program in the past because I felt like the laptop was getting too warm. Unfortunately, same as last time, it does not appear to offer much data on my laptop for some reason. Not sure why. But here you are. Computer is running well now, but had a spike about 15 minutes ago.

[rshaffer61]

Spike in heat or cpu usage?
Since speedfan didn't work we can try another program.

Please download and run Hardware Monitor
Installation (setup version only)
HWMonitor is a hardware monitoring program that reads PC systems main health sensors : voltages, temperatures, fans speed.
The program handles the most common sensor chips, like ITE® IT87 series, most Winbond® ICs, and others. In addition, it can read modern CPUs on-die core thermal sensors, as well has hard drives temperature via S.M.A.R.T, and video card GPU temperature.

[mdugan2]

In both CPU usage and temperature I would say. This program did seem to grab more information. Here you are!

[rshaffer61]

Yeah your CPU may have a little heat issue. When the heat rises is it when the system is sitting on something like a bed, pillow, blanket or anything soft like that?

[mdugan2]

It's on a desk, with about 2-3 inches seperating itself from the various clutter surrounding it. The problem has happened in many different settings though. "Cooling it off" does seem to help, but that doesn't change that it's using 100% of the CPU according to task manager, etc, does it?

[rshaffer61]

Well the cpu being overused may be the cause of the heat issue. Do you have a laptop cooling fan that will cool the laptop from the bottom up?
You have plenty of memory and free space so I doubt highly that is the cause of the high CPU use.

[mdugan2]

You mean one of those after-market fans that attaches to the bottom of the laptop? I do not have one, but I will gladly get one if you think it will help. There is a fan in the bottom of the laptop, obviously..doesn't seem to be doing the trick, however.