Jump to content

Welcome to Geeks to Go - Register now for FREE

Need help with your computer or device? Want to learn new tech skills? You're in the right place!
Geeks to Go is a friendly community of tech experts who can solve any problem you have. Just create a free account and post your question. Our volunteers will reply quickly and guide you through the steps. Don't let tech troubles stop you. Join Geeks to Go now and get the support you need!

How it Works Create Account
Photo

CPU bogging down for no apparent reason


  • Please log in to reply

#1
TheTooz

TheTooz

    New Member

  • Member
  • Pip
  • 1 posts
Hello, I have a DELl Inspiron 9400 laptop with Windows Vista Home Premium and a few days ago the CPU started randomly bogging down, with no programs running. Shortly after that my hard drive crashed. I hoped that a new HD would solve the original problem, but it persisted even with a fresh Vista install. The bog down seems to happen randomly, sometimes during the windows splash screen, sometimes it will be fine for a few minutes after bootup and it accompanied by the fan going at full speed. It -always- happens when I try to run any memory or video intensive program such as a game and it persists until I reboot.
Process Explorer shows System Idle Process at about 50-80% usage, with the procexp.exe itself taking up the rest. It even happens in Safe Mode. My laptop is not overheating, and feels barely warm to the touch and I think I can rule out overheating because it happens randomly, I can let it run overnight, then reboot and it'll be fine for 10 minutes. Conversely I can let it rest, only to hear it bog down during the windows splash screen.

Troubleshooting I've done:
-Cleaned fans/vents with air
-Disabled all startup programs and file indexing
-Downloaded 70 some Windows updates including 2 service packs
-Downloaded driver and BIOS updates from DELL
-Ran startup diagnostic, Windows Diagnostic, Dell diagnostic, all show hardware functioning normally
-Ran a virus scan just for kicks, but how could it be a virus with a brand new HD?

Event Viewer shows a warning for Kernel-Processor-Power, saying that "The speed of processor 0 is being limited by system firmware. The processor has been in this reduced performance state for 71 seconds since the last report." Could that have anything to do with it?

Also, Dell only had the BIOS update version A09 from 2007 for my product code, is there a newer version and where can I download it? Maybe they don't show it because my warranty is expired?

I've been at this for several days and am at my wit's end, please help!

Edited by TheTooz, 02 June 2009 - 02:46 PM.

  • 0

Advertisements


#2
usasma

usasma

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPipPip
  • 636 posts
  • MVP
This is a poser for sure.

I'd try the standard Vista tests:
- Go to Start and type "wercon" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Look for the problems that are recorded.
- Go to Start and type "perfmon /report" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Then save the report that it generates, zip it up, and upload it with your next post.
- Go to Start and type "compmgmt.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter.
--Look at the Reliability Monitor (Reliability and performance...Monitoring Tools...Reliability Monitor) for errors and let us know what you find
--Look at the Event Viewer (Event Viewer...Windows Logs...Application and System log files) and look for errors around the boot time, and around the time of the freezes
  • 0






Similar Topics

0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users

As Featured On:

Microsoft Yahoo BBC MSN PC Magazine Washington Post HP