CPU in task manager high - computer is choppy - Please read!

[Night201]

Little problem here. One of the computers here at the office is a bit choppy. I noticed this because when you move the mouse, it stops for like a few tenths of a second every second. When I opened up the task manager the CPU usage was jumping from like 7% to 30% and back (7-24-7-30-7-32-5-40). The usage keeps jumping, even when the computer is just sitting idle. Any problems on what may be causing this to happen. I just checked it like 10 minutes ago, about 4 hours after it was turned on and it is still jumping. This makes working on the computer difficult and annoying because the computer almost freezes every second for like a tenth of a second. I make a screen shot of the task manager so any of you can see the graph (low and high peaks like a heart beat). Any suggestions. Image available upon request via email to mbisi@tm-inc.com. Thanks.

 

[Shudder]

Upgrade to windows 2000 and get a real task manager, then you'll see what exactly is causing the spike in CPU usage by program name.

In all seriousness though, I had the same problem running windows ME when I had a CD burner plugged into the usb port.

This is also at idle.. no burning, no reading.. SO either it was the USB or the drive was being polled by the OS for some reason, but I dropped that POS OS real quick and never had the problem again.

 

[Night201]

This computer is running Windows 2000 SP-2

 

[ProviaFan]

Go into the task manager again, click on the Processes tab, and click on the "CPU" heading. This will sort the list by CPU usage, and you can see what program is causing the spikes in CPU usage.

 

[Night201]

I tried that and they are all on 0 except for Explorer which goes from 1-2 which is normal. CPU idle time is 98-99

 

[ProviaFan]

Try going "View > Update speed > High" in the Task Manager before trying the process list thing again. This might let you see what is causing the spikes, since it updates the list more frequently.