CPU Usage WAY TOO HIGH!!!!!

[n0thx]

These are some components in my computer to give a background on the issue

AMD Athlon 64 3000+
1024 MB DDR RAM pc3200 Kingston Truevalue ( 2 512 sticks)
9800xt vid card
2 160GB SATA drives
Gigabyte K8NS (Pro i think) motherboard

that is small background on my components. Now the issue. I have just recently reformatted the drive with windows xp pro on it and reinstalled windows xp pro again. After a day or so my CPU usage is spiking like crazy for opening simple processes like opening up mozilla firefox. And then when I try and play games like Q3, CS, and UT2K4, my computer just starts locking up. ARGH!!! So I scan for viruses on housecall... NOTHING. Management says my drives are healthy. I clean and defrag both drives and the issue isn't solved. So I reset my processor, vid card, and my memory hoping that they were just in there kind of funny. Nothing too much. I notice that my video card is blazing hot at 80 degrees celsius when the computer is pretty much idle. I start worrying that I have some defunct stick of memory because I can't seem to see what is going on here... So I try one stick at a time they are both working the same way. With the processes still acting funny every now and then.

So I am curious...

Do I need some watercooling? Would that stop the CPU Usage from spiking? Do I need to reformat and re-install windows again for w/e reason? I can't think of anything else to try at the moment...

 

[Stern]

Have you checked for spyware?
spybot S&D
Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.05
Spyware Blaster
These programs work well together

 

[n0thx]

I actually do have a version of adaware pro and that search comes up clean each time (other than cookies of course). I haven't used spybot or spyware blaster before.

 

[daveybrat]

2 things that may solve your issues:

first: what brand/wattage is your power supply? A crap quality can cause lots of instability on a system like yours.

second: If it really is your video card overheating like that and you don't feel comfortable removing the heatsink/fan, then you could buy something like this:

Vantec Slot Cooler

you would put it in a pci slot below the video card and it will cool it better. I've used one a while ago and the 2 80mm fans push a lot of air!

good luck

 

[Calin]

Check if your hard drive is in UDMA mode (My computer, Properties, Hardware, Device Manager, Hard drive controllers, and for each channel check the settings)

 

[n0thx]

my power supply is 430 watt antec true power. That slot cooler looks pretty cool. I will definitely try that to warmup my vid card. Do you think that is the solution for my CPU Usage issue? If it isn't, at least it covers my heat problem. Thanks

 

[dphantom]

2 other things to check. If you'r running McAfee anti-virus and task manager shows System at or close to 90%+, there are tech articles at the McAfee site to fix that problem.

Also, try Spybot. Adaware sometimes misses stuff Spybot catches and vice-versa.

Just a couple thoughts - we've seen similar on our network.

 

[n0thx]

hmmm... well, when my computer goes haywire, it is usually the program i am running that is taking up 90+ of the percentages whether it be anything from mozilla firefox to ut2k4 or counter-strike games. Do you think spyware could really be the problem? I swear I have troubleshot everything and I can't think of what it might. I do have a REALLY hot video card.... I can't really think of anything else that is abnormal, though.