High CPU and mem usage when idle. Very concerned...

[ChooBaKa]

I have a machine with a Celery 700 no o/c and 224mb of ram running Win98 SE. I launched the system monitor to check CPU usage and mem usage, and they are very high, even after a reboot. The CPU doesn't seem to go below 60% ever, and the mem is at 146MB. I only have a couple of things in the task tray, but even when I only had systray and explorer, it didn't budge. I only built this machine about 4 weeks ago. Can anyone please explain what may be happening and to fix it? Or try to find out what is causing it?

Thanks,
Derek
:frown:

 

[mastertech01]

Some running programs arent seen in the tray... open your system configuration utility and click on the startup tab.. disable as many startup items as you can live without... then reboot and see where you stand then.

 

[ChooBaKa]

Ok, i just unchecked the load startup group from msconfig. It started up fine, barely any cpu usage and normal ram. The i ran msconfig again and it shot up to 45%. Closed msconfig and it stayed there. If i move the mouse around vigorously, it will drop down to 2-5%, then I stop moving the mouse and it pops back up to 45% again. WTF is going on?!

Derek

 

[ChooBaKa]

I should mention that i am using a asus sloket. Right now the CPU is pinned at 97% and using over 260mb of ram, and i haven't really done anything!

Here is a screen cap

 

[mastertech01]

Are you using High bandwidth USB devices? Like cable modem, USB WINTV, etc.. that will drain your resources considerable

 

[ChooBaKa]

ONly thing USB I have is the printer. It isn't even on. I took out the sloket and the CPU is no where near being warm.
My resources are @ 90%. So that is not an issue.
derek

 

[ChooBaKa]

I see a pattern here, but from what?

Another screen cap (273K)

Is my CPU funked? If it is, why would it affect the RAM as well?

Derek

 

[Dexion]

Hit the Processes tab, check whats taking up the CPU.

 

[ChooBaKa]

Unfortunately, it doesn't say how much CPU each process is using.

Screen cap of processes

 

[ChooBaKa]

Ok, I have a little more info. I used a program called WinTop and my Idle was @ 99% or so, when not doing anything. So that is good. I installed win2kpro on the same machine to see if it would show, but it was fine. 0% CPU and only 40MB RAM. I got my bro on the phone cause his laptop has win98se also. Same thing is happening to him.

Screen cap of WinTop (237K)

Does anybody have any idea as to what is going on here? Are these readings just wrong or is my puter actually funked up?

I think I may go back to win98 and see what happens.

db