processor usage problem

[deerslayer]

I've been having a lot of problems with my computer lately, and i still haven't figured out what it is. A new problem has arisen lately though and i was hoping maybe someone would know whats goin on. I run the CoolMon utility which i'm sure most of u probly use. Currently i have it displaying the date, time, how long the computer has been on, and what the processor and ram usage are. My problem occurs when i have hardly anything running (usually IE and an instant messenger) and my processor usage goes up to 30-40% and fluctuates within that region, and when i try to move my mouse, it moves, then it wont, and then it moves again, like my background is "catching" it. You get the idea. I was wondering if anyone knows if this is a sign of something, like my HD is going bad or something like that. I have an AMD Thunderbird 1ghz @ 1 ghz and 384 mb of crucial pc133 ram. The ram usage when this happens is normal, so i dont know what's going on. Please let me know what you think.

The previous problem i had and have been having off and on is when i try to boot up my computer, it gets to the login screen (XP pro) and then restarts before or after i put in my password, it wont boot up. The first time it did it, i came home from work, and it magically worked. After that i formatted and put XP back on (before i had dual boot XP 2K) and it worked fine for a while, then did it again, i unplugged my HD Cooler, and it worked fine (HD cooler plugged in with HD before i unplugged it). Now it's doing this. Hopefully someone can help me out determining whats goin on so i can get this fixed. Any suggestions or opinions welcome.

 

[deerslayer]

^^^^^^^^^

 

[AluminumStudios]

Tough one to trouble shoot.

I assume you've checked out background apps like virus scanners, or task schedulers?

Have you ever tried leaving task manager open and seeing if you can see what process starts consuming a lot of CPU time when it happens. If you leave task manager open, click on CPU at the top of the CPU column and it will sort the processes by CPU usage. THat way if one starts hogging the CPU you will see it bubble to the top.

You might also want to note the time it happens and see if there is anything in the event log.

 

[deerslayer]

well i hit CTRL ALT DEL and the one that was consuming it all is the same one that is right now and i'm not having any problems....it's the "System Idle Process". And i'm not having the problem right now. What i had running when it started doing it:

AIM
Morpheus
Word
UICE (Remote program)
WINAMP
COOLMON
DIAL UP CONNECTION

What i have running now:
all of them minus morpheus

This thing has been really touchy lately, i wish i knew what was wrong with it, my friend and i have been trying to figure it out, but we haven't been successful. We thought maybe it was the hard drive, cuz a couple times when i formatted in dos i had to restart cuz it just stopped (dunno if that means anything) and the hard drive seemed to be turning on and off at random when i had the boot problems (maxtor 7200 rpm 40 gig). Then we thought maybe the mobo was dying. I honestly don't know what's wrong with it. My power voltages are kinda high, but it's always been like that, we're not comin up with anything, and it does it at random. Thanks for replying

 

[AluminumStudios]

I'd take a DOS format freezing as a pretty bad sign (^_^

Now that you mention the formatting thing, it reminds me of a few cases where I was working on a machine who's HD was going bad and it would frequently and sporatically pause.

Does is it a SMART hard drive? Do you have any diagnostic software for it? In the case I had, scandisk took FOREVER and never revealed any problems. it was something with the drive going out of tollerance. Dell recognized it right away and shipped me a replacement.

You may want to back up your data until you can investigate further.

 

[deerslayer]

everything is on a different hard drive, the only things that are on that hard drive is windows and my programs, all my files are on my other maxtor. do you think that's why my computer sometimes wont go past the windows log on screen? it's really weird, it only does it occasionally, and the first time i unplugged the computer for two hours and it worked, the second time i just unplugged the HD cooler. when we were trying to figure out what was wrong, it would try to do scan disk before it started up, and it would never complete it. do you think i should RMA the hard drive to maxtor? i don't like having 40 gigs that i can't trust :disgust: