Unexplained CPU usage

[kypron7]

On my rig which is listed in my sig, every couple days or so, it seems that my games run really slow, until I reboot. I started checking my cpu usage, and it will sit at 50% until I reboot (which is why it runs so slow). I have run Norton, AVG, spybot, and adaware, and nothing is showing up. I have barely anything running in the background.

Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[hennessy1]

well i can tell you that if you have norton and avg running that will increase your cpu useage along with memory usage. Second if you have the 2007 version of adaware that will also do the same thing.

 

[esquared]

Wouldn't hurt also to check your msconfig startup files. You would be surprised how much stuff is in your startup that doesn't need to be there. I also agree with hennessey1, dump the Norton.

 

[btcomm1]

When you have your 50 percent CPU usage, why don't you look at the task manager to see what process is taking up the CPU?

 

[TVisitor]

I often find that explorer.exe (the shell...) is taking up about 50% when things get sluggish. I have no idea, to date, as why. My system can be running fine for days and days, and then boom, drag to a crawl. I find this on my home system and my work system, odd. (Using XP Pro SP2)

 

[Schadenfroh]

kypron7, in absence of the information on what process is spiking your cpu....

1. Having two realtime antivirus applications will cause issues, remove AVG.
2. What version of Norton are you running? Pre 2007 versions are known to consume a hefty amount of system resources. (2007 is no Kaspersky, but 2008's beta is very nice)
3. Windows AutoUpdates have been known to spike cpu usage (IIRC, it will be labeled as svchost in the process window), try disabling autoupdates to see if that fixes it.