WHy is my PC showing a 100% utilization whereas there arent any applications running???***solved...thanks to madrat***

[ronein]

This really annoys the hell out of me. The fact that running at 100% utilization makes my temps go upto 52C.

A virus?I ran a virus scan before and after being scanned and noted as OK, it still had the same problem
Am i being hacked?well i tried unplugging my network connection after seeing 100% utilization, it still stayed there.

LMK...please.

System specs are:
Tbird 1800,Gigabyte 266a mobo, radeon 8500
Win xp


***Solution***

HIt alt+CTRL+DEL

choose processes, be sure to have the box "show all processes from users" checked....Look either for the SVC Host.exe....the problem will be either the one with SYSTEM or Network services(which one obviously is taking the CPU process)...choose end process and that should be it.

Thanks all!

 

[BlvdKing]

Go into the task manager, look at the processes tab, and see what's using up your CPU cycles. Then kill the process.

 

[benjamit]

i know this one

the same thing happened to me on all of my machines running xp

take a look at explorer.exe in taskmanager, i'm betting that's the thing holding up you system

when you try to open up something and then the taskmanager says that it's not responding then end task it and your cpu use will go down again

the way i fixed the problem was to format the drive and install win 2k

ps-if you kill explorer.exe you wont be able to do anything else (but the system is still running)

 

[gunf1ghter]

<< the way i fixed the problem was to format the drive and install win 2k >>



Saying that there is an inherent problem in WinXP causing this behavior is incorrect. There was no reason to go back to Win2k.

 

[zsouthboy]

Idle process takes up(well, not exactly takes up) 100% of your cpu time if you are not doing anything.

zs

 

[bozo1]

Which means it is idle and doing nothing.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Are you running any temp monitors? Some like the one for the Dragon+ (ITE SmartGuardian) constantly read and take 100% of the cycles.

 

[ronein]

Brandon(wassup man?), i have no idea on the sensors, but i can say is that sometimes it reads a 100% and sometimes not.

As for the other suggestions(except changing to win2k), i'll give it another look.

Still looking for other suggestions.

 

[NeonFlak]

I also had a similar problem with winxp pro. So I tried dual booting it with win2k pro. And in xp I would get the 100% cpu usage here and there with nothing open. In 2k pro with nothing open sometimes I get 2% usage... I have yet to figure out what the issue is, so I just formatted and I'm only using 2k pro now. I would just like to say that I noticed that issue ever since the second to last beta build of xp and did inform Microsoft as I never noticed it before that.

 

[bozo1]

Sooooo, did you look in task manager and find out what is eating the cycles? Once you do that, you have half the battle won.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

<< ps-if you kill explorer.exe you wont be able to do anything else (but the system is still running) >>


yes you can. hit ctrl-alt-del, click on task manager, and then you can use that to run a command, namely "explorer.exe"

 

[HalfCrazy]

Just wanted to say that I'm running XP and I'm not having that problem. You can see the rig spec be clicking on the link below.

 

[Dreadogg]

try adaware make sure that you update the ref. file also run a trojan scanner could be that! here are some links Adaware Scan your PC Free

 

[ObiDon]

I had a problem with my Memorex keyboard's software hogging all the cycles. I only noticed it because my Distributed.net graph would flatten. I couldn't fix it so I just stopped using the software. Too bad because it was nice being able to control all my speakers during games. Maybe someday they'll fix it

 

[John]

Start/run/msconfig/uncheck load startup items/reboot

Problem should go away, now take time to figure out which TSR is the culprit.

 

[Dreadogg]

<< Start/run/msconfig/uncheck load startup items/reboot >>

you should be able to see which one it is by ctr. alt. del and checking the task manager! I am putting my money on spyware or some silly trojan or a bad driver!

 

[John]

Dreadogg, your suggestion was already mentioned by another member, so I was mearly giving an alternative approach.

 

[Dreadogg]

<< Dreadogg, your suggestion was already mentioned by another member, so I was mearly giving an alternative approach. >>

I know but i dont think he is getting the message! You know? plus I was just quoting your suggestion because it was a good one! You see after he kills all the startup programs he will find that something hiddin is stealing all those CPU cycles, mostlikly spyware or a trojan! But I could be wrong! ok also check for a mysterious key in the regestry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

 

[Mem]

I had this problem happen to me,anyway mine was MSN at 100% cpu use with XP 1700+ , I just closed MSN down since I was not using it and rebooted.

You can run programs like from CNET that can detect spyware,in my case 0 adware was detected.

I just think it was just a weird incident.

 

[Dreadogg]

I have had iexplorer suck up 100 % also! One thing I do know is that when you open up explorer or another browsier the spyware automaticly opens if you want you can watch this through the task manager! I also know if you are saying that you used adaware and found 0 spyware you are lying because everyone has spyware on there pc's that run an Microsoft OS! unless you have cookies and all that other stuff disabled which I highly doubt! try adaware bet you have some! "I Guarantee it"

 

[Mem]

<< also know if you are saying that you used adaware and found 0 spyware you are lying >>



I meant adware not spyware ,anyway point I was trying to make that the 100% cpu use can be fixed by a closing the program down (if you know what`s causing it) & simple reboot.

 

[MadRat]

Its the network management software built into XP that is doing it. I for the life of me cannot remember its rather dull name.

Edit: Vaguely remember it begins with a Q... as in quality... *hmrph*...

 

[ronein]

well first off thanks to you guys for all the suggestions and inputs, they were really appreciated.
I did forget to mention that rebooting does really kill the problem...until it shows up randomly\later....Thanks for the tip and suggestion John.

i hadnt been able to post and reply in a while because i wasnt able to replicate the problem this past couple of days

(go figure).

Anyway today,after plopping a dvd of swordfish(so-so movie, but its worth seeing halle), it finally came....100% utilization even when all apps were closed.

I hit CTRL, ALT and Delete and deleted the suspected applications(IEexplore.exe and Explore.exe) and nothing happened. Still was hovering at 100...I deleted all the processes that were running and kept it to bare minimum(3 apps that were not possible to delete). And i still was running at 100%.

I took to Dreaddog's links and ran a virus check and an adware check......God bless you sir!!!.The scanner yielded one worm(Klunz??cant really remember). The virus wasnt possible to be cleaned so i just chose to delete it. Alas after deleting still at 100%. The i ran adware and it found 20 programs or files that had adware. I deleted them all but still was at 100%.:

The i took to madrat's tip.....You sir are the MAN!!
on the task manager, i checked the option "show processes from all users" and i immediately saw the image name svchost.exe with the user name NETWORK SERVICE eating up the majority of the memory. I chose to end the process and....voila...my utilization immediately drops!

So that must be it...or not? Anyway if ever i see this same problem again, i'll try that same procedure, that must be it i guess.

Will let you know for sure if it happens again.

Thanks AT!Thanks for the inputs and specially you, madrat!


ADDITIONAL INFO:

its gonna be either the NETWORK SERVICE or the SYSTEM that will hog the CPU. SO choose whichever is hogging the CPU

 

[Dreadogg]

happy you got this fixed I just want to make sure that you updated the ref file using this utility for adaware it's the newest and finds all the newest crap that is hiddin refupdater utility!

 

[Mem]

Dreadogg I`ve that refupdate installed,still 0 detected,all clean according to ad-aware 5.8 ,been using it for awhile now,if anybody wants to know how to get rid of that doubleclick cookie,you`ve to go to the doubleclick site and click on the opt-out button at the bottom.



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