Processor useage pegged even during simple tasks

Topic

New Reply

I am quite concerned as my desktop which is running Windows XP Professional with 1.5 GB of RAM, a Pentium 4 processor at 1.6 GHz and an Invidia GE Force graphics card with 512 Mb of RAM and it’s own GPU has started running extremely slow! I found that for almost any operation pegs the CPU performance meter and even just running Winamp streaming Internet Radio off of the Internet is producing a 35-50% load on the processor! That seems ridiculously high to me! Application startups are taking forever to load and certain functions are taking way to long to happen! I’ve checked all drives, they are working correctly and I have kept the registry in the OS tidied up on a regular basis. The last time I encountered this, the Gateway motherboard had a BIOS chip problem. I replaced it with an older Gateway motherboard that originally held the Pentium 4 that is running in the system. The questions I have are: Is this happening to this board also? If not, is my processor dieing? The RAM checks out okay and there is no incompatibility between the 1 GB card and the 512Mb card that are currently installed. The processor fins are not getting hot, in fact it is running quite cool considering! I’ve checked all cables internal for bad connections, they’re all good. I’m at a loss to figure out if this is a hardware or a software problem! Has anyone experienced this problem and what did you find out was the problem? I would appreciate some help on this, it’s got me confused and worried I may be about ready to lose the steady reliable desktop computer I’ve had for a long time now. It strikes me that the CPU shouldn’t be loading up quite as radically as it is but have no idea where to look further for this problem!

Reply | Quote

Replies

Have you checked Task Manager to try to identify the process that is using the CPU so heavily?

Have you run malware scans?

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

Alternatively use Process Monitor to find the CPU hog.

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

1)If there is any flash running with the streaming, I’ve experienced CPU load in excess of 50% on a 1.67 Ghz…no flash ads, then it is high.
2)If you know when it started acting up, system restore to before that date, see if you can get a known good registry back in there, and if that does it, stop messing with the registry.
3)Turn off all startups in MsConfig and see what change there is, if any.
4)Check hard drive with long test of SeaTools.
5)Try an XP repair install.
6))Image drive to another one then install XP fresh to see if its still a problem or if it was just bit rot from years of use (and accelerated by rigistry cleaning). If it doesn’t perk up then its hardware related for sure.

Reply | Quote