CPU Usage Bipolar

Coach Hale · 02-15-2006, 09:15 PM

Hey guys, new to TSF, just signed up today as it were. I've been fiddling around with my PC for a while now (I built it myself a few years back) and whenever I hit a virus problem I just format as I have 2 hard drives and I generally save everything I really need to the other one, and everything else I have on my C drive is just useless anyways. Recently I had been noticing major CPU usage problems in almost every program. For example, whenever I was burning a CD in iTunes, or even scrolling through my songs, or when I did anything in a program other than allowing it to idle (except for iTunes which plays music no problem and Internet Explorer) my CPU usage percentage would shoot up into the 90-100% range. Obviously, very frustrating if you spent a pretty penny putting a 1024MB of ram in the computer and getting a good processor, and having it work for a few years no problem with the occasional formats. So I figured it was just a virus problem and after a few attempts to clean it, I decided it was probably time for me to format my computer as my iTunes music store was also giving me errors and such. I formatted both hard drives this time though, as I was quite annoyed with having to move back and forth. I started everything back up, reinstalled windows XP, video card software, the whole bit, but to my dismay, immediately after I open a program my CPU usage shoots back up. I spent a little while scanning my computer again, using memory boosting products, using msconfig, etc., but after a while I just decided it would probably be easier to come on to this forum and ask if anyone knew what was going on. I'm thinking it might be an actual memory hardware problem and I may just need to replace one of the sticks, but any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, Coach.

ebackhus · 02-16-2006, 07:57 AM

Welcome to TSF!

Visit www.memtest86.com and run the utility there for a few hours to test your RAM. It's unlikely but worth looking at anyway. When you restore your software are you restoring from downloads on your other drive or from fresh downloads from the Web?

Coach Hale · 02-16-2006, 08:54 PM

The only programs I currently have on my computer are iTunes, Windows Media Player, AOL Instant Messenger, Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0.7, and all of the drivers for my Radeon 9800, and they were all taken fresh from the internet. -Coach

Coach Hale · 02-19-2006, 12:41 PM

anyone?

forumposter32 · 02-20-2006, 04:26 PM

Run Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware. Then install Zonealarm.

02-15-2006, 09:15 PM	#1 (permalink)
Coach Hale Registered User Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 3 OS: Windows XP	CPU Usage Bipolar Hey guys, new to TSF, just signed up today as it were. I've been fiddling around with my PC for a while now (I built it myself a few years back) and whenever I hit a virus problem I just format as I have 2 hard drives and I generally save everything I really need to the other one, and everything else I have on my C drive is just useless anyways. Recently I had been noticing major CPU usage problems in almost every program. For example, whenever I was burning a CD in iTunes, or even scrolling through my songs, or when I did anything in a program other than allowing it to idle (except for iTunes which plays music no problem and Internet Explorer) my CPU usage percentage would shoot up into the 90-100% range. Obviously, very frustrating if you spent a pretty penny putting a 1024MB of ram in the computer and getting a good processor, and having it work for a few years no problem with the occasional formats. So I figured it was just a virus problem and after a few attempts to clean it, I decided it was probably time for me to format my computer as my iTunes music store was also giving me errors and such. I formatted both hard drives this time though, as I was quite annoyed with having to move back and forth. I started everything back up, reinstalled windows XP, video card software, the whole bit, but to my dismay, immediately after I open a program my CPU usage shoots back up. I spent a little while scanning my computer again, using memory boosting products, using msconfig, etc., but after a while I just decided it would probably be easier to come on to this forum and ask if anyone knew what was going on. I'm thinking it might be an actual memory hardware problem and I may just need to replace one of the sticks, but any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, Coach.

02-16-2006, 07:57 AM	#2 (permalink)
ebackhus Manager, Design Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: SATX Posts: 14,137 OS: WinXP Pro SP3/Windows 7 RTM My System Blog Entries: 28	Welcome to TSF! Visit www.memtest86.com and run the utility there for a few hours to test your RAM. It's unlikely but worth looking at anyway. When you restore your software are you restoring from downloads on your other drive or from fresh downloads from the Web? __________________ ----------------------------- There are no dumb questions, unless a customer is asking them. Help in the fight against cancer and other serious illnesses.

02-16-2006, 08:54 PM	#3 (permalink)
Coach Hale Registered User Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 3 OS: Windows XP	The only programs I currently have on my computer are iTunes, Windows Media Player, AOL Instant Messenger, Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0.7, and all of the drivers for my Radeon 9800, and they were all taken fresh from the internet. -Coach

02-19-2006, 12:41 PM	#4 (permalink)
Coach Hale Registered User Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 3 OS: Windows XP	anyone?

02-20-2006, 04:26 PM	#5 (permalink)
forumposter32 Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 38 OS: WinXP Pro	Run Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware. Then install Zonealarm.