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cpu usage high

2095 Views 9 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  kaseyb, 
K
Hi, I have an older dell dimension 4550 with xp, pentium 4 2.66, 1gb of ram, 150 gb hard drive. Has always run great but lately i've noticed a bit of a slow when when programs run. also have noticed certain times cpu usage goes up to 100% when i run a program or load a new web page etc. is this normal? it seems things take a little longer ever since service distribution 3.0 was installed by windows a couple weeks ago on here. i'm probably going to be upgrading to a new machine before too much longer but i really think i can get this one running a bit smoother for now with some of your help...thanks
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W
It's not normal, I have to look into this again.
The same thing happened to a friends computer and it really isn't the CPU usage.
There's some malicious program running that makes it say that.. it's really bizarre. But anyways, if you want to get rid of it, I would happily look into it for you, but just to ease your mind, your computer isn't really using 100% of it's resources.

-Watari
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K
yes i would really appreciate any help, i also just installed kaspersky anti virus on my computer a wek or so ago but i dont really think thats related
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W
Actually, it's just a program requesting information that it can't get. (if svchost's process is high) Screenshot your task manager and post it.

Edit: For the post above, I just remembered reading something about a program doing that while doing something else to your system, but I guess not.
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mack1
Hi kaseyb and welcome to TSF:wave:

I assume you are seeing the CPU usage in the task manager. Does the usage go down to near zero (2 or 3 %) when idle? If not, see if you can determine what is using the CPU at those times. It might be something that you can turn off in the msconfig menu.

If none of the above, see if your memory sticks are being seen (assuming you have 2 or more). Memory can be seen in system properties under the General tab.

Here is a link that describes things that will make your computer run slow:

http://www.techsupportforum.com/f174/is-your-pc-running-slow-247566.html

Post back if none of this helps, or you need dirrections or clarifications.

Best regards,:smile:
Mack1
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W
Also, if your system idle process is contributing to this high CPU usage, that's normal.
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K
attached is a image of my processes..bt.exe is a ebay listing program by the way, its the main program i used on my computer.
it seems to go back to idle at 2% when not using, but anytime i use a program and surf to a new web page it goes right up to 100% for a few seconds.

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K
by the way i really feel like it is something related to the automatic installation of software distribution service 3.0 from microsoft
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mack1
Hi kaseyb,

You might be right about the SP3, but since idle CPU usage is low, did you try this:

If none of the above, see if your memory sticks are being seen (assuming you have 2 or more). Memory can be seen in system properties under the General tab.
Click to expand...
mack1
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K
yes, it says 1gb of ram which is what i put in it, is there anything to fix with sp3? maybe its just time for a computer upgrade
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