CPU Maxing Out

[MOONDOG]

Hello thar Techspotters,
So I have a little issue... My CPU is Maxing out whenever it takes on a game with a moderate graphical load(not that this is the main issue, just my guess at it); Games such as Team Fortress 2, or Left 4 Dead. I've checked cooling on my card and my cpu and they are ok(unless it's lying). And the problem appeared out of the blue... I'm not overclocking or anything risky of sorts. My game will just freeze up badly, and when I check the task manager the cpu is completely maxed out, and my Q6600 quad should easily tackle any game out there + whatever the heck I wanna run as well lol. I've tried to lower the graphic settings and I get the same result. I downloaded PCWizard for more diagnostics, and when it was checking resources on the first load... I got a blue screen lol. It blue screened right after the check began for "sensors" if that says anything. Either way I kinda have a phantom problem here, but I'm all ears to any suggestions or tips.

Thanks,
Cory

P.S. Everything else (besides games with a bit-o-graphics to them) is running perfectly. Warcraft 3 (not so graphically intense) runs w/o any hooks.

 

[MetalX]

What exactly do you mean by "maxing out"? Do you mean that the CPU is getting too hot and is being throttled by the thermal controls to avoid damage, or possibly even shutting down? Or do you mean that it is always at 100% workload while running, causing a lot of slowdowns?

 

[MOONDOG]

100% workload. But it's sudden, and in the middle of gaming. The computer will get insanely sluggish in the middle of playing (almost a freeze up) and the cpu workload will be 100% for every core during this state. I realized today that if I alt-tab out of the game and wait a few minutes the cpu workload normalizes to ~30% and the computer will run normally as long as the game is in the background (which makes it seem graphic related, but I'm not sure). Got the same result in windows xp, and vista. Know any good 3rd party CPU temperature check software? I'm using bios/nvidia/rivatuner software to check temps.

P.S. Duke Nukem ftw lol

 

[Tedster]

turn off non-essential services. Use mike lin's startup editor. Also read here:
https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic66073.html

 

[MOONDOG]

turns out my cpu is running at ~65c and with a load... around 85c. I'm gonna clean out my compy a bit and reapply some thermal, make sure everything is set well, and see where I stand.

 

[MOONDOG]

Realized I never responded... but it turned out to be the gpu temp. It was throttling down the gpu because of temp and throwing a ton of workload on the cpu which caused the freeze-ups

 

[mica3speedy]

I would also check the thermal paste on your cpu. 65c should be the max for you cpu as well, not the min.