CPU waves?

[jmarlo1]

ok. i have been a lurker on these forums for a while now and have fixed many computers with all of your help. i've done a search and thought i fixed my most recent problem... but it popped up again tonight. i'm at a loss.

here's the problem: every 3 seconds or so, (even with nothing else running) the cpu usage goes from 2% to about 35%. the cpu usage history graph literally looks like a heartbeat. it even interferes with performance. Games are very frustrating with the screen stopping every 3 seconds. even with nothing running, and rolling the mouse over the screen, it stops every 3 seconds. I've done spybot, symantic, spyware doctor, and a memory scan. all came out clean. did the alienware respawn (reformat the hard drive) but it still went on. changed back to my old ram, still continued. thought it could be a battery issue, took it out and ran off the cord alone and it stopped. or so i thought. put the battery back in to let it run down. when it died, i took the battery out and put the cord back in. now it's doing it again. i'm ready to throw my computer out the window. wouldn't you know my 1 year warranty was out in september....


here are the specs on the laptop:
AURORA M9700
TURION 64 35 WATT ML-40
2 1GB DDR PC3200 SODIMM Corsair
FUJITSU 80GB 5400RPM SATA NCQ
8X DVD+/-RW NEC AD-5540A REV 1
9700 NVIDIA 7900 GS WITH 256MB
9700 802.11 B/G MINI PCI WIRELESS CARD
MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME COA
CYBERLINK POWERDVD 6.0
RAID 0 STRIPING 2 DRIVES


any help would be much appreciated. thanks!

 

[SNGX1275]

What process in Task Manager is the one spiking up?

 

[jmarlo1]

moves around alot. system idle processes stays in the 90's .. RtWLan.exe goes from 0-2 or so .. explorer.exe does the same .. and so does taskmgr.exe and System .. but nothing seems to go with the waves...

 

[SNGX1275]

Well something has to... otherwise it wouldn't spike. If you really are seeing nothing corrolate with the spikes then I'd head down to the Security forum on this site and read a couple of the messages stuck at the top of the page concerning running a full system scan for malware.

 

[Nodsu]

Did you sort the process list by CPU usage?

Maybe try a more advanced program like the Process Explorer from Sysinternals that can show you kernel CPU usage too.

 

[jmarlo1]

When I sorted by cpu usage, that's what it came up with. it's not doing it this morning. I've done a HJT scan and will post the log as an attachment. I'm in the process of doing the other scans that are recommended on the security boards. I'll let you know how that goes.

 

[jmarlo1]

well. i did the AVG scan and the online virus scan. it's still not doing the 'waves'. i'm unsure what caused it. could it be from having it on a long time?