Constant 100% CPU usage, lag spikes on laptop while playing games

[xxJags]

Hello, on my laptop I've been having horrible lag spikes while playing any sort of game. This problem was not present about 10 months ago and I used to be able to play games very smoothly without any problems.

My Laptop is a Gateway NV52, 4 GB ram, and 320 gb hdd.

I think there has to be something in my backround processes that is eating up so much memory.

I also have a picture of one of these cpu usage spikes, I believe it is pretty bad lol.

Any help to solving this problem would be greatly appreciated, it is such a hassle to play games and just having my fps go down the drain and my laptop running so slow

 

[Tmagic650]

Try downloading and running this tool:
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/files/file/187-tfc-temp-file-cleaner-by-oldtimer/

What anti virus and anti malware programs are you running?

 

[xxJags]

malwarebytes, norton, Hijackthis

sorry for late reply

 

[Tmagic650]

Remove Norton completely, don't just disable for a time and try playing games. Norton uses tremendous computer resources, and it should never be used on laptops. Microsoft's Security Essentials is free and it will not conflict with a computers performance

 

[xxJags]

does it really take up that much usage? norton has also saved me a couple of times too, but how does it use up so many resources

btw thanks for quick response

 

[Tmagic650]

All I can say is try what I suggested. You can always re-install Norton later after the lags are resolved

 

[xxJags]

what security program would you suggest? i deleted norton

 

[Tmagic650]

Microsoft Security Essentials it is free and effective... This temp file cleaner is good too. Run it weekly:
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/files/file/187-tfc-temp-file-cleaner-by-oldtimer/

MSE:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials

 

[Vrmithrax]

I can definitely second the Security Essentials suggestion for a laptop like yours, Norton can be a real hog at times. If you are in dire need of a firewall beyond the Windows one, you can also look at the free version of Comodo, it seems to have a pretty low resource impact.

Now, there is one thing I would definitely try here, and that is to find out what is kicking your CPU up that high. Quick check is to go into Task Manager again, look at the Processes tab, and click the CPU heading to sort by that - highest offender should show on top, if not just click CPU again (that alternates ascending and descending sorting). Also be sure to click the "show processes from all users" option. You should be able to see what process is pegging out your CPU. If you can't tell from that, go back to Performance tab and click the Resource Monitor - you can sort in the CPU by Average there, and it'll keep the most consistent offenders at the top of the list. That's usually how I find what's kickin my processor's can, so I can determine what needs to be done to fix the issue.