CPU usage at 100%

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benjy20

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Ive had no problems with my pc recently until I installed FEAR a few days ago. I tried playing it but everything was horribly jerky and must have been running at about 2 fps. This was crazy becasue even when i had on lowest resolution and and everything turned off it was hardly any better. My specs are

Athlon 2500xp
2 x 512mb RAM
BFG Geforce 6800GS 256mb

So you can see that this is obviously not right. I have uninstalled the game now but my pc is running unbelievably slow. It takes at least 2 mins to open firefox or even my my computer. I tried playing some other games that are normally fine but they are unplayable now with low fps, and they take about 10 mins to actually come on. I just noticed on the task manager that my cpu usage is at maximum, even though i dont have any programs open and have removed as many background processes as possible. Temperature is 73 C. What could have caused this and why is the cpu runnign at 100%?
 
lol thx man, im sorry for my noobishness, i didnt even think of trying system restore :( Seems to be working fine now! Thanks alot.

EDIT

Well that didnt last long, was fine for a while, even playing games again but just booted up pc now and same old problem has happened. Its fine once it boots, cpu usage is low until any application is opened then once it hits 100% it just stays there and never comes back down again, no idea why this is.
 
I really think your machine is running pretty hot 75 c is a cut off point for a lot of CPU's
The install/unistall of the Game may have corrupted or changed some files . If a restore only helped temporarily ,You might want to a Repair of Windows .
And /or go thru the registry and confirm there are no remnants of that game .
 
Have you scan for spybots and trojans or viruses? The CPU can run at near 100% while another process lurks quitely at a few %. It just keeps sending command to the CPU. Look for any processes you don't recognize and turn them off. What I do is have Firefox open at google and just type in the processes name and I get the info I need to decide if it's asystem process I'm not familar with or a malicious one.

I know this will be slow for u because of the situation but what else can you do.
Or maybe boot into safe mode and run HiJackthis routine and see what it finds.

Read here for instruction on how t use HJT.https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic17297.html
 
I often use the tools found at Sysinternals to t-shoot my system. Their tool Process Explorer (which is like a very fancy Task Manager) may be helpful, as well as FileMon (see if a particular file is going wild on the hard drive -- it might clue you in to what's causing the high CPU usage).

There's always the possibility of rampaging spyware/adware/malware/greyware (or whatever they're calling it these daze). To combat them, use:

SpyBot Search & Destroy (the best one, IMHO
CWShredder
HijackThis

Good luck!
 
I really think your machine is running pretty hot 75 c is a cut off point for a lot of CPU's

My XP 2000+ Palomino is getting unstable at 56 C. (I put better coolers on everything and I still need my 8" fan in front of the CPU heatsink.) 75 C is probably too much for it.
 
that's very hot. put some arctic silver on your CPU. I have a thermaltake cooler in my XP3200+ ALso I have 1 intake and 2 exhaust fans (not including PSU exhaust.
 
75c. We need a split system air con in that thing, stat! My CPU NEVER gets over 34c. Even If I push it to breakin' point. (Athlon XP 3000+ WITHOUT cool&quiet enabled) so thast pretty damn good in my opinion. But 75c, you have a serious problem. You realise thats hot enough to start a fire?
 
Thanks for the input guys, think i have solved the problem now...well its been 2 days and no more probs so fingers crossed. I ran spybot which picked up a few pieces of spware, just the normal really, then ran avg but that didnt pick up anything so problem was still there. Then i downloaded and ran Ewido, that found 110 things including 2 high risk trojans. Icleaned all that up and its been running fine ever since. Im guessing it was the trojans that must have been the cause then.
CPU temperature is back down to 55 C now which is what it normally is at least, but thats when its not under any load.
 
temps gone down is good, shouldnt cause much problems now, n you can use the pc as a room heater :D.. but still can go abit more further...

apply some new arctic sil on your cpu & heatsink, and maybe throw in an extra fan or two...
 
Well that is good you found the trojan(s), that what I thought it might be, from your description of the problem. I agree with N3051M, 55C is much better but it could come down a little for more headroom when underload.

Cheers.
 
benjy20 said:
Ive had no problems with my pc recently until I installed FEAR a few days ago. I tried playing it but everything was horribly jerky and must have been running at about 2 fps. This was crazy becasue even when i had on lowest resolution and and everything turned off it was hardly any better. My specs are

Athlon 2500xp
2 x 512mb RAM
BFG Geforce 6800GS 256mb

So you can see that this is obviously not right. I have uninstalled the game now but my pc is running unbelievably slow. It takes at least 2 mins to open firefox or even my my computer. I tried playing some other games that are normally fine but they are unplayable now with low fps, and they take about 10 mins to actually come on. I just noticed on the task manager that my cpu usage is at maximum, even though i dont have any programs open and have removed as many background processes as possible. Temperature is 73 C. What could have caused this and why is the cpu runnign at 100%?
I just have to say that you have a good video card. i have a BFG Geforce 6200 OC 256mb AGP
 
Thanks guys will definately look into some better cooling the after what you say. All been ok since so looks like the trojan definately was the problem. Will definately get a couple new fans i think just to make sure now that temp doesnt get too high.

zippo6962 said:
I just have to say that you have a good video card. i have a BFG Geforce 6200 OC 256mb AGP

Thx man, yeah its a good card, used 2 have a fx5200 so made a pretty big difference and also managed to unlock 4 pixel pipes as well so its definately great for the price.
 
Several of y'all have suggested Thermal Paste but what I've been looking for (for quite some time) is Thermal PADS. These are suggested to be a lot better as they are already the correct size and more importantly, thickness.

Does anyone out there know where I could order some? I have yet to find any (I've only been able to search out the paste).

Thanks in advance...
 
Well you can ask here again, but the answer you are going to get is: "Artic Silver is the best, don't use thermal pads". Ppl here have been told countless times how to carefully REMOVE their thermal pad and clean the CPU die (pad adhesive) so they can use Artic Silver and get much much better cooling.

Cheers.
 
Maybe I could do that to be able to remove my 8" fan... (Used the thermal pad coming on the CoolerMaster heatsink, I use generic Antec on my KT266 and the one coming with the ThermalTake cooler on the GPU)
 
Pads vs. Paste

People prefer paste to pads because the paste fills in the "nooks and cranny's" of the surfaces which makes for better heat transfer.
 
What does Thermo paste/pad have to do with CPU at 100%?????

ctrl+alt+del will open Task manager --> click over to processes..
browse down and see what is running at 100% or very high CPU.
normally the only thing will be "system idle process" in the 85% to 97%
do not stop "system idle process", search for some other application
you can use "end process" to stop the application... make sure you copy the name of the process then search (use google) for that one....so you can eliminate it..
Then I downloaded and ran Ewido, that found 110 things including 2 high risk trojans.
I also use XoftSpy along with Ewido..to eliminate adware, trojans, spyware.
 
People prefer paste to pads because the paste fills in the "nooks and cranny's" of the surfaces which makes for better heat transfer.
Pads do the same thing, but only after a while (Once they melted off, the gaps are filled with the pad material, and some places have directly a metal-metal contact then).
 
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