First let me say I cannot provide all of my exact hardware specs. at this moment, because I am running a memtest86 on the machine in question. Will post exact specs as soon as memtest is complete. Here, however, is my basic problem: This machine is a little bit old, Intel Pentium 4 2.00 Ghz, running just one stick of 512 memory. I have been using it in the past just to run Apache and host a simple website for my gaming clan. In the past, it has run with ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEMS, and it actually was a great machine that never ever had downtime. Randomly one day when I booted it up, it was crawling. CPU Usage was constantly at 100% - when I checked process manager, no process was 'hogging' but taskmgr.exe would jump from 50-65%. Closing task manager down didn't do anything. Everything is just SUPER SLOW right clicking takes about 3 seconds to load, opening start bar taking about 5 seconds etc. Thinking it could have been a nasty, and because I didnt have anything important on the machine I just reformatted, completely formatted the partition, re-installed a fresh copy of Windows XP SP2. The formatting of the drive / copying the new files part of the install went smoothly. However, when the machine restarted and went into the actual install process, it seemed really really slow. The 39 minutes it said it would take took more like an hour and a half to two hours. When it finally completed installing and rebooted - same issue. Even on the log in screen everything is just SLOW. Takes about 3-5 seconds from the time I type in a character in the password box for the little asterisk to even appear. I'm pretty proficient in my software side of computing, but have never done much hardware diagnostics or troubleshooting. I came here because I don't really know the process of diagnosing this problem, what steps I should take to figure out what is going on. Like I said at the top of the post, I am running a memtest86 right now, so far I am 40 minutes into the test, 18% pass with no errors. I don't THINK that it is a memory problem. The next thing I would like to test I guess is if the CPU is overheating. Would love any suggestions/information/steps I need to take to diagnose this issue. Thanks guy! :chk:
UPDATE: Well, the CPU is now only running @ about 30% usage... and I have done absolutely NOTHING. I canceled the memtest86 because it was 80% pass with no errors... figured it wasn't that. Booted up, installed SpeedFan wanting to check the temperatures of everything. CPU is running @ 64C which is the minimum threshold when I looked up the Intel P4 typical temperatures. Used the S.M.A.R.T. hard disk checking online utility that is built into SpeedFan and it reported that everything was either Very Good or Normal, Fitness and Performance both 90%. My hard drive temp was 40C and the max is listed at 47C. I guess that it is usable now, but it's still concerning me a little bit that it is spiking from 13% usage to 30-32% usage while doing absolutely nothing, and having nothing installed. The other thing I have noticed is that when I open a IEXPLORE.EXE window, usage will spike to around 65% for about 2 seconds then go back down to what it has been doing... is this normal for it to spike so high just opening a IEXPLORE.EXE ? Even doing things like changing tabs from Processes to Performance in the task manager makes it spike up to around 65% for a second. Still looking for any suggestions/insight =)
UPDATE AND SOLUTION :chk::chk: : So, randomly came across this post when still browsing for a solution - 100% CPU usage problem - Help! - Tech Support Forum Somehow, plugging in the chassis fan is causing the usage spikes - I disconnect the chassis fan from the mobo and VOILA - system is running beautifully again!! Could somebody possibly explain to me why this is happening? Is it something to do with the PSU ?
Hello well to reduce your CPU usage its possible to free up some of your virtual memory by shutting down some services. As an example Themes, System Restore are just 2 recourses that cant throttle CPU usage especially if youre only running 512 meg of RAM. If you goto control panel, administrative tools ,then services double click to open a list of services that are running right click on the service you wish to stop or modify you can then either disable or stop accordingly. Once completed re-boot your pc this will enable any changes that have been made. Hope this helps. PS it could be a PSU issue or possible malware /spyware infection id try to get your cpu temp down a bit heat is a major issue with any processor
