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100% CPU usage?! What can I do to boost performance.

post #1 of 35
10/2/05 at 3:05pm
Thread Starter 
From time to time my computer will lock into 100% usage. This is odd, because I'm almost never doing anything high-performance. About all I can do is wait 5-10 minutes to see if it's somehow just a bottleneck with dells bloatware, then force a restart.

I have Zonealarm firewall and am running a Norton Antivirus suite as well. Is it all the bloatware Dell puts on? I can't tellif maybe I have gotten a virus with the many programs that are automatically starting on boot up.

I haven't gotten around to putting XP Pro on here yet, but I plan on wiping and re-installing with only XP Pro, my chat utilities, firewalls/antivirus, and my games on here. Won't have a chance to do it for another week or two though...is it anything else?

Specs:
1.73ghz processor
2gb OCZ ram (all reporting for duty, I checked)
60gb 7200rpm drive
2915 wireless
dual burner
17" UXGA+
256mb 6800 graphics

What else? Oh, have the latest drivers on the 6800go and the wireless card (I'm running it over a LAN anyway) but couldn't find any BIOS updates or anything really affecting the CPU or mobo on Dell's site.

Anyway, help appreciated if anyone has any thoughts.
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post #2 of 35
10/2/05 at 3:11pm
Look in Task Manager and see if you have multiple instances of "bot" or "vbstub.exe" running. It's a recent virus that can get past AV software (at least it got past mine a few days ago) but it's easy to clean.

Let us know what you find.

-Doc
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post #3 of 35
10/2/05 at 3:54pm
much bloatware on dell's...
i spent a good hour deleting it...

heres what i do lol (but its pretty ghetto)...
I go into the task manager, put it in either alphabetical order, order of cpu usage, or mem usage...
Then I go down the list, copying the process name and googling it...
If it's something I need like something for the my wireless, i leave it, else I just go look for the program and where it orginates from.
I look for the uninstall, and if none exists, I just delete it...
Though I ended up deleting my touchpad drivers one time lol...
But this a bad way to do it...

Go with a reformat as it is the best way to do it...
I still have crap to get rid of, so I am going to end up rebotting come winter-break...
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post #4 of 35
10/2/05 at 4:01pm
actually, that's not ghetto at all aznduk, that's what I do too. I don't know how you deleted the alps driver though, that definitely should've shown when you googled it. the guy with the problem should also run adaware to see how many adware and spyware programs he has running. I'm guessing there's quite a few of them with that problem..
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post #5 of 35
10/2/05 at 8:50pm
You can also tweak your services. There are probably many services running that you (the original poster) dont need. So google that and look for black vipers services guide.
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post #6 of 35
10/3/05 at 12:12am
Anyone know if "System" is an ok process. Not System.exe or System Idle Process, it just says "System" and uses 6& cpu and 80K
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post #7 of 35
10/3/05 at 12:48am
The Mother of All Windows Process Libraries

-Doc
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post #8 of 35
10/3/05 at 12:52am
Yeah i used that site, and still don't see "System"
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post #9 of 35
10/3/05 at 12:57am
Is it a system process, or a user process?
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post #10 of 35
10/3/05 at 1:00am
According to WinTask Pro (I love this program)

"System is a Microsoft Windows System database file which stores all data regarding local hardware settings. Often known as the registry, this file represents what is shown in the regedit as 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'. This file should not be touched, where the stable running of your computer is concerned."

So yeah, it looks like you can go ahead and kill it. :-)

-Doc
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post #11 of 35
10/3/05 at 1:03am
KILL SYSTEM...
lol...
but really, leave it alone...
if you dont know whether to get rid of it or not, just dont touch it...
I freaked out when i killed my touchpad driver...
thank god for my optical mouse
but nothing beats a reformat imo...
i really want to reformat but i dont have the stuff i need right now as i am in college...
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post #12 of 35
10/3/05 at 1:36am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc.Caliban
Look in Task Manager and see if you have multiple instances of "bot" or "vbstub.exe" running. It's a recent virus that can get past AV software (at least it got past mine a few days ago) but it's easy to clean.

Let us know what you find.

-Doc
none of that...running at 100% right now too. This is bogus. Running an antivirus scan atm. I have 57 processes running...kind of a pain to go through em all one by one.
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post #13 of 35
10/3/05 at 1:47am
When it's running at 100%, look in Task Manager and see which process is using all the CPU time. That will help a lot.

-Doc
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post #14 of 35
10/3/05 at 1:37pm
Thread Starter 
Of the big ones, currently have

ifrmewrk.exe at 7k
realplay.exe at 7.1k
ISSVC.exe at 7.1k
svchost.exe at 24.2k
iExplore.exe at 31.7k
Evteng.exe at 7.26k
zcfgsvc.exe at 6.8k
explorer.exe at 26.9k
ccapp.exe 22.3k
vsmon.exe at 15.4k

and the other 50 or so processes are between 1-6k. To me there appeared to be no obvious resource hog. I have noticed, however, that it doesn't start immediately on start up of the computer, but rather seems to be whenever I get online or whenever I start an online game. This makes me suspect spyware rather than a virus. Right now though, I mean, I only have one explorer window and task manager going, should NOT be at 100%!

Out of curiosity, is the "rollback" feature any good? I could roll back to a few days ago I guess, see if it helps.
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post #15 of 35
10/3/05 at 2:14pm
look for CPU usage, not memory usage.

But yeah just do a clean format, you'll be glad you did. Just be sure to back up any non replaceable data
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post #16 of 35
10/3/05 at 5:11pm
On my system if icq fails to connect it sits there and stuffs the cpu up to 100% continuously. Killing the icq process and restarting it has always worked so far.
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post #17 of 35
10/3/05 at 5:59pm
look under image name not usage name
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post #18 of 35
10/3/05 at 10:00pm
Thread Starter 
icq?

Did a system restore (rollback) to last thursday, seems to be working fine. *shrugs*
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post #19 of 35
10/7/05 at 11:27am
Thread Starter 
So...it had worked...until today, when the same problem re-emerged. What the hell is going on?
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post #20 of 35
10/7/05 at 11:59am
omg, please re read what people are saying above
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