For Some Reason CPU Process Spikes

Ctl+Alt+Del to get to Windows Task Manager
Select Processes
Click on CPU a couple of times until System Idle Process (SYSTEM) is on the top of the list.
Observe what is taking up you CPU.

If you have Nero's "INCD" or Roxio's "Drag-to-Disk", they may be the culprit.

Found A Solution To My Spikes and Studders

I have been having problems for sometime similar to the problem you mention; intermittent spikes in the cpu usage and coincident with that what have been referred to in these forums as hicups, short pauses, intermittent freezes, etc.

I installed a clean copy of windows on a new hard drive, did all the updates including Sager drivers and it was still there. I sorted through tens if not hundreds of pages in these forums and did not find anything concrete. I had developed theories on bios problems, memory problems and one hint at the wireless network controller.

I had the computer drop into sleep mode and when I woke it up, the problem had disappeared. My problem had been occurring at 1 minute intervals like a fairly regular clock. When it happened, mouses studdered, music stopped and dvd's paused. After the wakeup everything was fine...until I restarted.

I downloaded Wintasks and Speed Up My PC tonight thinking maybe I had a process overload problem. I sorted through the processes, got rid of the junk and had no more success. I spent some time getting to know Speed Up My PC and noticed that there are some real cool charts that allow you to watch cpu usage among other things. I began to watch the phenomenon and noticed that the cpu spike did not include increased memory usage. It did however coincide with a large spike in the internet bandwidth usage chart.

I went into Device Manager and disabled the wireless network card and the freezes stopped. I enabled the card and they started again. I had updated the driver with the Sager driver so I decided to look elsewhere for another driver. I downloaded a new driver off the Gigabyte website and viola, the card works and no more hesitations, freezes, hicups, short pauses or intermittent freezes.

I know not all the solutions some folks find work for everyone. I wanted to get this out on the web though in the hopes that some other sufferer may find relief.

John