100% CPU load - why?

Hello everyone,

First off, I'd like to thank everyone who's helped me with my other two posts. You're all awesome and someday I'll go back and thank you in the thread. I promise.

But, I have a new and interesting problem: it seems as though my CPU enjoys spinning up to 100% load. I'm not entirely sure why. It might be because I have an old CPU and motherboard (Athlon 64 3700+, which is, of course, single core and an Asus A8N-32 SLI Deluxe) but it never happened with XP Pro (unless I was doing something super intensive).

So, here's the deal: it sounds like something is spinning up but it's not my hard drives. Could it be the chip fan? It happens when I'm playing video games and, more recently, when I've been loading something even moderately graphics intense on the internets (I use Firefox 3.0.10, which has been crashing a bit lately, but that's not the issue here, hehe). Could it be the graphics card? Though I don't see why that would put a huge load on my CPU. (The card is an nVidia 8800 GT.)

There doesn't seem to be anyone one process that is causing this; the processes with the massive load change while whatever it is is spinning and the CPU is at 100% load.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Take a look in the taskmanager and look in the processes tab CPU and see what is taking up all your cpu you will also have to check the box for show all processes.

The processes, as mentioned, seem to be different each time. In a little experiment I just did, it was Firefox that was taking up the huge load (other than the System Idle Process, of course, but that doesn't cause any problems).

I'm not sure why, but it only happens in Firefox when I'm playing an online game (which is how I did that experiment). It's not really graphics-intensive nor should it be anything-intensive (it is only a Flash game, after all).

I feel I should mention that I just disabled the Indexing service and that appears to have helped a little. I just don't see why Firefox (even though I know it's a resource hog) should be putting a 100% load on my CPU at any time.

Thoughts?

Hi could you post a screenshot of Task manager(performance tab) using snipping tool?

try this

How To Solve 100% CPU Hogging by Firefox in 2 Steps

also check cpu temps this can make the rise in cpu load

have you added any PCI cards or external HDDs recently..??, this could be causing excessive CPU usage....



SK

Archie: Thanks for the links; I'll be giving those a try.

skunksmash: I haven't added any new cards since I built my rig. That is, the only PCI card I have is my SB X-Fi. My external HDD (a WD MyBook 1 TB) is not permanently attached to my rig because it slowed down boot times tremendously. So I only attach it when I need it and I haven't attached it in the last 2-3 weeks.

Sorry for the late response - I went on a computer-free vacation. I'll do some more experiments with this later on today.

And, once again, thank you to everyone for your suggestions, tips, etc. 'Tis appreciated.