High CxPU usage for no apparent reason

[tmiller3223]

Hello, I am having some very bad issues with my computer recently having to do with extremely high CPU usage when I try to do anything, making it impossible to play a game or even sometimes use explorer. I have tried everything I can think of and everything anybody on line whom I could talk to suggested, I even took it to a local computer care center. They did a complete restore, which I had done myself, and it still does not work. I have Vista 64 bit running on a Alienware 17x. When I open explorer my CPU usage shoots up to 90-100% then jumps back down and up when I open a new page etc. When I try to play RIFT it jumps up too 100% and will not go down, the game then runs at 0-5ish Frame Per Second, unbearable. 4 days ago it was running fine, I turned it off, one hour later turned it back on and it has been this way since. HELP!

 

[Arvinwebb]

Welcome to vista forum.

Test in clean boot mode and share the results
How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot

Run a full anti virus scan
Download and run a full scan with malwarebytes.

Open the task manager and check process, what is the cause of the high CPU usage?

 

[americancritic]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Can you tell me a little more about your system like how much ram, size of hard drive, are you liquid cooled, how many fans that you know of.

 

[americancritic]

Hello Tmiller3223 and welcome to the forum.

I am in agreement with arvinwebb that you should do the following.

1. Run a full up-dated virus scan using your anti-virus

2. Download and run a full scan of malwarebytes, free version, here is the link, we just need to weed out certain things before trying to diagnos what's going on inside your system. Malwarebytes

If you find any virus or malware on you system then do not use any restore points as you may reinfect your computer, if it is infected then let your AV or malwarebytes delete them and then delete your restore points and start new one's.

You might want to try and see if these can help as far as what your cpu is running at.

Core Temp

CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

 

[Patonb]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Can you tell me a little more about your system like how much ram, size of hard drive, are you liquid cooled, how many fans that you know of.

Um, its an alien ware m17x. Its a laptop. Is it a newer one, or older one?

You need to see if the gpu is kicking on. THEY HAVE THAT HYBRID GPU SETUP, doh caps, and if it wasn't kicking on, I could see it doing what you describe.

You can use furmark to stress the video card, and you'll see if/what gpu is being used.
FurMark: VGA Stress Test, Graphics Card and GPU Stability Test, Burn-in Test, OpenGL Benchmark and GPU Temperature | oZone3D.Net

The jumping up to 100% on task manager opening isnt unusual.

 

[tmiller3223]

Ok, I have 4 3 gigs of ram, 350 mb hard drive ( i believe). It is a laptop. I also have a issue now saying an unauthorized change has been made to windows. Still have extremely high cpu, especially during games. Ran Furmark and it was sitting around 2-4max FPS, it was saying it was using my nvidia 9400 card, but I also have a nvidia 260m card. It got above 73 degrees C and the fan speed still said zero. I have ran numerous antivirus/antimalware programs, as well as rootkit removal tools, none of them reported any viruses, I also have done 2 complete reboots, restoring the system back to manufacturer settings.

 

[americancritic]

Hello

I have invited another member to read your post and to join in to see if you can get some answers for your problem...

 

[Patonb]

Ok, I have 4 3 gigs of ram, 350 mb hard drive ( i believe). It is a laptop. I also have a issue now saying an unauthorized change has been made to windows. Still have extremely high cpu, especially during games. Ran Furmark and it was sitting around 2-4max FPS, it was saying it was using my nvidia 9400 card, but I also have a nvidia 260m card. It got above 73 degrees C and the fan speed still said zero. I have ran numerous antivirus/antimalware programs, as well as rootkit removal tools, none of them reported any viruses, I also have done 2 complete reboots, restoring the system back to manufacturer settings.

You need to check the fan... see if it really is going.

I too have a 9400 and will check my fps with furmark.

Where did you get the gpu drivers from? With hybrid gpus you should get them from Dell/Alieneware.

I get 10fps btw.

 

[MrNeeds]

hi peeps, i've read through the whole thread and my personal opinion is that you've got a memory leak, can you do a memory diagnostic within the bootup sequence, just made this video to show you how to get to it, sorry about the sound in the background, my nephew is playing gears of war 2 lol
[youtube]I_AOIDBRMig[/youtube]

 

[tmiller3223]

Ok, I talked to a guy at dell and he said it may be due to the CPU heat sink and fan being bad, I really hope not... How, other than listening to it or with a piece of paper, do you check the fan? It does not get hot to the touch, like it did before during long sessions of gaming, even when running the Furmark, only 73 C, and it berely felt luke warm, but the fan does not SOUND like it is kickin on hard.

 

[tmiller3223]

Also, ran the memory diag, it found nothing wrong . I am not wanting to believe it is the hardware when it does not get hot to the touch, I am using my old laptop to reply to this and it feels like the keys are lava, but it still runs, my alienware is cool, and remains cool, to the touch but runs like its 50yrs old.

 

[Patonb]

Run gpuz GPU-Z Video card GPU Information Utility And see if the 260 is even recolgnized.

Where did the gpu drivers come from?

 

[Arvinwebb]

Hello,

Sometimes ago, the same thing happened in my HP Pavillion Laptop. I did a lot of things to control. But finally i managed to control this by stopping "HP health Check Service". Now it is running fine. Everything there was due to the service "HP health Check Service".

Thanks