CPU level stuck at 100% - Causing a lot of problems

Okay so recently i noticed alot of problems with my pc running extremely slow, i took no notice of it, and carried on as usual, the problem got more prominent as programs would become unresponsive and crash more often than not.

This is starting to cause a big problem for me so i did a little research and come back with no fix, so i thought i'd ask here to see if my problem can be resolved.

I noticed on task manager that my CPU was spiking at 100% constantly, so i looked what was the cause and my "System idle process" was running at around 80-100%.
I thought this wasn't a problem because system idle is just the free space on the CPU waiting to be used?

I come the the end of my tether with this, and I'm contemplating burning the computer.

Some screens added to show my problems.

Go to resource monitor from task manager.

Look at the CPU tab there. Sort it with the mouse to show most to least CPU usage.

Post a picture of that result.

We need to see what process is using up the CPU when the CPU is at 100%.

As you say, for the system idle process, higher is better.

I'm surprised performance monitor takes up 10% of your CPU. On my system, it ranges between 0 and 1.

If you are having crash issues, you might try a post in the crashes/debugging section.

I'm not sure how to diagnose whether you should believe 100% CPU from task manager or 10% from performance monitor. PM is the more refined tool, but I don't know why TM would be wrong.

Event Viewer should tell you something, but I'm not experienced in its use.

81 processes is above average, but I wouldn't think they would be causing the problem if tools show them not to be resource-intensive.

Your first pic shows low temps when supposedly at 100% CPU--that would lead me to believe the CPU figure may be erroneous, particularly when resource monitor does NOT show 100% CPU.

ignatzatsonic said:

I'm surprised performance monitor takes up 10% of your CPU. On my system, it ranges between 0 and 1.

If you are having crash issues, you might try a post in the crashes/debugging section.

I'm not sure how to diagnose whether you should believe 100% CPU from task manager or 10% from performance monitor. PM is the more refined tool, but I don't know why TM would be wrong.

Event Viewer should tell you something, but I'm not experienced in its use.

81 processes is above average, but I wouldn't think they would be causing the problem if tools show them not to be resource-intensive.

Your first pic shows low temps when supposedly at 100% CPU--that would lead me to believe the CPU figure may be erroneous, particularly when resource monitor does NOT show 100% CPU.

What do you suggest i do then?
It's got to the point where almost everything will crash upon opening (For example my documents).
I'm stumped at this problem and have no clue what to do about it.
I'm running a security scan now, to see if it might be malicious malware of some sort.
If nothing shows up from that i might just fresh install windows 7 again.

Pimmalage said:

What do you suggest i do then?

I'd see what other comments you get in this thread over the next 24 hours or so.

If that leads nowhere, you could post in the crash forum regarding your crashes---I don't know if you mean blue screens or no response or slow response.

I'd consider memory and hard drive testing if your virus/malware scans show nothing.

You could try running as few processes as possible to see if that points to a particular process as problematic, but you could have driver or hardware issues.

I'll yield to others. I'm out of suggestions. Event Viewer would probably be worth looking at, but I'm not the guy you need to analyze it.

ignatzatsonic said:

Pimmalage said:

What do you suggest i do then?

I'd see what other comments you get in this thread over the next 24 hours or so.

If that leads nowhere, you could post in the crash forum regarding your crashes---I don't know if you mean blue screens or no response or slow response.

I'd consider memory and hard drive testing if your virus/malware scans show nothing.

You could try running as few processes as possible to see if that points to a particular process as problematic, but you could have driver or hardware issues.

I'll yield to others. I'm out of suggestions.

Well i shall try and narrow it down, after these scans have finished, and i shall check driver updates, i initially went to check drivers but Intel's site was down when i last checked.
I've already defragmented and disk error checked, none showed any changes.
I'll keep trying to find a fix, if not fire and new PC will fix the problem.

Here is some general troubleshooting info:

Computer lags every couple seconds

You can also run sfc /scannow from a command prompt---repeatedly until it shows no errors.