Windows 7 CPU Usage

Hey there everyone. As the title suggests, the current problem I'm having with my version of Windows 7 Home 64-bit is that the CPU Usage frequently rockets up to 100% and proceeds to lag everything on my computer for several minutes.

I have already tried the following:

-Disabled my gadgets on the desktop
-Disabled the HD Audio Devices listed under Device Manager
-Disabled indexing for my drive
-Ran several antivirus software, coming up with nothing
-Reformatted my drive (though I'm pretty sure it just put another version of Windows on it instead as I have a folder named "Windows.old")

Now, my CPU usually tends to do this only when I'm running a program or game (WoW, etc.) and I have yet to find a solution for it.

I have ran Process Explorer while in the midst of my CPU Usage being 100% and the only irregularity I've seen is that the System Idle Process also skyrockets up to around 60-90+ CPUs, which I'm assuming it shouldn't be doing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am really clueless as how I should go about fixing it at this point.

System Idle Process using 90% of your CPU is a good thing. It means that that 90% of CPU resources is availble should there be any real work to do. The higher this figure the better.
What this means is that at peak usage, yout program or game is consuming 40% of cpu resources. That doesnt look like a problem. Many apps and games are resource intensive and 40% really isnt that high.
Check your figures. If your system idle resources are 60-90 while you use the apps/games, cpu usage cannot be 100%.

I will keep Process Explorer up for whenever it decides to happen again, but I have yet to find out from that what exactly is causing the problem. I will take a screenshot next time and post it here and hopefully that will help figure out something.

This was the most recent Process Explorer of when it happens. Any ideas?

That screenshot is self-explanatory. As you can see, your game is consuming 53% cpu resources. That is why your computer lags when playing.
Also, sysinternals process explorer is consuming 17%. Thats pretty high, were you running some task on it?
The other thing i noted was DWM is consuming around 2%. You may be able to cut that down by removing some visual effects. Audiodg.exe is consuming 6%, that can be cut down by disabling audio enhancements etc.

No, no, no, no. My games/programs usually run at around 30-40ish CPU% and they only ever go up to around 50-60% when my CPU decides to randomly rocket up to 100%. It's not like I start them up and immediately my CPU Usage goes to 100%, in fact, I could be on them for hours before it actually happens...it is completely random.

The only constant is that once it does happen to where my CPU Usage goes up to 100%, it will continue doing it every 10 minutes regardless of what I'm doing until I reboot my computer, which seems to stop it for a while.

As for sysinternals process explorer running that high, that is usually what happens when my CPU goes to 100%. Almost every program will rocket up to levels they shouldn't even be near. For example, if I have task manager up while it's doing this, it will also go to around 17-20% when it has no business using that much.

I will try reducing some visual effects, but as I've already mentioned, I believe I already disabled the audio enhancements under Device Manager - System Devices - "High Definition Audio Controller". There were two of these, so I disabled both for good measure.

**One thing that should be mentioned about the above. When I disabled the HD Audio Controllers, the sound on my laptop stopped working entirely and the only way to hear any sound at all, besides enabling them again, is to hook in headphones.

Are you running any addons in WoW? Any outdated addons? Try disabling any firewalls you have just to test. DO you run any real time virus scanners? Or anti-spyware? I have had problems with both AVGfree and with AdAware real time protection when WoW is running.

I currently run Kaspersky, but I don't believe that I have it set to run scans automatically. I have several addons, yes, but the point I'm trying to get across is that my CPU does this no matter which game I am playing. Hell, I was playing Half-Life 2 the other day and my CPU Usage spiked up to 100% right in the middle of that as well.

Uninstall, yes uninstall, Kaspersky for the moment and rerun your test. This will help rule it in or out.

Well, the picture of PE you posted does not give any clues. This seems to be quite normal. You have to catch it when it is at 100% to id the culprit. And if PE says WoW uses 53%, then that's what it is.

whs said:

Well, the picture of PE you posted does not give any clues. This seems to be quite normal. You have to catch it when it is at 100% to id the culprit. And if PE says WoW uses 53%, then that's what it is.

Click to expand...

I'm not surprised. My Phenom 550 hit 95% in Mass Effect.

whs said:

Well, the picture of PE you posted does not give any clues. This seems to be quite normal. You have to catch it when it is at 100% to id the culprit. And if PE says WoW uses 53%, then that's what it is.

Click to expand...

That was a screenshot of when my CPU Usage shot up to 100%. Otherwise, WoW is usually using much lower resources than that. In fact, this is a screenshot of what my process explorer looks like when everything is okay.

Apparently WoW can be running at 18% as in this shot and at 53% as in the other shot. It probably depends of what it is doing. There is no fixed CPU usage for any program. I varies depending on what it is doing. Based on the data we see I do not think that there is anything wrong with your system. If there were other (strange) processes that ate the CPU, it would be worthwhile to explore. But I cannot see any of those.