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

[Pimmalage]

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.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

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.

 

[Everlong]

What anti-virus software do you use?

 

[Pimmalage]

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've attached a screen of processes sorted from high to low CPU in the OP.
EDIT:
But there seems to be no problem on resource monitor, only perfmon.exe which if i'm not mistaken is the actual resource moniter?
only using about 10%.

But the problem still remains on task manager and still getting crashes.

What anti-virus software do you use?

And my anti-virus software is: ESET Smart Security 4.2

 

[ignatzatsonic]

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.

 

[Pimmalage]

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.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

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.

 

[Pimmalage]

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.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Here is some general troubleshooting info:

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...-lags-every-couple-seconds-2.html#post1131640

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

 

[Jacee]

Skype is using a lot of memory.
See if this might be the problem ...

LOGIN TO SKYPE
THEN TOOLS>OPTIONS>GENERAL SETTINGS
UNTICK "START SKYPE WHEN WINDOWS STARTS"
THEN SAVE

You can always start the program manually when needed.

 

[Pimmalage]

Here is some general troubleshooting info:

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...-lags-every-couple-seconds-2.html#post1131640

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

Did the scan, no errors were found.

Skype is using a lot of memory.
See if this might be the problem ...

LOGIN TO SKYPE
THEN TOOLS>OPTIONS>GENERAL SETTINGS
UNTICK "START SKYPE WHEN WINDOWS STARTS"
THEN SAVE

You can always start the program manually when needed.

I've tried exiting skype, and I think it's set to not open on start-up anyway.

 

[fseal]

Do the spikes happen even when your not actively doing anything? I.e. at times when the computer should be idle?

If so, if you sort the task manager window by CPU and sit there and watch it over time, does it ever show anything other than Idle a the top? Launching a program or having a program do something will cause it to spike of course, but just sitting there it should be mostly the idle process at the top.

If you don't see anything in the task list at the top over time while you have it open then I'd try running a separate CPU meter and see if it shows the same thing as the built in one (with task manager completely closed). And most importantly see if the problem goes away when you have the task manager open at the same time. Some viruses hide (stop working, even unload) from the task manager so you can't see them running. Seeing CPU use when the task manager is closed but none when open is suspicious behaviour.

If the problem shows up in a third party CPU meter, but then goes away when you launch the windows task manager, I would highly suspect a virus or other malware and proceed from there.

You can also try the tool ProcessExplorer (Process Explorer) from Microsoft which is a slightly more complex version of the task manager, mainly meant for programmers, but it does similar things and may show more information.

 

[Pimmalage]

Do the spikes happen even when your not actively doing anything? I.e. at times when the computer should be idle?

If so, if you sort the task manager window by CPU and sit there and watch it over time, does it ever show anything other than Idle a the top? Launching a program or having a program do something will cause it to spike of course, but just sitting there it should be mostly the idle process at the top.

If you don't see anything in the task list at the top over time while you have it open then I'd try running a separate CPU meter and see if it shows the same thing as the built in one (with task manager completely closed). And most importantly see if the problem goes away when you have the task manager open at the same time. Some viruses hide (stop working, even unload) from the task manager so you can't see them running. Seeing CPU use when the task manager is closed but none when open is suspicious behaviour.

If the problem shows up in a third party CPU meter, but then goes away when you launch the windows task manager, I would highly suspect a virus or other malware and proceed from there.

You can also try the tool ProcessExplorer (Process Explorer) from Microsoft which is a slightly more complex version of the task manager, mainly meant for programmers, but it does similar things and may show more information.

I've read through and looked at task manager sorted by CPU - highest to lowest, and i've noticed "scvhost.exe" spike quite a little.
i'll download process explorer now, and try out what you said.

I also noticed while watching youtube videos i get alot of lagginess on the video's regardless or resolution i set it to, and browser (Google chrome being the main browser i use).
I've re-installed my Drivers for my GPU, and showed no difference, although the CPU now remains at 20%, i'm still getting non-responsive windows throughout.
I'm really stumped by this problem as i can't really do much to identify it, only hitch i've got is it's crashing almost everything i try and do.

 

[Pimmalage]

Okay so i've sat for a little while watching process explorer, and opening and closing Task manager, also doing the same with desktop manager and looking at task manager.

And the only things i've seen spike, are: dllhost.exe and dwm.exe, but only to around 15-20 CPU.
It seems as if nothing on my cpu is going wrong but when looking at performance it's stuck at 100%.
And youtube video's are still sketchy as ever.
I tried to backtrack and think what might've caused this problem, and the only thing i can remember was a power outage around 2-4 days ago caused the laptop to power off as i run it with no battery in.
Other than that i don't think anything else could've caused it.

 

[Pimmalage]

Okay so i've just had a massive chain of events happen.
I was carrying on as normal browsing the web, when for some reason everything lost connection to the internet, i checked my router ect, and everyone else in my house was still online with no problems.
i checked my network adapter settings, and to my surprise ALL of my adapters were disabled!
So i did the normal thing and tried to enable them again, and for some reason it got no response and wouldn't re-enable, i tried to restart my pc and it got stuck on the "Shutting down" with the circling symbol for around 5-10 minutes.
It eventually went on to a massive error (From what i saw across the room), i didn't see anything it said, but it started up and recovered from an unexpected shutdown.

As seen here: http://gyazo.com/f8146ea9fd3c7ba7187c9f35afe8985c.png?1329168391

I'm starting to think this is malicious software attacking my computer causing all sorts of problems
I'm contemplating fresh booting my PC, that is if worse comes to worst.
I've ran through some Anti-virus scans such as:
Malwarebytes
Spybot - search and destroy
and superantispyware.
All showed up nothing (Except the odd cookie here and there).

 

[fseal]

It certainly does seem to be showing all the signs of an infection but the test results are good. Do you have any actual virus software like Security Essentials? Most of those programs you tried are malware but don't necessarily detect virii. Microsoft has a stand alone AV scanner you can DL. I believe you need to burn a bootable CD of it to be sure it works correctly. (A lot of virii disable AV scanner software if they are running first)

Though it's possible that it could be a hardware or a bad driver problem as well :/

 

[mjf]

You could also try
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/157118-microsoft-safety-scanner.html

Edit: fseal beat me to it.

 

[Pimmalage]

You could also try
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/157118-microsoft-safety-scanner.html

Edit: fseal beat me to it.

It certainly does seem to be showing all the signs of an infection but the test results are good. Do you have any actual virus software like Security Essentials? Most of those programs you tried are malware but don't necessarily detect virii. Microsoft has a stand alone AV scanner you can DL. I believe you need to burn a bootable CD of it to be sure it works correctly. (A lot of virii disable AV scanner software if they are running first)

Though it's possible that it could be a hardware or a bad driver problem as well :/

Thanks for the quick reply, and i would i be able to stick this onto a pendrive or somthing?
i don't have any spare CDs/dvd lying around currently (and its 9:47Pm)

 

[fseal]

Well it looks like by default the scanner just runs while you boot normally. Seems like it would be a lot safer if it booten on it's own but.. Give that a quick try anyway

 

[mjf]

You could have a look at this which gives usb installation instructions
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/166445-windows-defender-offline.html#post1424613
I don't know the difference between the safety scanner and Defender offline. I have only used the scanner.