Sudden CPU Spikes and OS Freeze in Windows 7!

[persentio]

I urgently need some help with this issue I'm having... The worst thing is, this is a new PC and I've just freshly installed Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit on it.

I've already updated ALL my device drivers to the latest available, as well as applied all available Windows updates, yet it still happens.

These weird CPU Spikes can occur seemingly randomly, and thereafter causes my OS to inevitably freeze or become EXTREMELY unresponsive at best. I am unable to Restart the computer (it either hangs at logging off or doesn't seem to be able to shutdown (left it trying to shutdown for 1 hour).

The onset has happened to me so far in these scenarios:

1) Just surfing the internet
2) Playing a video file
3) Leaving the computer idle (It was frozen when I got back to my PC)
4) Changing control panel settings


I was lucky enough to capture and save the screenshots showing it in Task Manager. The culprit process seems to be the 'SYSTEM' process (which shows only 25% CPU usage, however as you can see my ACTUAL CPU usage spikes all the way to 100%!

Quoted below is my system information:

System Information report written at: 08/28/11 19:55:16
System Name: TIMO-PC
[System Summary]
 
Item    Value    
OS Name    Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium    
Version    6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601    
Other OS Description     Not Available    
OS Manufacturer    Microsoft Corporation    
System Name    TIMO-PC    
System Manufacturer    To Be Filled By O.E.M.    
System Model    To Be Filled By O.E.M.    
System Type    x64-based PC    
Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz, 3301 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)    
BIOS Version/Date    American Megatrends Inc. P1.00, 7/29/2011    
SMBIOS Version    2.7    
Windows Directory    C:\Windows    
System Directory    C:\Windows\system32    
Boot Device    \Device\HarddiskVolume1    
Locale    United States    
Hardware Abstraction Layer    Version = "6.1.7601.17514"    
User Name    Timo-PC\Timo    
Time Zone    Malay Peninsula Standard Time    
Installed Physical Memory (RAM)    8.00 GB    
Total Physical Memory    7.98 GB    
Available Physical Memory    5.97 GB    
Total Virtual Memory    8.00 GB    
Available Virtual Memory    5.43 GB    
Page File Space    16.0 MB    
Page File    C:\pagefile.sys    
 
[Hardware Resources]
 
 
 
[Conflicts/Sharing]
 
Resource    Device    
I/O Port 0x00000000-0x0000000F    Direct memory access controller    
I/O Port 0x00000000-0x0000000F    PCI bus    
 
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti    
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF    Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) Processor Family PCI Express Root Port - 0101    
 
I/O Port 0x0000E000-0x0000E07F    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti    
I/O Port 0x0000E000-0x0000E07F    Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) Processor Family PCI Express Root Port - 0101    
 
Memory Address 0xFA100000-0xFA107FFF    ASMedia XHCI Controller    
Memory Address 0xFA100000-0xFA107FFF    Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 6 - 1C1A    
 
IRQ 16    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti    
IRQ 16    Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 6 - 1C1A    
IRQ 16    Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) Processor Family PCI Express Root Port - 0101    
IRQ 16    Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 1C2D    
 
IRQ 17    Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 - 1C10    
IRQ 17    Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 5 - 1C18    
IRQ 17    High Definition Audio Controller    
 
Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xD7FFFFFF    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti    
Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xD7FFFFFF    Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) Processor Family PCI Express Root Port - 0101    
 
IRQ 19    Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 - 1C16    
IRQ 19    PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge    
IRQ 19    Intel(R) Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset SATA AHCI Controller    
 
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti    
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF    PCI bus    
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF    Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) Processor Family PCI Express Root Port - 0101    
 
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti    
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB    PCI bus    
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB    Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) Processor Family PCI Express Root Port - 0101    
 
Memory Address 0xF8000000-0xF9FFFFFF    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti    
Memory Address 0xF8000000-0xF9FFFFFF    Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) Processor Family PCI Express Root Port - 0101    
 
Memory Address 0xDC100000-0xDC103FFF    Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller    
Memory Address 0xDC100000-0xDC103FFF    Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 5 - 1C18    
 
I/O Port 0x0000D000-0x0000D0FF    Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller    
I/O Port 0x0000D000-0x0000D0FF    Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 5 - 1C18    
 
 
[DMA]
 
Resource    Device    Status    
Channel 4    Direct memory access controller    OK    
Channel 2    Standard floppy disk controller    OK

Thanks so much for any help!!

 

[persentio]

Anyone???

 

[UKMedia]

Hi

Have you checked your event log (Type Eventlog in the search box)? High CPU usage and slow response times will often have Admin events assciated to them.

Let us know what you find.

Regards
UKMedia

 

[persentio]

Ok so this is weird... The spiking has seemed to stop. Haven't had one since I posted... The only thing I can think of is perhaps this application Hardware Monitor. Previously, I had it open for quite a long while every time the spiking occurred. I haven't run it since and neither has any spiking occurred.

 

[athulkrishnan97]

Good

 

[legacy7955]

Do you use MS Security Essentials?

If yes it MIGHT be the MsMpEng.exe or related services like MsSigStub.exe and AMDeltaPatch.exe.

They are simply updating the virus and malware versions.

If you recently downloaded MSE client version 2 from windows update, following the download the v2 will do a deep scan every time you idle the PC then when you start to use it again the scan will stop this can take as long as a couple of days or so to complete. If you want to end this all you need to do is run a MANUAL FULL SCAN.