40-50% CPU usage with nothing running?

cpfc

Honorable
Aug 21, 2012
9
0
10,510
Wondered if any of you could help me solve this problem. Basically, I noticed my CPU temps rising recently when idle. I looked in my task manager and it says that my CPU usage is at 45% which is shouldn't be when I have nothing open. I don't remember it being like that before. I ran a virus scan with MalwareBytes Antimalware program and it removed 4 trojans but yet my CPU usage is still the same.
Is there anything I can do to fix this problem that doesn't involve reinstalling windows? I checked my processes and didn't notice anything acting out except for maybe a svchost.exe using up a bit more than it would normally.

http://gyazo.com/f107d196ad551f62705067e48f62797a
This is a picture of my performance tab in task manager. If I need to I will post my processes tab as well.

Thanks!
 

crisan_tiberiu

Distinguished
Nov 22, 2010
1,185
0
19,660
atm with yahoo messenger and chrome open my system has this memory usage:
Total memory: 8156MB
Cached: 799 MB
Available : 6185MB
Free: 5451 MB.
You say that while idle your PC has 2,6Gb Ram free from 8 GB and your PC is doing nothing...really ?! i dont believe that :)
 

cpfc

Honorable
Aug 21, 2012
9
0
10,510


Well I don't know what to say. What do you class as "doing nothing". I had speedfan and chrome open when I took the screen shot. It does say I have alot of cached memory, what does that mean?
 

It's caching. The OS looks at what files you use often, and loads them into memory preemptively. This is completely normal, and those numbers in the screenshot don't look unusual for an idle system.
 

dingo07

Distinguished
you need to be looking at the Processes tab to see what's going on - if you can't figure it out from there, then Resource Monitor will help

once you figure out what file is causing the CPU to run, you can determine what's causing it

I'm suspecting your're still infected and suggest you reinstall windows after deleting the current partition - it's the only way to know you've got it 100% out
 

unoriginal1

Distinguished
Apr 11, 2012
1,529
0
19,960

Cached memory is just (ram) that your proc can access faster then regular RAM. Don't worry about it.

Check your MSCONFIG see what programs you have running in the background. Check the start up tab, untick anything you don't need. (keep stuff like anti virus etc..) Then check services tab. Tick the hide all Microsoft services. Check there for unwanted programs. If you have a TON of boxes checked then that's likely the culprit.

Also... Malware bytes is NOT an antivirus. You need to have an antivirus prog, update it and scan for virus's as well. Malware bytes is a malware scanner.. very good one. But not a substitute for antivirus.
 

cpfc

Honorable
Aug 21, 2012
9
0
10,510


I have mcafee and ran a scan with that first but it didn't find anything. I don't know why MalwareBytes picked up viruses that mcafee didn't.
 

Th_Redman

Distinguished
Jan 5, 2011
330
0
18,860
I notice in your screenshot you have 87 processes running in the background. That is way too high a number. Go onto a site called Black Viper and check out what are the necessary processes running for your operating system. Here is the link.
http://www.blackviper.com/
Scroll down a bit on the home page and click on your operating system's configuration and follow the guide. Hope this helps you.
 

unoriginal1

Distinguished
Apr 11, 2012
1,529
0
19,960


Personally don't like Mcafee. For free antivirus's i'd say AVG or MS Security Essentials. Paid / home use Norton. Just wanted to make sure you were checking for virus's which seems like you are. Check the msconfig confirm you don't have a bunch of crap running in the background.

*edit* TH_Redman is right the processes are high at 87. Check msconfig lol ;) It'll help u find / get rid of the crap u don't need running in the background.
 

krazyjamus

Honorable
Apr 15, 2012
80
0
10,640
McAfee is probably the thing using all the process power. A lot of anti-virus programs are quite awful and will massacre your resources for no good reason.

Find a anti-virus program that is lower impact. ESET Nod32 is the best one I know of that doesn't interfere with your computer almost at all. It's expensive though.

For free ones I'm not sure which is the lowest impact. Maybe AVG ?
 

cpfc

Honorable
Aug 21, 2012
9
0
10,510
Okay. I've cleaned out my processes and services , uninstalled Mcafee and installed AVG. But my CPU usage is still shown as being 35 or 40 in task manager. It doesn't add up though as in processes tab System Idle Process is on 99 and taskmgr.exe is 1. Why is it still showing my CPU as being in the 30's or 40's?
 

j2j663

Distinguished
Apr 29, 2011
414
0
18,860
Your definition of doing nothing and your computer's are very different. It seems that you don't know much about programs running in the background.

You need to get a program like CCleaner that can stop a lot of the extraneous programs from running in the background or starting up when your computer starts.

Chrome
McAfee
HydraVision
Windows Media Player
Speedfan
Tortoise SVN
Malwarebytes
CCC
Gadgets
Skype
PunkBuster
Windows Live
SQL Server
Windows Updates
LMI Guardian
Himachi Client
Apple software
AMD fuel
Explorer

This are just the programs that you have explicitly running on your computer. This doesn't seem like you are "doing nothing" to me. If you are not using the programs then disable them.

On a side note, there are a couple fishy things on the list if you do not know what they are I would first stop the service and then figure out where it came from and what program is running it because these are not Windows programs.


dpupdchk.exe
LMIGuardianSvc