I am working on a pc currently that was experiencing very very slow response time. I reloaded Windows XP only to find it is still so slow it is unusable. I have swapped in a new HD, swapped ram chips with no effect. I notice the CPU usage is pegged at 100%. Nothing I do changes it. What should I check?
Solution
I am Having same issues. Clean install of XP on dell 3000. Savvy here and it is not one of the normal culprits. It's not system idle but 35-66% for the taskmanager with rest of cpu on system or Windows update. I am hoping after downloading all the updates to SP3 it will resolve the issue. I am getting headaches for two days_so Far_ during this excrutiating problem. I had installed from XP cd then install the drivers from dell. No resolve. It takes 5-10 minutes to load up and another 5 before I can do anything. Once again bringing up the task manager shows just basic processes running after clean install. Nothing extra nothing hidden. I tried running one program and it took almost 1/2 hr to load up. processor at that point 64-67% Program running-rest on tskmgr. I tried closing the task manager to see if the speed would increase however it did not. This I am sure is what the original poster is experienceing. Have done all usual steps to increase speed but to no avail. If the mobo or CPU is fried would be an issue. Seems to be video related. Using the current onboard VGA. If anyone knows more about this please reply with a solution, No repeat of info already provided, No new to computers answer--system idle is doing it--- Something that would make sense as so I can collect payment from customer for fixing there issue.
Shadowbratt
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- Dec 15, 2009
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I am having the same exact problem with the same model Dell that I am repairing,
Freshly loaded XP home with a microsoft disk.
I build and repair computers, I saw the other replies you got, and they are assuming that you don't know
what you are doing.
However what you said I am seeing the same exact thing, when I find the answer I will post the fix.
aford10
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- Oct 2, 2008
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The replies that were given were valid suggestions. We don't give advice on here just to exercise our fingers. Maybe you should try some of the replies that were given. If you have the same exact problem, then they apply to your situation as well.
Jackpot...I just burned 5 cals typing that.
Shadowbratt
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Shadowbratt
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Maybe I missed one...I am always interested in other opinions...just commenting on what I noticed, sorry if it somehow offended you...that was not my intention.
Shadowbratt
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Solution to the CPU problem.....
Go into the bios and set the CPU from compatible to normal....this should fix the problem,
It worked on the machine I was working on.
Well at least I feel better that I'm not the only one with this issue(im at a fresh install of windows 7, previous install of win7 worked fine for months. then last week...). I've been working on it for a week now. Thanks for the tip Shadowbratt but I don't have that setting in my bois, I have a dell xps with a single core pentium 4. However while I was in the bois I did notice that I have hyper threding settings in the bois so i can emulate 2 cores. now taskmgr.exe can only take 100% on one core effectivly limiting the memory leak to 50% of the processor, leaving me with the other core (the other half) to at least "use" the computer (hey, it's better then nothing). So in the end im still looking for a solution to clean up taskmgr.exe on the one core. I will post back if i ever get it working, but i hope this will help someone.
I think I have this one figured out!!!!!!
So to recap how this all started. First, just fyi I have my computer hooked up to a plug that goes to a light switch, people hit it all the time thinking it will turn the lights off or on but all it does is cut power to my computer. So one day i come home from work (I do IT for a living) and my computer is off, grate someone hit the switch again. Anyway I just got an air mouse so i turn on the computer and plug in the usb receiver but windows 7 takes forever to load up, the mouse works fine after an hour install but I'm like man this is slow. so i open task manager to see whats holding it up and taskmgr.exe is taking up %100. I uninstalled the mouse and restarted and same thing, %100. for a week i was looking through forums and trying to figure out what happened. finally i gave up and formatted and reinstalled. WTF same thing, taskmgr.exe at %100. i went into safe mode and strangely everything's fine.(at this point i left the above post) I figured it had to be a driver for something since it worked fine in safe mode. so i unplugged every external device, even disconnected the internet so i only had a usb keyboard and mouse hooked up and did a fresh install again. maybe windows update was downloading and installing a new driver that was causing it? same thing taskmgr.exe taking up %100. simplifying the system even further i unplug everything and open her up and remove everything but ram and a video card. turned it back on........1% CPU....YES. so it has to be one of the internal devices, i thought. so one at a time i added cards back in and turned it back on to check so i would know for sure who the culprit was. i came to the last thing and strangely enough every device I originally had in it was back in and CPU usage was normal (without reinstalling)! then it hit me we have had a few laptops in at work that have had strange issues like this and we came across an official manufacturers forum (i forget which one it was a long time ago) that said to take the battery out of the laptop and press the power button for 5 sec then put the battery back in and try it again. i remember thinking, whatever, how could that work. but sure enough back then it worked. i have only ever had to do this maybe 3 times since then, out of hundreds of laptops, but amazingly it has worked a few times. I'm not sure the specifics of what the issue is or why this fixes it, other then it must retain a little power holding on to a corrupt piece of data or something that only goes away when you remove all power source and discharge the capacitors. anyway so what must have happened was the hard shutdown of the light switch must have messed with something on the motherboard and until I unplugged it to remove all of the internal devices it never cleared itself out. I'm kind of pissed that all i had to do this whole time was unplug it! At least that's my hypothesis, i cant really test it now that its working. but whatever it works now!
SO...all that summarized... have you unplugged your computer since you noticed the issue.
Please reply back to this if you have the %100 CPU issue and this works for you.
So to recap how this all started. First, just fyi I have my computer hooked up to a plug that goes to a light switch, people hit it all the time thinking it will turn the lights off or on but all it does is cut power to my computer. So one day i come home from work (I do IT for a living) and my computer is off, grate someone hit the switch again. Anyway I just got an air mouse so i turn on the computer and plug in the usb receiver but windows 7 takes forever to load up, the mouse works fine after an hour install but I'm like man this is slow. so i open task manager to see whats holding it up and taskmgr.exe is taking up %100. I uninstalled the mouse and restarted and same thing, %100. for a week i was looking through forums and trying to figure out what happened. finally i gave up and formatted and reinstalled. WTF same thing, taskmgr.exe at %100. i went into safe mode and strangely everything's fine.(at this point i left the above post) I figured it had to be a driver for something since it worked fine in safe mode. so i unplugged every external device, even disconnected the internet so i only had a usb keyboard and mouse hooked up and did a fresh install again. maybe windows update was downloading and installing a new driver that was causing it? same thing taskmgr.exe taking up %100. simplifying the system even further i unplug everything and open her up and remove everything but ram and a video card. turned it back on........1% CPU....YES. so it has to be one of the internal devices, i thought. so one at a time i added cards back in and turned it back on to check so i would know for sure who the culprit was. i came to the last thing and strangely enough every device I originally had in it was back in and CPU usage was normal (without reinstalling)! then it hit me we have had a few laptops in at work that have had strange issues like this and we came across an official manufacturers forum (i forget which one it was a long time ago) that said to take the battery out of the laptop and press the power button for 5 sec then put the battery back in and try it again. i remember thinking, whatever, how could that work. but sure enough back then it worked. i have only ever had to do this maybe 3 times since then, out of hundreds of laptops, but amazingly it has worked a few times. I'm not sure the specifics of what the issue is or why this fixes it, other then it must retain a little power holding on to a corrupt piece of data or something that only goes away when you remove all power source and discharge the capacitors. anyway so what must have happened was the hard shutdown of the light switch must have messed with something on the motherboard and until I unplugged it to remove all of the internal devices it never cleared itself out. I'm kind of pissed that all i had to do this whole time was unplug it! At least that's my hypothesis, i cant really test it now that its working. but whatever it works now!
SO...all that summarized... have you unplugged your computer since you noticed the issue.
Please reply back to this if you have the %100 CPU issue and this works for you.
You could try going into control panel / power options / change advanced power options / processor power management / system cooling policy and change "on battery" to "active". Thanks to brucewilkinson for this tip at http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/1152-cpu-usage-100-a-5.html
Mousemonkey
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