Dual core 2, one core running @ 80-90% usage, no progs running

[phatmik3]

I have a dual core 2 4400 2GHz processor, 2 GB ram and often core 1's usage will stay around 80% or higher. Nothing is running except antivirus and system background programs and there is nothing in the processes tab in task manager that shows usage over 10% combined. A simple reboot fixes the problem for a day or two.

I was just curious if this was glitch that I just need to deal with and reboot every time it happens or if there was a better way to analyze the problem. Has anyone else had this type of problem?

 

[Devastator_uk]

Often with Windows systems you will find that a reboot every day or two is a good idea anyway just to purge the memory, although depends a lot on what applications you run (in some cases you can go weeks or months without a reboot).

 

[mi1ez]

My win95 machine went 46 days days before it crapped out. Ran so much faster afterwards though!

 

[Guest]

Google "sysinternals" and download tool(s) to monitor the machine, such as process explorer. High usage of one Core sounds like excessive hardware interrupts. Sysinternals tool(s) will confirm this. Another useful tool is called RATT. Also, when it next happens, go into Device Manager and start disabling devices, then see whether processor usage drops. I had a similar problem, which turned out due to the JMicron chip that implemented additional SATA and PATA (IDE) ports on my motherboard. I had a DVD drive connected to the IDE port. Disabling it fixed the problem. However the real solution was to install the latest JMicron IDE (or RAID) drivers for the motherboard. Windows would recognise the chip as a generic chip without those drivers, but installation of the specific JMicron drivers, the latest ones, was required to fix the problem.

 

[Guest]

Google "sysinternals" and download tool(s) to monitor the machine, such as process explorer. High usage of one Core sounds like excessive hardware interrupts. Sysinternals tool(s) will confirm this. Another useful tool is called RATT. Also, when it next happens, go into Device Manager and start disabling devices, then see whether processor usage drops. I had a similar problem, which turned out due to the JMicron chip that implemented additional SATA and PATA (IDE) ports on my motherboard. I had a DVD drive connected to the IDE port. Disabling it fixed the problem. However the real solution was to install the latest JMicron IDE (or RAID) drivers for the motherboard. Windows would recognise the chip as a generic chip without those drivers, but installation of the specific JMicron drivers, the latest ones, was required to fix the problem.

 

[FH]

Google "sysinternals" and download tool(s) to monitor the machine, such as process explorer. High usage of one Core sounds like excessive hardware interrupts. Sysinternals tool(s) will confirm this. Another useful tool is called RATT. Also, when it next happens, go into Device Manager and start disabling devices, then see whether processor usage drops. I had a similar problem, which turned out due to the JMicron chip that implemented additional SATA and PATA (IDE) ports on my motherboard. I had a DVD drive connected to the IDE port. Disabling it fixed the problem. However the real solution was to install the latest JMicron IDE (or RAID) drivers for the motherboard. Windows would recognise the chip as a generic chip without those drivers, but installation of the specific JMicron drivers, the latest ones, was required to fix the problem.