CPU usage 100% constant

[4.0B2]

My laptop sounds like its gonna explode... my cpu usage stays at 100% even with "nothing" running. my physical memory is around 60+% constant...

here's a screen shot of the task manager of just my "Ben" user..

and here's the one w/ "system" also..

i've gotta figure this out... what can i end task and what can i not? how can i free up some memory on my laptop.. its slow and annoying!

and yes, my background is Pinkie and the Brute

 

[4.0B2]

oh wow...way to make me look dumb. the first pic has a cpu usage of 60% yet it stays 100% constant all other times.. oh well

 

[cody93]

hmm, i have a slight idea, looks like a defrag program is running in the background. taking up 49% cpu, and it will also slow your pc down because its rearanging your harddrive.. end it and see if it behaves. also, did you install any programs recently? i hate sneaky OS's doing task behind my back....

 

[CHKNFKR]

I'd shut down that svchost at the top of the list.

 

[4.0B2]

I'd shut down that svchost at the top of the list.

what is that?

 

[4.0B2]

hmm, i have a slight idea, looks like a defrag program is running in the background. taking up 49% cpu, and it will also slow your pc down because its rearanging your harddrive.. end it and see if it behaves. also, did you install any programs recently? i hate sneaky OS's doing task behind my back....

what defrag program?! am i missing it on the list?

 

[4.0B2]

start now toolbar is the issue... i suppose
trying to find out what it is now... so i can uninstall it hopefully

 

[Mark_88]

The defrag is in the second shot...about half way down...

Go to Start/Run and type in msconfig and hit enter...

Check to see if on the General tab the current startup configuration...should be three bullets at the top...if it's bulleted beside Normal then go to the Services tab and click the box at the bottom that says "Hide all Microsoft Services"...once that is done click the "Disable All" button at the bottom

Then click the Startup tab and you should also see "Disable All" at the bottom...click that, then click Apply, OK and restart your computer...

That effectively shuts down all background applications that are not otherwise hidden...when your system reboots it should run very normally...if not...you may be having a hard disk or other component failure...like the CPU is overheating...but you can check the temperature of the processor too on most systems...

Now, if your current startup is in Selective or Diagnostic mode then you might want to take screen shots of the Services tab after you hide MS services and of the Startup tab before you disable all...that shows what is currently enabled or disabled...and once you disable them and then click Normal startup after the problem is cleared they will all be enabled again...which you don't want to have...

 

[CHKNFKR]

Svchost can be any number of things. Usually it is just idle processes running in the background to make windows run. i've noticed that like yours, sometimes they can go a little crazy. I kill them if they break 50,000 K. Doing so doesn't hurt anything, if one of them was actually doing something important windows will restart the process and you will see your cpu and memory usage drop pretty significantly.

 

[4.0B2]

The defrag is in the second shot...about half way down...

Go to Start/Run and type in msconfig and hit enter...

Check to see if on the General tab the current startup configuration...should be three bullets at the top...if it's bulleted beside Normal then go to the Services tab and click the box at the bottom that says "Hide all Microsoft Services"...once that is done click the "Disable All" button at the bottom

Then click the Startup tab and you should also see "Disable All" at the bottom...click that, then click Apply, OK and restart your computer...

That effectively shuts down all background applications that are not otherwise hidden...when your system reboots it should run very normally...if not...you may be having a hard disk or other component failure...like the CPU is overheating...but you can check the temperature of the processor too on most systems...

Now, if your current startup is in Selective or Diagnostic mode then you might want to take screen shots of the Services tab after you hide MS services and of the Startup tab before you disable all...that shows what is currently enabled or disabled...and once you disable them and then click Normal startup after the problem is cleared they will all be enabled again...which you don't want to have...

trying this now, it was in NORMAL mode.
how do you check the temp of the processor? i know my laptop runs really hot to...

right now i'm on my dad's laptop while working on my own laptop lol. i'll report back in a min when it restarts.

 

[4.0B2]

so now my internet doesn't work. says
server can't be found, b/c the DNS lookup failed.


EDIT: nevermind...it works.

 

[Mark_88]

Usually the temp is included in a Health Monitor...if you have one installed...I know you can see it through the BIOS/CMOS settings but that is only through a pre-windows boot and it doesn't really get too hot doing that...

On some systems you can't actually kill a process if it is a system process through the task manager...you can open the services window and kill processes there...on some task managers you might have a "Go To Services" option that opens the services window (also under Manage if you right click your My Computer icon) and that allows you to kill services (stop or disable)...

 

[4.0B2]

these host processes are killing me, they keep popping up at around 90,000k

 

[Mark_88]

Yeah, I should have warned you that doing that msconfig will shut down all your non-windows functions that are normally loaded at startup...

Is your system back to normal? If so, then you might need to try a bit of hit and miss troubleshooting...

Go into the msconfig program and try enabling one or two of the startup options and reboot...if you find your system starts acting up then it would be due to the options you load...you can do it progressively by adding two at a time....until you're back to normal...or you can do a few and reboot...try a few different ones and reboot...ad nauseum...

It's tedious but it is a valid method of finding troublesome programs...

 

[Mark_88]

Highlight a troublesome process and then right click it...you should get another menu that gives priority...try setting them to a lower priority if possible...see what happens...