CPU usage too high

[Frank Wallis]

I was just working on a computer running WinXP SP3 and having RAM 512MB and CPU
1.80Ghz.

But I have noticed that the CPU usage shown under performance tab in Task Manager is too high.

Sometimes the CPU Usage exceeds 70% and sometimes it goes to 84%. Although when I checked the Processes status mostly the Idle process uses the CPU(60%) and only the iexplorer.exe processes which is internet explorer uses around 2,5 or 15 percent CPU.
But please note that when I move my mouse ,only then the CPU usage increases .

Do you think it indicates any abnormal functionality of the CPU?

I hope my question is clear

Regards,

[OlyComputers]

Was the "show processes from all users" function enabled?

Right now I'm on a 1.5ghz Celeron M laptop, and just working on Daniweb and running my (particularly lean) background processes has me at 50% spiking up to 70. That's not an excessive CPU usage for a system that slow.

[Serunson]

How old is the machine? 512Mb of RAM is a bit on the small side for an XP machine these days. I would think about upgrading ur RAM, so that the system has more space to use.

[virtualsolution]

There may be a lot of programmers in windows start up that increase the CPU usage. Just go to start menu and run "msconfig". Choose selective startup and then and uncheck the startup.

Alex Peter

Crystal Meth

[OlyComputers]

VS has a point about editing the MSconfig file to cut down bloat, this can be a good way to stop programs and services that you're not seeing in task manager and handle them, but doesn't entirely address the actual concern that you're unable to see what's using these resources. But I have a couple new thoughts:

1. I'm not sure that services show in Xp task manager, so that may be where some of the difference is going.

2. If your system is showing 70% CPU utalization and 60% system idol processes AT THE SAME TIME then there's an issue with task manager. Does this information show on the screen at teh same instant, or do you see high utilization and by the time you get to task manager to see what's using it the utilization has changed?

3. Off topic, It wouldn't be a bad idea to upgrade your ram but I personally think 512MB is managable on Xp (not vista though). Especially since it's such a dated processor (assuming it's single core, and if it is Dual that's a piece of information we would need) most applications would be bottlenecked by that, not the RAM.

4. As a general rule I don't tell people who don't know about MSConfig to mess with it on their own. If you know enough to safely make the decisions on your own, then you probably already know about MSConfig, and if you don't know then you shouldn't turn things off without guidence from somebody who knows what they're doing. For a novice I'd suggest something more like http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml.

[caperjack]

I have winxp sp3 intel cpu at 2.4 ,1 gig of pc2700 ram,
50-70 % i think you both have some problems ,that is high for what you are doing right now i have a dvd playing in the back ground and using firefox for what im doing here and i have IE ope as well streaming a youtube video and im at 40-50 % if i close youtube an dleave the dvd it goes to 24%. with just firefox im at 4%,and yes it showing all users
as you can see from my hijackthis log im lean on startup programs ,
Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2
Scan saved at 9:07:26 PM, on 10/11/2008
Platform: Windows XP SP3 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP3 (6.00.2900.5512)
Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Ati2evxx.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccSetMgr.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccEvtMgr.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\Program Files\Symantec AntiVirus\DefWatch.exe
C:\Program Files\Alcohol Soft\Alcohol 120\StarWind\StarWindService.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\Program Files\Symantec AntiVirus\Rtvscan.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\MsPMSPSv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Ati2evxx.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\SYMANT~1\VPTray.exe
C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe
C:\Program Files\SlySoft\AnyDVD\AnyDVD.exe
C:\Program Files\WordWeb\wweb32.exe
C:\Program Files\iPod\bin\iPodService.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Ati2evxx.exe
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\taskmgr.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe
C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
O2 - BHO: AcroIEHelperStub - {18DF081C-E8AD-4283-A596-FA578C2EBDC3} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelperShim.dll
O2 - BHO: Spybot-S&D IE Protection - {53707962-6F74-2D53-2644-206D7942484F} - C:\PROGRA~1\SPYBOT~1\SDHelper.dll
O2 - BHO: SSVHelper Class - {761497BB-D6F0-462C-B6EB-D4DAF1D92D43} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_06\bin\ssv.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ccApp] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [vptray] C:\PROGRA~1\SYMANT~1\VPTray.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [iTunesHelper] "C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AnyDVD] C:\Program Files\SlySoft\AnyDVD\AnyDVD.exe
O4 - Global Startup: WordWeb.lnk = C:\Program Files\WordWeb\wweb32.exe
O23 - Service: Ati HotKey Poller - ATI Technologies Inc. - C:\WINDOWS\system32\Ati2evxx.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec Event Manager (ccEvtMgr) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccEvtMgr.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec Password Validation (ccPwdSvc) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccPwdSvc.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec Settings Manager (ccSetMgr) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccSetMgr.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec AntiVirus Definition Watcher (DefWatch) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Symantec AntiVirus\DefWatch.exe
O23 - Service: iPod Service - Apple Inc. - C:\Program Files\iPod\bin\iPodService.exe
O23 - Service: SAVRoam (SavRoam) - symantec - C:\Program Files\Symantec AntiVirus\SavRoam.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec Network Drivers Service (SNDSrvc) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\SNDSrvc.exe
O23 - Service: StarWind iSCSI Service (StarWindService) - Rocket Division Software - C:\Program Files\Alcohol Soft\Alcohol 120\StarWind\StarWindService.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec AntiVirus - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Symantec AntiVirus\Rtvscan.exe

--
End of file - 3939 bytes

[OlyComputers]

You have to remember the difference in clock-speed and CPU architecture. 50% on a P4 2.4 (especially if it's a prescot) would probably be close to max utilization on a P4 1.7 or a celeron M 1.5. His system, and my laptop I used as an example, are both dated and were never really stellar processors. You don't remember the old days of pentium 3-early 4's when just moving your mouse around the screen "real fast" would make the CPU usage spike?

I should add that for me I didn't just have daniweb (8 tabs, but that's more Memory usage than CPU) I also had a meebo tab that I forgot about at the original time of posting, which uses a fair bit of CPU time. This particular system recieved a clean XP install from a formatted drive 1 week ago and has nothing but firefox, antivirus software, daemon tools, google sketch up, and one game installed (only firefox, daemon tools, and AVG were running at the time). I'd bet this is the cleanest and leanest system on this forum simply due to how fresh it is, I'll vouch for 40-60% being apropriate consumption under this work load

*also, DVD does use CPU time, but it's more GPU intensive, at least on systems built in the last five years (native DVD encoding/decoding on video cards made a big difference.

[OlyComputers]

I forgot to note, My CPU usage stats were while in use. Everybody knows there's a difference between a Firefox window that's sitting a one that you're doing something in, but I like to be as clear as I can, especially when I'm making such assured statements.

[caperjack]

I forgot to note, My CPU usage stats were while in use. Everybody knows there's a difference between a Firefox window that's sitting a one that you're doing something in, but I like to be as clear as I can, especially when I'm making such assured statements.

interesting, and well put ,thanks

[Frank Wallis]

VS has a point about editing the MSconfig file to cut down bloat, this can be a good way to stop programs and services that you're not seeing in task manager and handle them, but doesn't entirely address the actual concern that you're unable to see what's using these resources. But I have a couple new thoughts:

1. I'm not sure that services show in Xp task manager, so that may be where some of the difference is going.

Answer:
When I check the tast manager, what I see under the processes tab is the the number of processes running at the background total 39 and the idle process uses the most of the CPU and iexplorer uses some percentage of CPU because I have many internet explorer window opened? But the CPU usage increases when I just move my mouse on the desktop.

2. If your system is showing 70% CPU utalization and 60% system idol processes AT THE SAME TIME then there's an issue with task manager. Does this information show on the screen at teh same instant, or do you see high utilization and by the time you get to task manager to see what's using it the utilization has changed?

Answer:
Well,when I go into task manager ,under the box of windows task manager you can see CPU utilization and at the same time under process tab you can see the processes using CPU . That is the main problem that when CPU utilization increases than the processes running at the background should also be utilizing the CPU. Why is it that only idle process uses around 60 to 70% of the CPU and the rest of the processes use almost nil?

3. Off topic, It wouldn't be a bad idea to upgrade your ram but I personally think 512MB is managable on Xp (not vista though). Especially since it's such a dated processor (assuming it's single core, and if it is Dual that's a piece of information we would need) most applications would be bottlenecked by that, not the RAM.

Answer:
I agree with you since I have seen several Computers running WinXP on 512MB RAM and there CPU utilization doesnot exceed to 70% or 90%.
According to Microsoft, if the CPU utilization reaches 70% ,it means there is something wrong.

4. As a general rule I don't tell people who don't know about MSConfig to mess with it on their own. If you know enough to safely make the decisions on your own, then you probably already know about MSConfig, and if you don't know then you shouldn't turn things off without guidence from somebody who knows what they're doing. For a novice I'd suggest something more like http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml.

Answer:
First of all such problem occurs during startup but I am geting this problem of CPU utilization on the desktop when the startup stage has already passed.
So I agree with you on this point as well.

[OlyComputers]

You might consider downloading a third party process manager. I've never really worked with one myself but I've seen other people with them. The short of it is that if you install this application it will do the same thing as the processes section of task manager, allowing you to see what's running, what resources it's using, and the overall load on the system.

Somebody on a similar post was using Cacheman XP for this. I don't know about it's price or quality but it's a good start. If there's a process that's not showing up in task manager it may be able to find it and help you track down the problem.

[harry04h]

please scan ur pc with good anti virus ......not do anything ok ......
if effective then plz reply
-harish(harry)

[caperjack]

i have the malwarebytes ,startuplite tool now on my computer and few others i have in my possession and it works really good for disabling unnecessary startup programs ,a link to it in my signature, You may have a startup program using the cpu you may not !