CPU usage and related issues...

[bhushan1980]

Hi all,
I am having a strange problem with my computer. It is a laptop with Windows XP installed as the OS and I cannot open a multiple programs. On doing so, it just hangs. Also, after working for a while it just shuts down like a tv set would do on turning it off. I guess this might be due to over heating. I just happened to check the CPU usage and even without any program on, it was around 60 percent and when I open IE or Firefox or any other web browser it went up to about 90 percent. I did not quite understand the reason for this. The task manager does not show the details either. Please let me know the reason for this and how to solve this problem.

Thank you,
Bhushan.

[TheCPUWizard]

While taskmanager will NOT show the details. PerfMon will.

[Look in "ControlPanel"->"AdministrativeTools"->"Performance"

[PeejAvery]

Overheating is usually not the case unless you have an old computer (6+ years), not enough fans, or a lot of dust in the machine. Computers are made to run hot. Granted, they run more efficiently cold.

If your processor is at 60% without any applications running and if you have XP with SP2 installed, then automatic updates are most likely flooding your machine, as is the usual case. To correct this...

1. Right-click on My Computer and select Properties.
2. Select the tab Automatic Updates.
3. Temporarily Turn off Automatic Updates.
4. Open Internet Explorer and from the Tools menu, select Windows Updates.
5. After you have fully updated your version of Windows, re-enable Automatic Updates.

If this does not correct the problem, I would suggest using Process Explorer (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/ProcessExplorer.mspx) from SysInternals instead of Task Manager.

EDIT: You might want to use CodeStuff Starter (http://members.lycos.co.uk/codestuff/) to disable unnecessary items on bootup to smooth your machine's operation. As well as use Spyware Terminator (http://www.spywareterminator.com/) set to beginner mode to check for spyware. I highly recommend those two freeware software packages.

[bhushan1980]

Hi,
Many Thanks for the replies. I just did open my computer and found lot of dust and meshes in it. I just cleaned it and then reassembled it. Now it is working better than what it was doing before. But still not yet there. So I would just go ahead and do turn off the automatic updates and then just turn them on once in a while before shutting down the machine. That would be great. One more thing that a hard ware person told me was that, it might be possible that the fan besides the CPU might not be working causing it to over heat. As it is a laptop, I just can see just one fan and the other fan (the one besides the CPU and CPU itself are inaccessible, at least to me). So, let us see how it goes. So thank you for the suggestions.

Regards,
Bhushan.

[PeejAvery]

If it is a laptop made by any reputable company, heating shouldn't be too much of an issue. If you are still worried, elevate it or get a cooling pad. Still, I assure you heat is not keeping it from performance. Any install with time gains clutter and a bunch of useless files which slow down a machine. I would recommend the following applications for tuning. Forgive me, I don't have time to put the links.

CodeStuff Starter
DustBusterXP (all Windows versions)
TuneXP
Tweaknow RegCleaner