Older machine and 100% CPU problem

[fidox]

Hi !

I would like to ask you, if you have any suggestions what can cause high use of CPU.
Could it be also power supply, processor ?

Windows XP SP3
Pentium 4 3.00ghz
2gb RAM
and onboard graphic and soundcard.

It's from my friend and i'm thinking what else can i try to figure out, why is there such a high CPU usage.
Hard disk was formated, windows installed from scratch, so not much things are running.

I have also tried also with my older version of windows 7 32bit, but there i'm getting even worse results.
While entering windows CPU works normal, 3-5% usage, soon i run something, CPU goes to 100% and won't go down.

Hardware / software issue / drivers ?

Thanks for any kind of suggestions and experiences

[tlaskows]

Hmm,

That is really weird. That is an old CPU, but still, it should be at around 1% when it's idling. My cores are always idling unless I load up 4 Divas.

I just checked on my Mac. Chrome seems to be eating up a few percent for some reason and a lot of memory...

What exactly do you have installed on it?

-Tom

[tlaskows]

Can you take a screenshot of the processes in the task manager?

-Tom

[fidox]

thanks for your answer.

well, nothing much is installed, just windows, all drivers which are only drivers at HP site for winxp
or win7, which i also tried.

win xp has problem - chrome or any latest version of other browsers and youtube , playing video,
in winxp sound crackles, and video slows down (CPU 100%).

win7 the same, just that after i close all programs CPU is still running at 100% and i must restart computer to normalize CPU , but then again, after some time CPU goes to 100% and stay there.

I don't have there any music applications, it's just an old machine, which i want to figure out, if i can do something about it or it's something with hardware.

My family computer, also older one has similar specifications, just that i have pentium 4 3.4 ghz and i can run chrome + youtube videos normaly, yes, takes more memory, but still not in the 90-100% field.

[fidox]

Can you take a screenshot of the processes in the task manager?

-Tom

i'm at work right now, next time
i will install winxp again from scratch

[tlaskows]

Take apart the computer and take off the heatsink. Make sure there is thermal paste on there. Sometimes it dries out. Make sure that the CPU fan is spinning. It sounds like the CPU is overheating and throttling. I've seen this happen on my friend's P4 laptop. The heatsink was clogged up, we cleaned it and it ran great. I don't think it's a software issue at all.

-Tom

[fidox]

yea, nice suggestion.

could be overheating, i didn't check that before.

i'm always using good quality coolers in my machines, so i didn't think about that

[tlaskows]

Pretty sure that's the problem. Just download coretemp and check

-Tom

[dawman]

I have an old P4 Northwood too.
It was showing 40% on Gigastudio only.
Works fine but never noticed this until last summer.
Maybe they just report higher use from old age.???

[fidox]

Thanks Tom, i will.

I can't check that in bios, cause there's no many options to see (temperature...).
So i'll install winxp back and do some monitoring, but i think i'll check processor first...

[fidox]

I have an old P4 Northwood too.
It was showing 40% on Gigastudio only.
Works fine but never noticed this until last summer.
Maybe they just report higher use from old age.???

i have upgraded our family computer this summer with brand new pentium 4 3.4 HT (celeron 3.0ghz before) purchased from ebay it was like night and day.

[tlaskows]

This is a pretty standard test I run on all computers to check stability even when not overclocked. It should run fine for more than 24 hours without crashing or overheating.



Cheers,

-Tom

[fidox]

checked processor, cleaned everything ....

i had time now to test computer with windows 7 SP1.
what i have figured out , trouble is windows update "svchost.exe (netsvcs)",
which is draining all my memory.
if i disable it, it's ok, but now i can't update windows, cause "svchost.exe (netsvcs)" takes all my memory, cpu goes to 100% and
nothing really happens then, no updates were found, cause it's like in freeze mode.

[tlaskows]

Try reading this. I am not sure it will help much.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... 7be?auth=1

-Tom

[Bud Weiser]

I have an old P4 Northwood too.
It was showing 40% on Gigastudio only.
Works fine but never noticed this until last summer.
Maybe they just report higher use from old age.???

No, I have several Pentium 4 machines running Win XP SP3 and my slowest one,- P4 northwood 2.4GHz w_512MB cache / 2GB RAM / 400 FSB,- is for the office and web.
I stream vids in realtime, play mp3 and wav while doing all my downloads w/ this machine, even type posts and emails simultaneously.
It´s rare it uses 1 GB of RAM for OS and all the tasks, so 2GB is enough.

But I have a old ATI Rage 128 AGPx4 graphics card inside ...

... and don´t use onboard graphics.



Bud

[dawman]

Your newer than me.
Still using the Matrox 16GB AGP4X.
Gigastudio uses next to nething, just stream audio.
If it were Gigastudio 3 I'd understand the VST ass kissing that never worked.
This is my old instal of GSIF 1.7 on Scope and 2.65 for Gigastudio.

Doesn't really matter to me what's being reported to Task Manager.
If it plays, I am good.
Best Rhodes and Malmsjo Grand Piano to date.
Tried them all, no joy.

[Nestor]

In my experience, when you encounter a major weird problem in your system it is better to take the long path which leads you to solve the problem, actually, in a much shorter period of time than random search does. What do I mean by taking the long path? I mean we have to avoid being mentally deducting what the problem is, it is better to get into testing all of the components, one by one, with a similar system at your side so to installing and uninstalling all computer parts to get clear conclusions. In most complicated cases trying to avoid doing this job, unfortunately, leads you to endless frustrations... My humble advice is for you to be SYSTEMATIC and meticulous, testing all compoenentes and software possibilities. At the end, this tedious process will pay you very, very well. Word!

You may ask, "ok, I want to do this, which is the correct way"? There are so many posibilities and combinations that there is not an answer for all PCs, but through a logical deductive path you will sure go well and find the problem. For instance, there is already a logical deduction in regard with this system, both Win XP and Win 7 gives you the same problem, so it could be the processor. You need to try out this processor in another machine, and so forth. Get to work and good luck!

[fidox]

Get to work and good luck!

The thing is , that i'm getting time to time old machines from my friends or co-workers,
and mostly all say, "something is wrong , i don't know what, could you check",
sometimes i get machine with dust all over the chassis, so , they don't give a s.... about what is clean and that way, machine could work better or longer,
other times, viruses all over the harddisk, too many installed programs running in background,
doing clean install and then hard to find all drivers, settings , etc...

[Nestor]

Remember that today there are MANY new software devoted to search and find drivers for you, they even install them for you. They don't "alwyas" work, but in most cases they do. If there is a driver that one of these programs installs, and it is wrong, you can find out which one it is, and get back to the one you want, pretty neat. You will save lots and lots of time too.

[fidox]

yes, i agree.
i'm using that kind of software, Driver Tool Kit,
like you said, mostly i can find all drivers, sometimes not, depends.