what's wrong with my computer?

[free2run]

Hi there,

I have a big problem with my computer: the CPU usage is always 100% after Windows starts. It should not be a software problem, coz I already formatted the harddrive and reinstalled the whole system. Actually the installation took me a whole night. The problem is that the computer is so slow.

I checked the harddrive and the memories, and I think they are good.

Is it a problem with the CPU, motherboard....? Do you guys have any idea?

Please help........

It's a HP desktop, two years old.

Thanks a lot.

Joe

 

[mikesgroovin]

Does it constantly run at 100%?
What Windows OS are you using?

Have you tried:
1) Replacing the Hard Drive that the OS is running on. Even if the new drive that you put in is older/smaller......just to test.

2) Try replacing the RAM....once again just to test and to try and eliminate possibilities.

-Michael

 

[free2run]

Thanks for your reply.

I'm using Windows XP home edition. Yes, the CPU is always 100% used coz it is so slow.

I replaced RAM but it didn't work. When I formatted the harddrive it seemed the HD is also okay. So I have to think about anything else.

If it's a problem with the CPU or motherboard, I might get new ones for them. Should I have it checked by professionals? But it'll be costly.....

 

[fiezk]

Have you checked that you have the correct settings in your bios? Some of the settings to your CPU may drasticly slow down your performance.

Consult the manual for your motherboard for the correct settings.

 

[Lostman]

It's not the ram. The ram doesn't tell the cpu to run, it stores processes.

It's not the hard drive. Hard drives are just caves that hold your data. The cpu tells the hard drive to work, not the other way around.

Does it do this after a clean install? Does it do this in safe mode?

I'm willing to bet that you installed something that is running a background process that's eating up all of your cpu useage.

If it does this in safe mode, then you have a problem.

 

[kboy]

Sounds like ya got something running in the background hogging your resources.

 

[mikesgroovin]

Thanks Lostman.....I was getting to that point but in a more indirect way.
Instead of hunting around for a background process hogging up resources, I thought that it might be good to eliminate the possibility of faulty hardware. Faulty hardware and conflicts with an OS (usually ME and XP) can cause system processes to run several times. Which, in turn can cause a "memory leak".

Have you tried to install SP1 for XP yet?

-Michael

 

[free2run]

Thanks a lot guys...

i will check the settings for the Bios first.

I did run it in safe mode and it showed the same problem. I didn't install SP1 coz it was so slow that I couldn't do anything on it.

Anyway, Thank you all for your kind help........

 

[rezurrectme]

You might want to run antiworm tools from Symantec. It could be that a worm is hogging up all the CPU resources. This happened with Welchia worm on my system a few weeks ago. Just a thought that might be worth exploring.

 

[free2run]

I thought it might be a virus but I already formatted the HD, so it should not be a problem with worm, right?