Need Help: cpu usage 100%

[Shadow03]

Hey everybody, this is my first post here. My computer recently became very laggy and frequently flatlines at 100%. I think it started after I reformatted, but I'm not sure. I've run spybot and adaware se for spyware and Mcafee and AVG for viruses. Nothing came up (except for a couple of little things in S&D). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

What OS are you on? XP? If so then go into the task manager and see which program under the processes tab is using all the power. Come back and post the process that is doing it.

 

[Shadow03]

I'm using winXP sp2. It's not a specific process that's using it up. It isn't a constant 100. The concern I have is that a few days ago, it started running a lot slower and when I use just about any program (wmp, nero, anything adobe, even sometimes firefox) it tops out at 100%. It doesn't freeze or lock up, but it's extremely laggy and overall a lot slower than it was earlier this week.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Well is there multiple processes that are using the cpu at a time? You may also want to wait a little later for others to come around and give you some other ideas....

 

[Nitestick]

also could you please post your pc specs?

 

[Shadow03]

AMD Athalon XP 2200+ MSI
1.5 Gb SDRAM 40 gig HD + 120 gig ex. HD
128 MB GeForce FX 5200 WinXP Home sp2

any other specs necessary?

 

[Nitestick]

nope. that is strange that that pc has such high cpu usage. that does narrow it down to software. although is DMA enabled?

 

[Shadow03]

yep DMA is enabled

 

[Nitestick]

well that leads me to believe its mostly software. the likes of a virus or spyware not being detected by your software

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

The windows task manager should see what ever is using the cpu at 100%, but check in your start up list to see if theres anything there that shouldnt be there.