I would appreciate some assistance with a problem of slow startup and high CPU usage and sluggish behaviour on a Samsung X60 laptop (Centrino Duo) running XP Pro.
My investigations to date point to a problem with a high level of hardware interrupts, possibly associated with hard disk access (e.g. a 50MB file copy caused breakdown of video playback and virus checking causes crackle on the soundtrack).
Process Explorer (Microsoft Tool) reports CPU usage up to 50% for hardware interrupts, which effectively means close to 100% on CPU0 (as can be seen on the CPU Usage History graphs). I’ve posted a screen dump here http://jset.net/images/screendump.jpg which makes things clearer.
I’m aware that a full reinstall of the system ought to be my next step, but I’ve invested a lot of time setting up this laptop for business use and I’m reluctant to start all over again,
Any thoughts on whether this might be a hardware problem or any tips on diagnosis or cure would be appreciated?
Martin