Computer Usage Running High

A couple of routes. Do the three finger salute and check what processes are running. I use www.processlibrary.com to check.

Run MSCONFIG from the cmd line. Its a handy dandy route to check what is activated at startup. Just for fun there is a check box to run off all non-Microsoft startup apps -try that and then gradually add in the others.

Watch the network traffic - if you have more going out than coming in - be careful, thats often a bad sign of infection.

Run some spyware checkers - try turning off system recovery and booting into safe mode before running an antivirus or spyware scan.

That should help -of course make sure you have the latest definitions for spyware/anti-virus programs.

James

Thanks James, I'll try doing thoses.

there are lots of reasons this could be so various that we have to know more about what you are doing when you get the 100% utilization. and which os you are on.
so i suggest you surf to support.microsoft.com and search the mskb under your os for '100% cpu' and skim thru the results to see if one looks like you.
check the event log
sounds like spyware if nothing has changed

Could also be your anti-virus software. I have Network Associates McAfee 8.0 and there was an issue with McShield taking the CPU usage to 100%. They release a hotfix for that.

sounds like you might have spyware and malware on your computer. Spyware and malware add their own process which will take up your system resources.
and slow the computer to a crawl.

run a few antispyware programs and see what they find.

try
microsofts anti spyware
Spybot search and destroy
Lavasoft - Adware

Hijackthis is also a good one as long as your familiar with the registry .

If this is a personal computer add another account
that has limited permissions. Dont log onto the computer as administrator. Only use that account for loading sotfware and troubleshotting problems.

I hope this helps .

Let me know

Sal