Ask Me Help Desk - CPU constantly at 100% Possible Virus

The cpu on my computer reaches 100% and stays there when I run any program especially media ones like I tunes and media player. I can't watch videos in full screen because its choppy and the sound and picture are not aligned. Every so often it turns off on me but my biggest problem is the not being able to watch videos or run multiple programs. I tought about replacing my RAM but a friend suggested it migth be a virus so I just wanted to know if anyone new of such a virus and how to get rid of it. By the way I ran cc cleaner and PC tools spyware doctor, they take care of cleaning my computer but they don't fix this problem. I own a hp laptop dv4000 pavilion

It is definitely suggestive of a virus. Try locating an online scanner (google "Online Virus Scanner"). Alternatively, find a local "wizard" to help you get rid of it.

Preferably, boot into safe mode with network support. Browse to the scanner web site and run it from there. Here are some online scanners. You may want to run more than one of them.

Trend Micro HouseCall - Free Online Virus and Spyware Scan - Trend Micro USA

Virus File Scanner

Free Online Virus Scan - BitDefender Online Scanner

Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and see how many processes you have running, and look at the CPU usage for each process, to see if a particular process is using a high amount of the CPU, and then do a Google on that process.

If you don't locate a process, you could try increasing your Virtual Memory to handle the load:

When your computer is running low on RAM, and you must have more RAM immediately, Windows uses hard disk space to simulate RAM. This is known as virtual memory. It is also known as the paging file.

1. Click Start, click Run, and then type sysdm.cpl in the Open box.
2. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Performance.
3. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Change under Virtual memory.
4. Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file that you want to change.
5. Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size, type a new paging file size in megabytes (MB) in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, and then click Set.

The recommended minimum size is equivalent to 1.5 times the RAM on your computer, and 3 times that figure for the maximum size. For example, if you have 256 MB of RAM, the minimum size is 384 MB, and the maximum size is 1152 MB.

Quote:

Originally Posted by johndoe99

press Ctrl+Alt+Del and see how many processes you have running, and look at the CPU usage for each process, to see if a particular process is using a high amount of the CPU, and then do a google on that process.

If you dont locate a process, you could try increasing your Virtual Memory to handle the load:

When your computer is running low on RAM, and you must have more RAM immediately, Windows uses hard disk space to simulate RAM. This is known as virtual memory. It is also known as the paging file.

1. Click Start, click Run, and then type sysdm.cpl in the Open box.
2. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Performance.
3. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Change under Virtual memory.
4. Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file that you want to change.
5. Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size, type a new paging file size in megabytes (MB) in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, and then click Set.

The recommended minimum size is equivalent to 1.5 times the RAM on your computer, and 3 times that figure for the maximum size. For example, if you have 256 MB of RAM, the minimum size is 384 MB, and the maximum size is 1152 MB.

You're better off using Sysinternal's Process Explorer (you'll need to Google it as the company went out of business (rather, they got bought by MS)). Having an incorrectly sized pagefile won't cause high/constant CPU usage, most likely you have spyware/malware issues to include a backdoor trojan or dialer and that's what's causing you're your high CPU usage. I highly recommend downloading and using Malwarebytes and Spybot S&D... however, I also suggest first shutting down PC Tools Spyware Doctor as one of its internal process/scan engines may actually be the culprit as to the high CPU usage. Any Spyware/Malware Program that runs resident for real time scanning is going to use up resources, and PC Tools have been known to use a lot when real time protection is enabled.

Helljack6:
I did not say "Having an incorrectly sized pagefile won't cause high/constant CPU usage", read what I said -- I said increasing the page file takes a load off a CPU.

Are you running anything else in the back ground? Also the problem could be due to a codec or a corrupted installation I know sometimes if you enter a folder with video, music or picture files and some how one of them is corrupt it will occasionlly crash or make windows explorer erratic which could in turn cause the blotchines but more likely it is a corrupt install or a codec issue

I agree with JohnDoe, you have to determine what is using the CPU cycles first, before jumping to conclusions and assuming it's a virus or spyware.
Run the Task Manager and look at the 'Processes' tab to see what's chewing up cpu.
Start there, if there's one or two processes eating up cpu cycles, Google them and determine your next steps that way.

Another solution like johndoe and the other said is to determine which of the processes is taking up the most usage and if it is constntly stying there then find a solution from experience if it is windows explorer then I woul boot up using the install cd recovery console and type in fxmbr which would rewrite the mbr and most likely solve the problem if not then it doesn't hurt anything after the mbr is fixed a chkdsk would be a bonus and that should take care of your problem hopefully

The CPU is normal until I start a big program like I tunes and windows media player sometimes PC tools spydoctor and my web browser Firefox. But most of the times its normal, like rigth now when system idle process is at 95 CPU and the rest is between Firefox and you torrent and the task manager. The problem occurs when I try to watch streaming video online the Firefox CPU will jump up to 75 and The rest will go to something that says system like 20 CPU) Then when I turn on windows media player it will start at like 40 to 50 CPU and then it will all of a sudden jump up to 80 CPU and that System program will start taking up 20 CPU. But like I said there is no programs running in the background its just that it takes more CPU than it should to run certain programs. Also I installed super antispyware free edition and my computer won't let me open it. Samething goes for Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. They won't even open when I run my computer in safe mode and I can't go online in safe mode with networking either (maybe because I use wireless mobile broadband). Anyway that's what's going on with my computer.

It almost sounds like you have a bad or corrupted mbr mine did the same thing and I reworte it and it was fine but I don't know if that would solve it I would try maybe doing a chkdsk if the finds nothing then I would if you had a spare hdd try a new install on it and see if that works then if it does transfer everything

I just rebooted my computer back to factory settings all of my old data is gone and I still have the same problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monch84

I just rebooted my computer back to factory settings all of my old data is gone and i still have the same problem.

Is this a vista machine? If it is, I'm sorry. Vista isn't the greatest. I know because I have the HP Pavilion dv2000, a few models lower and it HAD Vista until I put XP on it. Back to square one, open your task manager and on the processes tab, click on the mem usage column to order it from most to least. Start right clicking on each process that you don't completely recognize and kill the whole process tree while watching your CPU usage drop. Once you find the one that's eatting up your CPU usage, go to Process Library (google it) and look it up to find out what it's associated with so that you can determine if you need it or not at system start. If you find that you don't need it, Google Sysinternal's Autoruns, run it and click on the startup tab, find the associated process and click on it to highlight it, then click on the red X to delete it. You can clean out your system startup safely this way because you do have the option just to disable it from there as well, but generally if you just delete it outright, you're better off.