Overworking CPU question

Hey guys,

I brought a new computer a couple of months ago with a 3800+ processor which up until a few days ago, was running perfectly.

Since then, I've had a problem where the CPU usage suddenly goes up to 100% for no apparent reason. The computer continues to operate, but very, very slowly. The problem sometimes occurs on start up, meaning any programs take approximately 2-3 minutes to load.

I've tried pretty much every clean up program on my system (just the standard Microsoft ones, plus Trend Micro for virus checks. Thankfully running the clean-up programs seems to have done the trick, but it still happens occasionally (roughly every 5 or 6 start ups).

The taskbar sometimes has trouble loading too.

So, in summary, the two problems are

a) CPU usually rises to 100% for no reason, even when the system is simply 'idling' (just sitting on the desktop, no programs open).

b) Taskbar sometimes doesn't load (goes blue with no buttons, generally happens when problem 'a' occurs.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Jarred.

Do you by any chance have a virus scanner that loads when you reboot your computer, These programs Norton Aniti Virus, and McAfee supposedly run in the back ground. I trashed Norton thinking that I was protected pretty well. I found out that most security experts don't agree that these are at the top of the heap anyway. I went with Anthenium or Command Anti Virus. It is about $20.00 USD for a year subscription and it does work in the background without sucking up computer resources. I have never had a virus detected by Command Anti Virus and it may update as many as 2 times per day depending on the threats. Norton I was lucky to have any updates, and I still got worms and trojans. I have had Command for three years now.

Good luck I hope this helps.

He makes a good point expecialy about Norton, pure junk.

Run this.
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Ad-Aware, dump your cookies before you do.

Then scandisk and defrag.

Clean out the dust from the inside of your case fans especially the heatsink.

Be sure that you update your drivers for the video card.

Let us know how you do.

Thanks alot guys, I'll give what you both recommended a go now and see how everything works out.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks for chimming in. I was going to get to all of that in steps but since you got it mentioned I hope it works for him. I had a nasty time witn Norton uninstalling it. I had to reformat to get rid of it completely even after going to Norton's KB on their site.

Terrible junk.
I'm now using http://onecare.live.com/standard/en-us/default.htm.

But AGV or Avast both free are much better and less intrusive.
I have Avast on my laptop.

Command Anti Virus is free also but I chose to pay to get the regular updates it only acts when I do something stupid such as go to a site that has junk on it. Today it interuted I was fishing to see what it would do and it deleted the nasty right away. Norton and McAfee won't or can't do this.

I never heard of that one I'll have to check it out, thanks.

Once again thanks very much guys, it seems to have worked well as the computer is now back to normal (touch wood).

I'll make sure I keep a regular maintenance scheme up, its just not worth avoiding it any more.

glad you got it sorted

Nice to see you again jarred_01!