Shanidar
asked on
100% CPU Utilization in Win2000 & XP
Good Day
I have read all the potential and tried the applicable ones before posting a question.
I have a HP Pavilion laptop. The hard drive failed physically and was replaced. First install was Windows XP-SP2. It was very slow with 100% utilization of CPU, by svchost and/or System process. Not believing that I had a real problem, I formatted out and installed Win2000 which I had run for two years before the hard drive issue.
I ran the sysinternal process explorer an I am seeing more of the problem, but not enough to solve it.
Interrupts DPCs and System are all consuming ~33% varies somewhat but the net result is 100 % utilization, making the machine very slow. I am noticing on my work machine, that the Interrupts are not going much higher that 2%. So I am fairly sure that one of the problems, is whatever is causing the (as high as ) 48% Interrupt count on this machine.
It has been virus scanned with a CA antivirus tool and scanned for adware with ad-aware
As part of the investigation, I needed to upgrade IE 5 to IE 6. I downloaded and installed. When I go Help> About, IE still says that it is IE 5, in the graphic portion of this window, but shows the version as 6.00?? I added this part, in case it sheds any light on this weirdness
I have read all the potential and tried the applicable ones before posting a question.
I have a HP Pavilion laptop. The hard drive failed physically and was replaced. First install was Windows XP-SP2. It was very slow with 100% utilization of CPU, by svchost and/or System process. Not believing that I had a real problem, I formatted out and installed Win2000 which I had run for two years before the hard drive issue.
I ran the sysinternal process explorer an I am seeing more of the problem, but not enough to solve it.
Interrupts DPCs and System are all consuming ~33% varies somewhat but the net result is 100 % utilization, making the machine very slow. I am noticing on my work machine, that the Interrupts are not going much higher that 2%. So I am fairly sure that one of the problems, is whatever is causing the (as high as ) 48% Interrupt count on this machine.
It has been virus scanned with a CA antivirus tool and scanned for adware with ad-aware
As part of the investigation, I needed to upgrade IE 5 to IE 6. I downloaded and installed. When I go Help> About, IE still says that it is IE 5, in the graphic portion of this window, but shows the version as 6.00?? I added this part, in case it sheds any light on this weirdness
SOLUTION
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ASKER
Victor, are you familar with Process Explorer? It is showing what seems to be a very high amount of interrupt activity. I have seen a number of articles by people who used pstat, pview, and process explorer to pin an error all the way down to one corrupt file.
Do you know if there is a way to show what interrupts are causing all of the interrupt traffic? 'Cause if you do, that would point directly at the culprit device.
Thanks,
I will be on the problem machine by about 1800 CDT
Do you know if there is a way to show what interrupts are causing all of the interrupt traffic? 'Cause if you do, that would point directly at the culprit device.
Thanks,
I will be on the problem machine by about 1800 CDT
Unfortunately, no. I was looking for a utility for days and unless you want to spend hundreds on a low level interrupt monitor (that plugs into your mb) it's guess-and-check.
I had a similar problem where svchost was taking 100% processor utilization. Using the Process Explorer I found out that a service called Power Manager is causing this problem. After a lot of investigation I discovered that this is caused by a virus called Hidrag.a (sometimes also called Jeefo). I found a free removal tool called vcleaner on the site free.grisoft.com. When I ran the tool it cleaned all infected files and the problem disappeared.
I would recommend a second opinion on the virus scan as well.
Norton, Mcafee, and all the others have online virus scanners available for free:
http://closedsocket.com/links.html
Usually, SVChost at 100% is the sign of a virus, however, since you formatted and it still appeared, is there a second partition that you aren't formatting? Also, check your manufacturer's site for updated drivers for your devices.
http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html
Norton, Mcafee, and all the others have online virus scanners available for free:
http://closedsocket.com/links.html
Usually, SVChost at 100% is the sign of a virus, however, since you formatted and it still appeared, is there a second partition that you aren't formatting? Also, check your manufacturer's site for updated drivers for your devices.
http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html
There is NO NORMAL system process that will peg the CPU utilization to 100% for any time.
If you are getting this for more than 20 seconds, you either have a virus or a trojan infection.
They are trying to get to the internet to install viruses/malware/spyware. So you first go to the online site www.trendmicro.com, and when that deactivate the main virus, you install McAfee antivirus.
If you find no virus, and CPU still at 100% you have a serious system problem, maybe bad device.
If you are getting this for more than 20 seconds, you either have a virus or a trojan infection.
They are trying to get to the internet to install viruses/malware/spyware. So you first go to the online site www.trendmicro.com, and when that deactivate the main virus, you install McAfee antivirus.
If you find no virus, and CPU still at 100% you have a serious system problem, maybe bad device.
Hi Shanidar couple of things .
Have you run a windows update?
This may update your system.
did you connect to the internet before all your protection was installed?
Which windows are you running?
I would say you have to Flash the bios and make sure it has the latest upgrade.
http://freepctech.com/pc/001/006.shtml
get a good torch, and check out the capacitors on your mainboard, look for any swollen and split on top.
These can be replaced, and re-soldered with new ones, problem is if there any swollen all will of that size will
have to be replaced. This is not an expensive operation.
But it may explain the high cpu. And other problems.
How long if ever since the thermal jel under the processor been checked?
heat can effect everything.
I suggest a memory test. Not hard to do.
http://www.memtest86.com/
Open your task manager at the top open VIEW then select columns>add Vurtual memory size, now when you look at your processes you can see which is hogging the most of your virutal memory or paged files.
What have you set the page file size to it should be 1/5 the ram/
Did you delete the partition before installing the windows? BTW which windows are you running 2000 or xp?
How old is your psu if this send inconsistant power can also cause all kinds of high cpu usage crashes lockups.
What video card do you on board.
how to download internet explorer 6 sp1 (full setup)
http://www.broomeman.com/support/wsiedown.html
Internet Explorer Tips
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/ie_tips.htm#trackofbookmarks
Have you run a windows update?
This may update your system.
did you connect to the internet before all your protection was installed?
Which windows are you running?
I would say you have to Flash the bios and make sure it has the latest upgrade.
http://freepctech.com/pc/001/006.shtml
get a good torch, and check out the capacitors on your mainboard, look for any swollen and split on top.
These can be replaced, and re-soldered with new ones, problem is if there any swollen all will of that size will
have to be replaced. This is not an expensive operation.
But it may explain the high cpu. And other problems.
How long if ever since the thermal jel under the processor been checked?
heat can effect everything.
I suggest a memory test. Not hard to do.
http://www.memtest86.com/
Open your task manager at the top open VIEW then select columns>add Vurtual memory size, now when you look at your processes you can see which is hogging the most of your virutal memory or paged files.
What have you set the page file size to it should be 1/5 the ram/
Did you delete the partition before installing the windows? BTW which windows are you running 2000 or xp?
How old is your psu if this send inconsistant power can also cause all kinds of high cpu usage crashes lockups.
What video card do you on board.
how to download internet explorer 6 sp1 (full setup)
http://www.broomeman.com/support/wsiedown.html
Internet Explorer Tips
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/ie_tips.htm#trackofbookmarks
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
All,
I installed the HDD myself. I am a qualified technicia with 17 years in this business, from IBM and Honeywell mainframes, DecVaxes, Alphas, and other mini frame systems, with the last 10 years in PCs.
I went from a 40Gb 4200 spin to a 100 gb 5400 spin. I dodn't want to increase the spin too much, because of potential heat concerns.
In the XP scenario, I formatted and re partitioned the drive, to install. I installed and patched it to SP2
In the 2000 Scenario, formatted, and installed, then patched it to SP4
The HDD controller is identifed by the Stystem as an Ali M5229. I was of the same mind as the comment above, the only change having been the HDD. The Ali site does not have drivers, at least not that I can find.
I had intended to dig into this last PM, but I am in colombia, and beer drinking is part of the culture. Well, in order to show respect for the culture here, "I had to go along to get along" that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I have at different points disabled every device up to(from the bottom up) to the HDD. I expect that the system will stop responding if I try to disable the the IDE controller. But that is what I am going to try next.
Thanks for all the ideas so far... I will post the results of the next tests when I complete them....
I installed the HDD myself. I am a qualified technicia with 17 years in this business, from IBM and Honeywell mainframes, DecVaxes, Alphas, and other mini frame systems, with the last 10 years in PCs.
I went from a 40Gb 4200 spin to a 100 gb 5400 spin. I dodn't want to increase the spin too much, because of potential heat concerns.
In the XP scenario, I formatted and re partitioned the drive, to install. I installed and patched it to SP2
In the 2000 Scenario, formatted, and installed, then patched it to SP4
The HDD controller is identifed by the Stystem as an Ali M5229. I was of the same mind as the comment above, the only change having been the HDD. The Ali site does not have drivers, at least not that I can find.
I had intended to dig into this last PM, but I am in colombia, and beer drinking is part of the culture. Well, in order to show respect for the culture here, "I had to go along to get along" that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I have at different points disabled every device up to(from the bottom up) to the HDD. I expect that the system will stop responding if I try to disable the the IDE controller. But that is what I am going to try next.
Thanks for all the ideas so far... I will post the results of the next tests when I complete them....
ASKER
Ok,
I was following the two best comments above, about removing peripherals to see what happens, and focusing on the HDD.
I didn't mention it, but a couple of times during the install, during the first start up, the system would fail, reporting some missing file. The second thing I didn't mention is that the machine was unable to complete a restart. It had to be powered off manually, and then powered on. This, of course, points to hardware.
What Solved It:
I went and removed the Ali M5229 IDE controller, and restarted as the system instructed. No Go. On Startup, the system refound the device had the sme problem the whole time. I changed the driver to the MS "Standard Dual Channel IDE Controller" and rebooted as instructed.
System came up with a 5% CPU utilization. I wanted to test it, so I changed it back to the original driver and rebooted. Well, it rebooted normally, so that was a good sign, but when the system came up, I still had around 5% CPU utilization.
Best guess is a corrupt driver/bad read from the install media, and only changing the driver actually forced the system to go overwrite the corrupt copy with a new copy.
Points to the two folks who were the most help, and Thanks to EVERYONE who participated to try to help.
Peace Out
I was following the two best comments above, about removing peripherals to see what happens, and focusing on the HDD.
I didn't mention it, but a couple of times during the install, during the first start up, the system would fail, reporting some missing file. The second thing I didn't mention is that the machine was unable to complete a restart. It had to be powered off manually, and then powered on. This, of course, points to hardware.
What Solved It:
I went and removed the Ali M5229 IDE controller, and restarted as the system instructed. No Go. On Startup, the system refound the device had the sme problem the whole time. I changed the driver to the MS "Standard Dual Channel IDE Controller" and rebooted as instructed.
System came up with a 5% CPU utilization. I wanted to test it, so I changed it back to the original driver and rebooted. Well, it rebooted normally, so that was a good sign, but when the system came up, I still had around 5% CPU utilization.
Best guess is a corrupt driver/bad read from the install media, and only changing the driver actually forced the system to go overwrite the corrupt copy with a new copy.
Points to the two folks who were the most help, and Thanks to EVERYONE who participated to try to help.
Peace Out
this insure your system files are intact and in its original format