---

@Dark_rabbit wrote:

Hey all,

I have been having problems with my CPU usage. it has random peaks in %. Jumps between 4%and 25%, sometimes as high as 50%. Is this normal. I only have adobe and word open. I cant use media player because the songs jump. I have done virus scans and adware scans. It has been doing this ever since i got it a month ago. Is my computer a lemon? How can i fix this. PLs help, i need to finish my assignments!

---

Goto Start, Click Run, Type in MSCONFIG, click OK, Click Startup, uncheck the programs you don't want or need to Start when the PC boots.

When the problem starts, press ctrl-alt-del to open Task Manager. In the "CPU" column see what process, other than System Idle Process, is hogging CPU time. That'll give you an idea of where the problem may be. Scan with Spybot and CWshredder too (both free on the net). You need to run several of these tools because they all find different things. If you think it's malware, you can also scan with Hijackthis (free) and post the log on the Hijackthis forum for analysis and help removing any invaders.

BTW: What system do you have? With what video card? There have been reports on these forums that certain nvidia video drivers -from Dell and from nvidia (they're different)- have been causing spikes in CPU usage that affect performance and audio. So if it's not a malmare problem, this is another thing to look at...

Ron

Message Edited by RoHe on 04-11-2005 09:33 AM

Hey RoHe,

Good call with the video card. I think that is what is wrong with it. What can I do about this?

Thanks for the help every one :-)

Just good to finally find what is wrong *sigh of relief*

You may have to test several nvidia drivers to see which one works for your specific system configuration. Users with this problem have fixed it with different versions, and in some cases one that fixed it actually caused the problem on someone else's system. And, Dell's latest nVidia driver is not the same as nVidia's latest v71.84.

People seem to have success with Omega's independently tweaked version of nVidia's driver so you might start there. It's free at http://www.omegadrivers.net/

While you're at Omega site, grab free copy of Driver Cleaner 3.3 too. Do not copy one nvidia driver on top of another, even if Dell says it's ok. Remove the old one via Add/Remove Software control panel and then run Driver Cleaner to remove the last bits. When you reboot, XP will use default VGA driver and you should be able to install new driver. If Omega's driver doesn't fix it, then try another version. There is a beta version of a new nVidia driver available at www.guru.com, but -remember- that one's still beta...

I had trouble with nVidia driver 71.84 on my 8400 with GeForce 6800. It caused audio quality problems and made CD-RW sound like jet engine. Reverting back to 66.93 resolved the problem. The latest drivers aren't always the best... ;)

Good luck!
Ron