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100% CPU Usage
I have a brand new Dimension 2350 with 256MB and 60GB disk. Pentium IV 1.8GHz. On about 20 percent of my bootups, the entire system is barely responsive at all. I look in the task manager and the CPU usage is at 100% but there is no particular process that seems to be using the CPU to that degree. Norton was suspicious because it had the highest memory usage activity, but it still didn't show that it was using any cpu. I turned off Norton autoprotect and thought that fixed it but, it did it once even with Norton AP turned off.
This is a real pain. Already been the hardware and software support route. Eventually they had me run sfc /scannow which verified all the system files against the original CD and we thought that took care of it. Next morning though, I booted up to 100% CPU utilization with no obvious culprit.
Any ideas?
Doug.
Have to give credit to a guy in Dell's Advance OS support area, but bless his heart, he found the problem. It's in the registry. Apparently, on occasion, the folks doing the setup on new PC's going out the door forget to set a couple different registry items. The are the Paging files and System pages items in the Memory management area. If you'd like me to detail the path down to them for you, just reply or email me at dcousins@isrv.com.
Whew. I'm feeling much better now.
DJ, I also sent you an email asking to please share the registry tweak(s) you made.
I have a 4550 (3.06GHz CPU, 1Gb RAM, WD 80Gb HD and Seagate 80Gb HD, DVD, CDRW, 250Mb ZIP Drive, Windows XP-Pro). I've been experiencing the same problems witht he 100% CPU usage.
I've followed all the previous advice given (msconfig tweak and try & error, cleaning up temp files and old files, defragging, etc.) to no avail. I have a trouble ticket open with Dell, but no help there yet.
Any info you can share would be greatly appreciated.
Okay - here is what Dell Advanced OS told me. It made some sense but then I hit the 100% again while running IE. I did notice that this only happened though after I plugged my Iomega Zip 250 back in. So that may have something to do with it too. Anyway here are the registry locations: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / CONTROL SET 001 / CONTROL / SESSIONS MANAGER / MEMORY MANAGEMENT. Two items in this folder, Paging File and System Pages were not set correctly. Paging File was set to 0 0 and should have been 1024 and 2048. System pages should be 512 (Decimal value).
This support guy, unlike others, seemed to know what he was talking about, though I still concerned about the Zip drive thing. Anybody know anything about that?
Doug.
Kanuk001
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Posted March 3rd, 2003 12:00