Inspiron 8200 - 100% CPU Usage Problem - HELP!!!

Question

I am hoping someone can help me with this problem.  I've called DELL's tech support 3 times now, and each time they've given me something new to try that has not worked to solve my CPU usage problem. Here is a description of the problem:  I got my PC back in March - ran great until October when it started running really, really slow after being powered on for more than one hour or so.  I checked the task manager and found it running at 100% CPU.  DELL tech support has had me remove certain software and do a BIOS upgrade, but none of these have solved the problem. DLLHOST.EXE, SYSTEM IDLE PROCESS, SVCHOST.EXE & EXPLORER.EXE seem to be the biggest offenders of CPU usage, but nothing out of the ordinary that really stands out to me. I would suspect the problem is most likely software related (since it only appeared after having the PC for 7 months).  Do I have a virus or some spyware that may be causing this problem?  How can I check and remove these for free? DELL Support told me I'd have to restore my PC if the things I've tried so far have not worked.  I want to try to avoid this so I don't have to re-install a lot of my own software. Any advice you may have would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Paula

jsinex · Answer

Okay so I did a little searching. It looks like you may have a virus.

How Does the Welchia Worm Infect My Computer?

1. Copies itself to the Wins directory in the System or System32 folder in Windows usually

C:\Windows\System32\Wins\Dllhost.exe for Windows XP or
C:\WinNT\System32\Wins\Dllhost.exe for Windows NT/2000

There is a legitimate file called Dllhost.exe (about 5-6K) in the System32 directory.

Here's the Symantec (Norton) Removal Tool.

Have fun.

jsinex · Answer

I would try downloading Ad-Aware and Spybot - Search and Destroy. They seach for spyware and other malicious programs, and both are free.

Ad-Aware
Spybot

System Idle Process is just the clock cycles of your CPU that aren't doing anything. How much are the other programs using?

Jacob

Message Edited by jsinex on 11-04-2003 12:21 AM

Jean Barker · Answer

The problem only occurs in the SW:G game, but running the virus thing anyway, I'm desperate, lol Jean

Jean Barker · Answer

I have the exact same problem on the same system and it started Oct. 21.  I have scanned it with McAfee virus scan and TrendMobile Housecall and found no viruses.  Any other ideas? Jean

mutt_lover · Answer

I had a problem capturing video causing my CPU to max out. Turned out that my hard drive had dropped from DMA level 5 to PIO. This means the CPU has to handle all the data transfers to the hard drive.

Bay Wolf in another thread http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_harddrive&message.id=21015&highlight=dma#M21015 gave a great explaination a solution. After I followed the instruction my CPU utilization drop from 100% to under 10% when I capture video.

May not be the same problem but worth a try.

Here is a link to his site that addresses the issue:

http://www.bay-wolf.com/harddrive.htm#15

Storage, Drives & Media

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