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HELP! CPU Usage Constantly Way Too High
watj
Registered User new member
Registered User new member
Hey, I've been having this issue for about a week now and have exhausted my normal troubleshooting routine. I have a Dell XPS M1330 laptop that I've had for about a year now. My processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 @ 2.10 GHz, and I'm running Windows 7 64-bit. I've noticed that whenever I'm performing what should be low-system-stress tasks, my processor usage is much higher than it should be. For example, right now, I'm typing this post in Chrome with 3 other tabs open-- this is the only program I'm running, and my CPU Usage is hovering around 39%.
It gets worse when I do anything even remotely intensive, such as running a game. A game such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. will run fine with my normal settings (I have a GeForce 8400M GS) for about 15 minutes, then everything gets completely bogged down and the game slows to 9 or 10 fps. When I close the application, processor usage is always pinned at 100% and gradually levels back down to around 50%. This has happened when doing mundane things, too--- watching shows on Hulu, for instance, with Chrome as the only open program, has occasionally caused this 100%-usage thing to happen, to infuriating effect; video playback becomes extremely jerky and unresponsive, and the only way to get the CPU back down to normal and resume operation is to quit Chrome and let the system 'relax' for a minute or two.
I've scoured the Google for solutions to this issue and found a few vaguely similar scenarios but none quite matching this combination of symptoms and hardware. I have heard that some people have had issues with build quality and CPU thermal management with this particular XPS model. If anyone could give any insight at all into my situation, I'd be forever grateful. This whole thing is extremely frustrating; it's getting to the point where I'm considering doing a clean install of Windows 7 32-bit just for the sake of stability.
Edit: Thought I'd mention that Core Temp shows a temperature of around 70°C for both cores when the processor has been maxed at 100% for a while; during normal activities (CPU anywhere from 10% to 50%) the temperatures are in the 58°-62°C range.
It gets worse when I do anything even remotely intensive, such as running a game. A game such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. will run fine with my normal settings (I have a GeForce 8400M GS) for about 15 minutes, then everything gets completely bogged down and the game slows to 9 or 10 fps. When I close the application, processor usage is always pinned at 100% and gradually levels back down to around 50%. This has happened when doing mundane things, too--- watching shows on Hulu, for instance, with Chrome as the only open program, has occasionally caused this 100%-usage thing to happen, to infuriating effect; video playback becomes extremely jerky and unresponsive, and the only way to get the CPU back down to normal and resume operation is to quit Chrome and let the system 'relax' for a minute or two.
I've scoured the Google for solutions to this issue and found a few vaguely similar scenarios but none quite matching this combination of symptoms and hardware. I have heard that some people have had issues with build quality and CPU thermal management with this particular XPS model. If anyone could give any insight at all into my situation, I'd be forever grateful. This whole thing is extremely frustrating; it's getting to the point where I'm considering doing a clean install of Windows 7 32-bit just for the sake of stability.
Edit: Thought I'd mention that Core Temp shows a temperature of around 70°C for both cores when the processor has been maxed at 100% for a while; during normal activities (CPU anywhere from 10% to 50%) the temperatures are in the 58°-62°C range.
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PSN: TheScrublet
PSN: TheScrublet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
I'm telling you that when the Performance tab shows 100% processor usage, I can sort my list of processes by CPU and the few at the top will only be a few percent-- possibly Chrome (or, recently, Adobe Premier) using 20-30%, but nothing that adds up to 100. Trust me, it's as frustrating as it sounds.
On-access file virus scanning might do this, especially if the AV software is notoriously resource-intensive. I'm not advocating running without AV, but maybe what you've got is what's chewing up your resources?
That doesn't sound too bad, especially for a laptop. You expect it to be high when the processor's churning, but that doesn't sound dangerously high. Laptop temps will be higher than the equivalent desktop, in general. Cooling system's smaller, and less efficient. It is, after all, sipping air through a straw, by comparision.
http://live.sysinternals.com/
If this doesn't work, check your BIOS and see if there's something in there that throttles your CPU at 70. I agree that 70 isn't really a dangerously high temp, but based on your comments about task manager I've got no other ideas.
PSN: TheScrublet
Dunno why, but for a while there an XP machine I use would have the services.exe process just maxing out everything. Clearing out my log files took care of it.
I know my P4 (Prescott core, so it runs a bit hot anyway) was hitting as high as 86C before I figured the problem out. Nasty.