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Thread ID: 74562 2006-11-27 04:30:00 High CPU usage all of a sudden, PC slowdown JForce (11531) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
502394 2006-11-27 09:11:00 It's not Zone Alarm causing the issues. My processes don't show it using any more CPU than normal.

However I have noticed that "System Idle Process" is consitently at the top, using between 60-95% CPU nonstop. Does that seem odd?
JForce (11531)
502395 2006-11-27 09:17:00 Bit of Googling led me to this:
kadaitcha.cx

"Note that the System Idle Process is supposed to have a high CPU usage rate at idle. This process accounts for unused system time. If your system is responsive and the System Idle Process CPU usage is high, then you do not have a CPU usage issue."

So I'm back to wondering about viruses and spyware etc, although I've never had a virus before so I regard my system as reasonably secure (I'm aware it's not that simple but you get what I mean)

A full Norton system scan picked up nothing. I'm running a full scan with Ad-Aware, Spybot, and MS malicious software removal tool, but it's taking ages due to the system performance issue itself.

Any other ideas? Is there an online virus scanner worth using? Can I install a free alternative to Norton without uninstalling Norton? I'm aware that not all virus products seem to pick up everything....it's the reason I use 2 spyware scanners etc.
JForce (11531)
502396 2006-11-27 09:53:00 If your problem is caused by excessive disk activity, could it be something as simple as Norton scanning the system for viruses in the background? The CPU and disk usage symptoms you describe could be consistant with this. Erayd (23)
502397 2006-11-27 10:41:00 Can you upload an alt/prntscrn of your Task Manager Processes like this:

nz.neopages.org

nz.neopages.org

This is how my computer looks whilst I am online actually doing the task. Yours should be similar but of course not the same as you will have some different programs than me.
zqwerty (97)
502398 2006-11-27 12:35:00 Norton i belive eats up resources BUT jforce use to have norton before (guessing this because it came with your program recovery disk) and it didnt use the processor that much before . its only now .

I have always come accross this problem too, i have ran disk defrag programs (O&O) spyware programs and antivirus programs to detect any activity which uses alot of system resources . but at the end found nothing .
Someone also told me it could be my antivirus or due to fancy themes and xp's nasty effects or installing many programs .
But i use nod32 and windows classic theme . although i do have alot of programs installed .

so what i am saying is it either could be due to many programs installed or Norton running scans on the background while your working(check task schedule)

Now i will leave the experts to comment on this .
gum digger (6100)
502399 2006-11-27 18:29:00 I may have missed something in this thread but how about hitting Ctrl + Alt + Del >> Processes >> Mem Usage, to see what the resource hog is? Strommer (42)
502400 2006-11-27 20:04:00 It port forwards like crap (VERY well known issue), making it the least suitable firewall for P2P users . It clearly uses more processor time than firewalls like Outpost or Kerio .

Ah . Well I don't care about port forwarding .

And its very effective so I'll stick with it .
Like I said - mine is an OLD version, I have seen all the complaints about nwere ones .
pctek (84)
502401 2006-11-28 00:39:00 The only process in task manager showing as using large amounts of CPU is the System Idle Process, which research shows SHOULD be doing this .

So late last night I started running ad-aware, took ages, found nothing .

Ran spybot, took ages, found nothing .

Ran MS malicious software removal tool, took ages, found nothing .

BTW these took ages due to the now painfully slow performance of the system .

So then I figured ok, I'll update as many drivers/BIOS as I can . Went to the Acer site, downloaded them, started doing them .

It was about this time I fell asleep . When I woke up about an hour later in the same position . . . . it seemed to be working . I close the laptop and crawled to bed .

The proof will be when I get home, if it's better . If it is, I have no idea what I did:lol:

And if it isn't I still have some drivers to go .

But it ISN'T a Norton thing . . . Norton isn't running anything in the background that I can find . I even disabled Norton and noticed no change .

It's NOT a Zone Alarm thing . I shut that down and didn't notice a change .
JForce (11531)
502402 2006-11-28 02:15:00 Is following of any help

ask-leo.com uses_exploits_and_more.html
FrankS (257)
502403 2006-11-28 02:27:00 VSMON.exe is always running even if you shut ZoneAlarm down.

Nortons Realtime monitoring scans all executing files, very slowly.
KiwiTT_NZ (233)
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