system idle process 99% CPU usage!

Bartonprince

ok i took out the bad hard drive, and now i have the 250GB one in it. I re-installed windows xp and lost 200gigs of music (all alphabetized albums, no loose tracks) and videos and stuff that we've collected over the past 3 months.

when i get into windows now, it takes ages to load into any kind of useful mode. then as soon as i do anything, like right click to close msn systray icon, it locks up all windows for about 3mins and the cpu usage is at 99% (system idle process). and then anytime i do anything else the same thing happens.

i managed to get mcafee and symantec firewall on and installed before connecting to the internet, and then downloaded the latest dats etc right away.

what could be causing this terrible performance?

even after reboots it happens

DonkeyRhubarb

Thats normal. The 99% refers to the amount of CPU time that is not being used ie your CPU is at 1% usage.

zilog_jones

I don't think you understand what the "system idle process" means - it's not an actual process, and when it's at 99% that means your CPU is (more-or-less) totally idle. Whatever your problem is, it's not CPU usage!

What was wrong with this "bad" hard disk anyway? Had it come to a state where the data on it was totally inaccessable?

EDIT: I guess DonkeyRhubarb can type faster than me!

Bartonprince

zilog_jones wrote:

I don't think you understand what the "system idle process" means - it's not an actual process, and when it's at 99% that means your CPU is (more-or-less) totally idle. Whatever your problem is, it's not CPU usage!

What was wrong with this "bad" hard disk anyway? Had it come to a state where the data on it was totally inaccessable?

EDIT: I guess DonkeyRhubarb can type faster than me!

oh....

well the other hard drive is old now, it's an 80GB IBM Deskstar.
it got corrupted, and every few weeks it's just goes totally fooked.
when i boot it says that the /windows/system32/system.ini or something i missing or corrupt and will not load.

so then when i try to do anything, like get into the recovery console, or fromat from the disk it says freezes.

like when i boot from the windows cd-rom, and select the drive, it says "searching for previous versions of windows" and it freezes.

Bartonprince

Any idea then why my machine is running sooo slow then? like freezing up for a couple mins everytime i try to do anything?

It's a fresh install!

Macker

Have a read of this

http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/windows_xp_services_2.php

Bartonprince

Macker wrote:

Have a read of this

http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/windows_xp_services_2.php

I don't know what all that means? Like they are processes running on my machine? Or whats the story. How do i stop it hanging up every time i do something

art

Bartonprince wrote:

Any idea then why my machine is running sooo slow then? like freezing up for a couple mins everytime i try to do anything?

It's a fresh install!

You mention Symantec and McAfee - do you by any chance have two Anti-virus applications running simulataneously? (if so, then "No NO!").

Otherwise, it does sound like a bad install. How did you format the new disk and what "File System" did you choose when asked? What was your source for Windows, an original CD or a backup/edited boot CD? (if you put the CD into a drive now, does it become accessible almost immediately or does it seem to just spin and spin... ). Likewise, with the Sysmantec and McAfee, how did they install and are their 'sources' in good order?

zilog_jones

Do you have all the correct/latest drivers for your hardware? Windows probably won't come with suitable ones (unless your PC's quite old), especially regarding graphics cards - using the generic video drivers that come with windows make things helluva slow...

helix26

Bartonprince wrote:

ok i took out the bad hard drive, and now i have the 250GB one in it. I re-installed windows xp and lost 200gigs of music (all alphabetized albums, no loose tracks) and videos and stuff that we've collected over the past 3 months.

when i get into windows now, it takes ages to load into any kind of useful mode. then as soon as i do anything, like right click to close msn systray icon, it locks up all windows for about 3mins and the cpu usage is at 99% (system idle process). and then anytime i do anything else the same thing happens.

i managed to get mcafee and symantec firewall on and installed before connecting to the internet, and then downloaded the latest dats etc right away.

what could be causing this terrible performance?

even after reboots it happens

Can you post your hardware details here memory/processor etc etc what ever you can find , if you dont know how to do that you can download this util its a freeware
http://www.belarc.com/
it should give you an overview of the system hardware/software..and it should help track the issue.

Bartonprince

zilog_jones wrote:

Do you have all the correct/latest drivers for your hardware? Windows probably won't come with suitable ones (unless your PC's quite old), especially regarding graphics cards - using the generic video drivers that come with windows make things helluva slow...

Hmm,

I have installed the normal installation CD for my GFX card, It's a brand new 7800GT from XFX.

I installed my Audigy 2 drivers from the original CD.

I think i may have installed McAfee twice maybe? I installed version 7, and then updated, then i installed version 8 which i was told to run after i installed version 7. But MCShild is only taking up 32MB of PC memory in the system processes.

Should i remove it?

DemonOfTheFall

For a start try using the latest drivers for all your components. Whatever came on the CDs is quite likely to be fairly out of date. It's just silly to drop thousands of euro on components then run them with out of date drivers.

When installing windows, first install the latest motherboard drives (in your case nVidia nforce 4), then install the latest graphics drivers, then whatever else. In my experience, if you don't follow that order you're gonna have weird and inexplicable problems with the PC.

DonkeyRhubarb

Im having the exact same problem with a brand new Samsung SpinPoint 200gb I got from komplett. Im in the process of trying to get a new one under guarantee. Its really annoying. I had a REALLY top spec PC, and it kept stuttering. Then windows wouldnt boot. Then I reformatted, worked 4 a while, then wouldnt boot. Im pretty sure its a physical fault, not curable with software.