100% CPU starting programs

druidhill

This is a tech troubleshooting problem.

I have an old PC Pentium III ~850MHz 512MB RAM Windows XP SP3.

The PC is incredibly slow and practically freezes for a time, every time I start a program (in particular IE). The same thing also happens when I need to do something like change the Printer properties from within an Office application. Once a program loads, the PC does not run slow and for the most part is totally usable. It has been like this for a long time now, but I can't say with absolute certainty that it has always been like this.

A full malware / AV scan(s) have been run and clean bill of health.

When I keep an eye on the Performance Monitor, the problem seems to be with the CPU (it jumps and stays at 100% while a program is loading). RAM is not the problem as far as I can tell from the Performance monitor (increases slightly but not significantly). The Processes tab always shows the program that is currently loading as taking up the CPU resource (in line with the Performance monitor), so it does not seem to be any background program.

This is an old system, I want to be able to troubleshoot and isolate the exact problem as a learning experience. It is not my main computer so I do not want to upgrade or re-install. I have used many systems with the same spec in the past and XP has run without this issue.

Any suggestions on what to do next to confirm the problem (I'm pretty sure it is an issue with this CPU or motherboard/CPU issue). Purely one for a learning experience. I'd like to hear what people would try next (and why).

Thanks.

johndoe99

under Processes, see what is using the most memory. you can also try increasing Virtual Memory:

http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/zanswers/369/

For a PC that old, a Format/Reinstallation would work wonders

druidhill

I'm pretty happy memory is not the issue here as it remains relatively unchanged and well below capacity throughout - all indications are pointing to CPU struggling.

The processes are all pretty much accounted for too iirc (a couple svchost ones that I'm not 100% certain of now - I did investigate them more thoroughly in the past and they were for known programs) but the important point is that memory or CPU usage for any processes that are already loaded does not change significantly - the only increase is in CPU usage for the new process that represents the program that I am currently trying to load, and once loaded, the CPU usage returns to very low.

Skatedude

run disk cleanup, then ccleaner to clean registry(run it at least twice) then defrag your hard drive.
It should help, but you could do with more ram

druidhill

No joy Skatedude - did all the recommended actions myself already (rinsed and repeated again tonight just to be sure). I get what you are saying about the memory, but there is well over half of the RAM constantly available, so I still say it is not a factor in this issue.

Dey were Sooted

someone correct me if i am wrong - it could be a temperature issue - have the vents been cleaned out at any time - thermal paste could need replacing also . there is a thread here that may help re monitoring temp applications .

also if you search the forum with "100% cpu" a lot of threads come up so maybe you will find an answer there ...


best of luck