Hi Spaceman, System idle process = 97/8, but in terms of memory usage it is only 20K. The largest 3 processes by usage are:

waol = 22,404K (0 CPU)
SVCHOST.exe = 20, 072K (1 cpu) - no idea what this is?
explorer.exe - 16,872 k (0 cpu)

Thanks.

Me E

When the CPU usage shoots to 100% does it shut down ie. Blue screen or does it appear to freeze? In which case, if you leave it long enough does it recover?

What programs are set to run on startup? On my system the only thing taking more than 15,000K of memory is Internet Explorer.

Hi Optimist, in seems to have done all you have described! It has shut down the system (it reboots if I start) but normally it restarts to where it shut down.

Mr E

Is this your new computer? Did you copy everything accross from the old disk?

System idle process near 100% could be a driver problem, possibly grapics or motherboard but there are plenty of other possible causes.

If it shuts down then that suggests a dodgy power setting or something overheating but System idle process shouldn't be effected then.

Um, Whats Waol? is AOL your ISP?

But I thought CPU was going over 60% has the problem gone?

Not sure about this one, could be browser hijack? do you have adaware or spybot?

O, you got any more ideas??? ;-)

Optimist, confused I would expect system idle to be high?

How would I go about recording 10 minutes of level2 so that I could replay in media player or real-player or something similar

Any help appreciated

Spaceman / Mr E

I've just checked my system. My system idle proccess is always low because I run UD agent which gobbles up any surplus CPU power. If I turn UD agent off then it does indeed remain very high.

However, it should drop down as soon as the comp tries to do anything. If it dosn't then my comments in 2441 apply.

Hi gents.

My new one but haven't changed hard disks yet, not sure when I'll get round to that. Will probably put into my local shop.

I am at a complete lose. The problem has not gone completely but it's about 50% better and I even managed to run ad-adare without it crashing (was inbetween 90-100% whilst running). All it found was a few data miners.

I think it might be something to do with an Intel Graphics driver (extreme something or other which I have taken off but it didn't resolve it) or it is linked to Firefox?

But then again what do I know. How can it be working fine (last night),then just like that it goes wrong, then after a couple of hours it warms up and is ok again!!! Computers!

Yes WAOL = my ISP (AOL)

CC

Try a Google of "capture screen as video". There appear to be several options but I've never tried them. Please post if you do.

Yes system idle process is ok when I start to do something (whats UD?). You are going to laugh at this but last night and today, every 5-10 minutes a virtual dog barks at me through my browser! My dog keeps looking at me! I have no idea where it's coming from, AM is the only window I have open at the open (&AOL). I wonder if this is causing the problem?

Mr E

Have you any utilities on the computer that will measure temperatures?

It might be worth making sure the memory chips are inserted properly (power off first).

What is Firefox?

Optimist, no I haven't, are the easy to find?

Firefox = broswer, http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

Mr E

For UD agent see http://www.moneyam.com/TradersRoom/ShowPostList?fID=1&tID=2649

If something is barking at you then you have some programs that should not be there. Have a look at the proccesses in task manager to see if there is anything suspicious. Running Adaware and Spubot in safe mode may help.

Thanks. I can't beleive this, computer is back to normal now and only a dog bark per hour! Very odd.

Mr E ... I noticed you were using Win Task Mngr to identify your running processes, and re. svchost.exe, you mentioned "... - no idea what this is? ".

I recommend a Free utility called 'Process Explorer', from www.sysinternals.com . It gives more info than Task Mngr (for example, it would tell you that svchost.exe is a Microsoft process, namely Generic Host Process for Win32 Services). Very helpfull for identifing what is, and more importantly, what shouldn't be, running on your PC.

Re. your problem, it's CPU Usage Graph might help you. As you know, Windows Task Mngr has a CPU usage graph, but it's just a total. On the (similar) Sys Internals graph, as you move your mouse back over the graph, it identifies the process which was consuming the most CPU at that historical moment. So, instead of watching Task Mngr CPU column live, you can wait for a CPU 100% excursion, and run back over the CPU graph for the last few mins and see what process caused it.

D.

optimist,thanks i'll try that,

Mr E,
i had a simular problem ages ago,it was a program that come with my ASUS motherboard that looked at TEMP etc,i was getting reboots for no reason,
i stopped using it and has been ok since,and i use alot of programs and IE windows together,
hope it might be that,

steve

Mr Euro, do you run Winpatrol by any chance? It does bark. The only program that I could find that does so :-)

Thanks all. I spoke to soon as the laptop started messing around again, CPU at 100%, shutting down, screen only works when it gets a bang etc... Will look at it later and run the progs suggested.

On another machine now.

Kayak, not that Iknow off, could do with something like that though to replace my bell. I use it when I want some food/drink, in fact ever since I have been ill - on the other hand the missus is used to the bell and she might start to complain with a bark :-)

Me E

When I asked about utilities to check temperatures it was with the idea of using them to monitor the computer though as Scussy said, they have got the potential to disrupt.

If screen only works when it gets a bang, that is a hardware fault and you should get it replaced.