CPU Usage 100%

[noodle155]

One of my laptops has recently started running very slowly. I looked at the task manager and saw that the CPU Usage was running at 100% (occasionally dropping down to 90).

I've read all i can find on this problem, i've run several virus and spywear checkers and cleaned what i can find.

I've cleaned the registrys. I've defraged. I've run a disk check. I've run msconfig and just left the essentials to start when i boot up.
But i'm not getting any improvement, although for a little while after running the disk check the usage fluctuated wildly between 3% and 100% only to settle down again at 100%.

If anyone has any ideas i would be greatful. i've been trying to fix this for a couple of weeks now.

[PrntRhd]

Do Control+Alt+Delete and see which of the Processes is pegging the memory usage.
It could even be Windows Update itself.

[Erik]

There was an update for this a few months back. If you had Windows update set to any of the options where it ran you could see high CPU and memory usage as it scanned for available updates. You can disable automatic updates, run manually to get fully updated, and then turn on automatic updates again.

Otherwise see what is using the most CPU

[noodle155]

There are three programs that seem to be using up the cpu, it fluctuates between explorer, svchost and csrss, occasionally all these will drop and system idle process pops up to the top as should be.

[Erik]

Are you up to date with Windows Updates? Those are OS related process, which can actually be doing many different things. If you are not caught up with your patches then I would say get Process Explorer to get a better idea of what is actually going on.