CPU sits at 100% - Problem

abibee

Hi, I know my computer isn't the newest, but in the last month only the CPU usage(using Rainmeter to show stats) has started spiking to 100% a lot, and even sits there for several minutes on end even though I'm doing nothing at all. I've had to reboot a few times this evening to get it off 100%.
What can be causing this?
It's an Athlon 3500 and I recently upgraded to 3gig ram. I don't want to shell out for a new computer, this one's a wee bit old, but up until this recent issue has been super-reliable for my modest needs.

closed

dont know, look in task manager

Laz123

Could be overheating with the fans running full pelt, or it could be malware. Have you run a full scan with Malwarebytes?

abibee

I managed to get task manager open, it's 'svchost.exe' that's running 99 I guess that's per cent. I Google'd and found a fix, applied it last night, but it's back again already tonight, it doesn't seem to have worked.

The 'fix' was to disable windows auto update software, apparently it's an XP bug, but it's back again already, doesn't seem to have fixed the problem.

I'll try a Malwarebytes scan, thanks.

closed

download process explorer to see what command line the runaway svchost is running

http://live.sysinternals.com/procexp.exe

waddler_8

See if the mbam scan turns up anything (I'd recommend the quick scan initially) then post me a DDS log - should take 2-3 minutes.

Download DDS from the link below and save it to your desktop:

Link

After you've downloaded it and saved it to your desktop:

• Double click DDS to run it.
• Click Start
• When it's finished, DDS will open two logs:

1. DDS.txt
   
2. Attach.txt

Save both reports to your desktop.

Copy & paste the contents of just DDS.txt for now and post it here (you may need to split the log over separate posts)