# CPU usage spikes with nothing running



## Brandonb (Feb 16, 2009)

A week or so ago I noticed my laptop (Dell Inspiron 6000) is experiencing CPU usage spikes every two seconds or so, even if there are no applications running. The spikes range from 8%-25% and I can't figure out what is causing it. 

I use AVG for my anti-virus and ZoneAlarm for my firewall. I ran a virus scan (no problems) and spyware scans with AdAware and Spybot (nothing but cookies). I disabled my internet connection (condition persists), and removed the Apple Bonjour service after a Google search showed it can cause problems. No luck. 

My System process in the Task Manager is the largest process running when there are no apps open, at ~60,000k. Is that normal?

I can post a HijackThis! report or any other needed information if requested. 

Any ideas? Help would be very appreciated.


----------



## Brandonb (Feb 16, 2009)

After doing some digging, I found that my large System process is more than likely related to my AVG8. 

Any thoughts on the rest of it?


----------



## Crossy (May 12, 2008)

I recently had a similar problem which turned out to be a corrupt file in Trend Micro.

Can I suggest that you use msconfig to hide all Microsoft services and boot with only the Microsoft services running? If that stops the problem, allow the suspect programme to run and see if the problem reappears.

My solution was to uninstall/reinstall Trend Micro.

Rob.


----------



## Brandonb (Feb 16, 2009)

Okay, so I used msconfig to remove all the non-Microsoft processes from startup, rebooted, and the CPU stays at 0% like it's supposed to when it's supposed to.

However, there were some processes that I was not able to kill using this method... msconfig told me to login as an admin, and I am. 

Here's what was running during that experiment:










I'm about to play the "remove the processes one at a time and reboot until I find out which one is causing the problem" game, but if you've got a better idea, I'd love to try it.


----------



## Crossy (May 12, 2008)

Hi Brandonb,

If you suspect AVG is the cause, why not enable AVG first? If AVG is the culprit, the problem will re-emerge.

Other than that, the 'one at a time' game is the one I played.

Goos Luck.

Rob.


----------



## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

it will be something in the background checking for an update
mail is the first thing that comes to mind


----------

