a cry for help

Hope this is the right place. My CPU usage rate is going from 0 to 100% and everything inbetween after Windows installed 48 updates. Its Windows 7, a new laptop and just connected to the internet for 2 days. Can anyone help?

Right click on the task bar or press CTRL+ALT+DEL together. Choose "Task Manager".

In the list of "Processes" tick the box to show processes from all users.

Then click on the CPU % column to get the highest numbers at the top.

What are the names of the processes which are hogging the CPU resource?

It says the system idle process is taking about 90% of everything.

That means that your system is only running the processor at 10% which is in direct contradiction of what you said earlier (system idle is not a process, it is the item that shows how much free processor there is).

Ha ha ha. I don't understand it either. I'm far from a computer expert but when Windows said it had updates, i clicked to start it. It installed and it has been screwed ever since. I think it it is constantly trying to access the hard drive as well.

If the graphic in the performance tab in task manager is showing 100% all the time that does not link with the system idle process at 90% (as the graphic excludes the system idle figure). Can you quickly switch between the tabs to confirm the graphic is showing 100% at the same time as the system idle is showing 90% - if it is then there is something wrong as that is not how windows should work.

Sorry to reply to me but thought easier than editing.

Having checked the OS you are using something seems really strange. Have checked 2 different versions of win7 and neither of them show the system idle at process at all so I would assume that has been removed from win7. What happens if you try to kill the system idle process? I am wondering if it is some sort of malware that is hiding itself under that name (as that is how XP would have shown free proc).

I should have explained better. The CPU usage is going from 0 to 100 for about 10 seconds then back down. I have only got the net and task manager running.

It only shows up when you select show process from all users. I am the only user.

The co-incidence of the updates and the sporadic performance afterwards seems a co-incidence too far.

"When Windows said it had updates" - was that officially via the Control Panel > Windows Update feature?

As what you describe does unfortunately sound a bit like something horrid has been downloaded and installed.

Have you run the various Windows things (Defender, Security Centre, Security Essentials or whetever they're called, or Sophos/Norton etc.) to identify is there's any malware on the system?

When the system "spikes" and slows down you'd expect to see something other than System Idle Process taking up processor cycles.

In reply to a post by ian72:

Sorry to reply to me but thought easier than editing.

Having checked the OS you are using something seems really strange. Have checked 2 different versions of win7 and neither of them show the system idle at process at all

That's handy to know - I've learned something there

In reply to a post by ian72:

I am wondering if it is some sort of malware that is hiding itself under that name (as that is how XP would have shown free proc).

That sounds like a promising theory.

The message came via the control panel. It seemed OK. Im going to run the programs you suggested. I wasn't suspicious as everything is brand new, computer, internet connection etc. I expected that amount of updates.

Windows 7 does show System Idle Process, but only when you select "Show processes from all users". Makes sense as the "process" doesn't belong to the logged-on user.

You can't kill the System Idle Process (obviously, as it's not a process); there is no right-click menu at all for that item.

Could just be that the system is re-indexing everything as there have been substantial changes. That fits with your description. Worth running a malware scan anyway, but I don't think you have anything to worry about. It will settle down soon.

Might be swapfile thrashing the drive. What's your reported percentage used memory (very bottom of task manager in performance tab)?

Surely it wouldn't take over 3 hours?

Its changing from 60% to 70% and everything inbetween.

Which processes are using the processor time whilst it is peaking? Just watch Task Manager and check (make sure that you watch processes from all users). It should then be fairly simple to check which is the culprit.

Virus scanning is another possibility; that can take a long time when there have been significant changes.

I think you nearly have it mate!!! The system idle process is peaking when the CPU usage goes to 100%. That should be impossible. Im in the middle of running a virus scan. It has recommended that I delete some cookies but surely this isn't the cause?

It has nothing to do with cookies. You can delete those.

Any clues here?

http://www.computing.net/answers/windows-nt/system-i...

Thanks to everyone who tried to help. I'll never know what went wrong. Because it is a new computer i just done a factory reset. It has worked. I hope it never happens to anyone who has files to lose. Once again thanks to all that tried to help.

Glad you've got it fixed. I have now done a google for this and come up with a few items like this one.

Seems the disparity could be due to a driver issue. So, if a driver had recently been updated it could have caused the problem. When redoing the the updates after your factory reset you may hit the issue again - if so I would check if the video drivers are one of the updates and if so go and get the latest drivers from nvidia/amd/intel (depending on which it has).

could be a.net update.

If .net gets an update then windows has to compile its files, for some reason .net isnt distributed pre compiled.

It does 2 lots of compiling, the first high priority ones are done immediatly and the 2nd set is done later when the machine is idle. On a high spec machine with say 4 cores it will still take at least a few minutes, on a single core laptop it can take hours.

You are not the only "user". The computer is a "user" as well and processes are happening all the time.