For some reason my CPU usage is always at 100%... even when nothing is running. Im using a dell XPS M1530, intel duo, 2.5GHz, with 4gb of ram... its been running like this ever since a windows update but I did a system restore and it seemed to work fine for a few minutes but the temperature rose to 70C... does anyone know what the problem is?
Check the task manager for what program(s) are using CPU power. Is it just "system idle process" taking up 99%, or is something else using it?
The only time I encountered this problem (100 percent cpu usage) it was hardware related. I fixed the problem by accident when I installed a PCI audio card (on board audio would stop working on occasion). The PCI audio card fixed the audio problem and also fixed the high cpu use problem. That's just something that I know for a fact that will cause high cpu use.
like killerbug said, go to your task manager and click on the processes tab. that shows you all the programs running and their CPU usage.
There are no programs running at the moment but it still says my CPU usage is at 100% with the CPU temp reaching as high as 70 degrees C...
you're not listening to what we are telling you to do...go to your TASK MANAGER and go to the PROCESSES tab. there are dozens of apps that windows is running as part of the system. the task manager lists all the programs and tells you what percentage of CPU each is using.
I also had this problem with my Dell Studio 17 (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz, 4GB RAM and others which dont matter). What I did was open task manager, click on the Processes tab and then where you see the CPU tab thing click it until you see a down arrow. Then end the processes that are more than like 8,9 and restart your computer. What caused my problem was the Dell Webcam Central.
This is usually a svchosts program that runs in the background thats why it looks like you do not have any programs running. In order the see if it is this like they have said before you need to get into task manager by clicking ctrl alt and del at the same time. Click on the Process tab to make sure. This can be caused by a printer or sometimes windows update.
