CPU Usage gets stuck @ 100%. slows everything down

[Fuelm@n]

After a couple of hours, the CPU Usage gets stuck on 100% and then brings everything to a crawl. This has be going on for about a month, and it's now getting on my every last nerve. All I'm usually doing is checking e-mail, browsing the web and that's about it. The CPU and mobo temps check out fine, the system has 1024 MB of RAM and the PF Usage is always great. Any ideas outside of a fresh install (I've been putting that off for over 4 years )

[Teknophobia]

Have you tried a memory check? http://www.memtest86.com/

Alternatively, remove one of your memory sticks in turn and test.

TEk

[SuperSparks]

I had a similar situation a while back, where I wasn't doing anything other than surfing, and I tracked the problem down to badly written animated ads that were eating all my CPU cycles. Right-click the Taskbar and choose Task Manager, then in the Processes tab make sure that CPU & CPU Time columns are selected (View>Select Columns). Click twice on the CPU column header and that will put the process that is using the most CPU cycles at the top. If it's showing your browser as being the culprit then suspect ads.

[Fuelm@n]

I'll try these 2 options, SS when I close IE and other hogs, CPU Usage still stays at 100% and I can't bring this down without rebooting the system. I used to use an ad blocking program and stopped about a month ago so you may be right as this being my issue too.

[Jawsh]

Ah yes, exactly WHAT process is taking your CPU? I have become the master of the 100% usage devil!

[Fuelm@n]

Ah yes, exactly WHAT process is taking your CPU? I have become the master of the 100% usage devil!

The 100% Usage Devil has shown itself again, the attachment shows the running processes. I'm going to change out the HDD to rule out hardware issues (hdd will be running Win2000, not XP).

[Train]

http://[email protected]

From what I see, that is my best guess.

[Fuelm@n]

Looks as if I found the evil beast, turns out that it was a program called ClipCache Plus (I've used this program for at least 2 years). I found this out after getting stuck on 100% again, and after closing clipc.exe under Processes, my CPU Usage went back down to normal. I went ahead and updated the program and everything seems to back to normal. I do use this program everyday, and it makes my life easier, but for the last month it made it hard... Thanks everyone for your time you've put in to help me.

Train, I did a thorough scan on my system and found a possible trojan and one other piece of trash, I removed those...

[Train]

Thanks for posting your findings.

Sure glad you were able to get to the bottom of it.