Hello Radifiers,

I have a Dell Laptop, and it's worked quite well for me over the 2 years I've had it.

Very recently though, the CPU usage, when I simply start the computer up, is jumping between 20-30%, just sitting there, and it stays there. No programs or applications or any new software installed. I checked the running processes list, and I don't see anything new in there, I recognize all of them. I check the CPU usage quite frequently, and up till about 2 weeks ago, I can safely say it always stayed around 1-2% when sitting idly without any programs open or anything operating. But now it jumps between 20-30% for no reason. I'm hoping that it's not because the laptop is getting old, or is starting to have hardware problems.  

The reason I'm concerned about this is because when I open applications such as emulators, the CPU usage combines with the "ghost" cpu usage and gets even higher, and causes my laptop to get hotter faster (and for the fans to come on). One of my emulators usually stays around 30% CPU usage, but now it's running between 50-60% constantly, not doing anything new on it. The CPU usage have been combined from that new unknown CPU usage and the emulator's regular usage.

Any ideas on what this could be?

Spyware.  Update all your spyware and virus scanners, reboot to safe-mode, then do a full scan.  Even better, revert back to a recent back-up image before the problem started.

MrMagoo wrote on Apr 24^th, 2008 at 2:02pm:

Spyware.  Update all your spyware and virus scanners, reboot to safe-mode, then do a full scan.  Even better, revert back to a recent back-up image before the problem started.

Thanks Mr.Magoo. I think I will just go back to my last ghost image. However, I'm concerned because I don't know how the spyware got on the computer. I did not download or install *any* new software onto my computer, or anything of that sort. When I try to search on google how spyware can get on the computer, I get mixed information. Can it come through media files such as wmvs, mpgs, mp3s? Those are the only things I can think of that I put on the computer lately. Can they come simply from visiting a website?

Also which is the anti spyware that radifiers reccomend? And virus scanners?

Magoo has great Spyware guide:

http://guides.radified.com/magoo/guides/spyware/remove_spyware_01.htm

I use Spybot: http://www.safer-networking.org/

Some of these buggers are hard to get out, once they find their way into your system. That's why I like Spybots innoculation, which prevents them from getting in, in the first place.

Are you saying none of the processes show *which* process is using this extra CPU? Never heard of that.

Is it spiking intermittently or staying constant?

If it has found a way to consume your CPU withOUT showing up in processes, that sounds very devious (spyware, adware, virus, etc.) A normal program will register itself in such as way as to declare its CPU usage.

Coolio wrote on Apr 24^th, 2008 at 2:49pm:

Can it come through media files such as wmvs, mpgs, mp3s? Those are the only things I can think of that I put on the computer lately. Can they come simply from visiting a website?

It can come from a lot of things, and some of it is very sneaky.  Normally, media files don't carry these things, but that depends on how said media got on your computer.  Your iPod is probably a safe way to put music on your computer.  Limewire is not.

Yes, you can get these things on your computer just by visiting a web site.  My guide that Rad posted a link to gives you lots of tips for reducing your risk - but the main things are to keep up with the latest Windows updates, be careful what websites you visit (hint - the more pop-up adds a site has, the more nefarious it might be...) and to use a safer browser like Firefox or Opera instead of IE.  IE has some terrible security holes that Microsoft will never fix because it seems them as "features."

Hm, I downloaded Spybot and updated it, then used it to scan. It found 11 problem items, and I asked it to remove them all, which it did.

However, the problem still persists, even after restarting my computer, letting everything that loads normally load, check in msconfig to see any new startup processes I don't know about (I only have 2 selected to start), the cpu Usage still keeps jumping between 20-30% for no apparent reason.

I'm starting to worry this could be a hardware problem. What do you think? I'm going to backup to a previous Ghost image, but I'm not very confident that it will fix the problem now. What do you think?

Did you reboot into safe mode before running the scan as my guide suggests?  It is an important step that helps keeps some of the nasties from starting with the computer and interfering with the scan.  

Also, Spybot tends to be on the conservative side.  You may want something with more punch if you have some stubborn nasties.  Try Trend Micro's online scan if you can get it to run.  Also, reverting to your last backup should be something you consider.

It doesn't sound like a hardware issue to me, unless you have some bad memory.  Does a memtest turn out ok?  How old is the laptop?

Sorry Mrmagoo, I didn't restart the computer in safe mode. However, the problem seems to have dissipated. And I did not yet go back to a previous ghost image. I really don't know what happened, because after I did the scan with Spybot, I restarted it, and for a day or so after that it was still the same, then it just disappeared, and now the usage when it's idle fluctuates between 0-2% which is what it should do. I guess I shouldn't be complaining because it's a good thing, but I'm still concerned because I don't know how it happened. I don't know how to run a memtest on the laptop.

I have friends who own Dell laptops. They tell me overheating is known-issue for (some?) Dells. One friend said the unit was serviced while under warranty .. tho that did little to cool. I think they put a bigger fan in, cuz their fan is the loudest I've ever heard in a laptop.

Of course, this has nothing to do with your CPU issue.

Coolio wrote on Apr 28^th, 2008 at 1:14pm:

I guess I shouldn't be complaining because it's a good thing, but I'm still concerned because I don't know how it happened. I don't know how to run a memtest on the laptop.

memetest can be run from many boot CD's.  DBAN comes to mind.  

I still wouldn't trust this laptop with any data that is either important or private.  Since you didn't find a fix for the issue, there could be dormant spyware lurking on the machine or other things that could comprimise your data.

To find our what software is consuming the cpu, try the free real-time displays in the Process Explorer software:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx