100% CPU usage with Windows Vista

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I've searched for three days for an answer to this problem.

Results:

A lot of people have or had this problem, but no one seems to know the answer to fixing it. I've searched endless threads on endless forums and found zero answers to the problem. Most people responded by saying they have the same problem and it eventually just went away, came back or they switched to XP/ Linux OS.

Frustrating!

The system was non functional from day one. Brand new system. Only internet access was to mfg. websites. i.e. Nero, Windows update, Dell. I doubt I have a virus and KIS 2009 was installed after MS updates and prior to connecting to above websites. I have since reformatted C:, reinstalled the OS from the hidden Dell recovery partition, removed the Nero stuff, KIS 2009, DVD drive, and floppy drive. I have not accessed the internet since other than MS update.

Prior to installing this stuff the system was still dead dog slow. I was very careful installing and removing the drives as to not short anything out, no wires are loose, memory is secure and in place. CPU fan is working, case fan is working, DVD rom is working. HDD? I haven't tested it. Maybe it was bunk from the factory. I'm not sure how to test it. My Dell warranty expired two days ago.

I have not messed w' this system since I bought it a year ago because it was so slow. I figured it was the memory and would wait to mess with it until I got more memory. I don't need the system, have others, but intended to get it functional and give it to my kid as a gift. He needs a system.

Problem: every aspect of operation is extremely slow, almost non-operational.

processes running in tskmgr are consuming 100% of the CPU, 100% of the time. The memory is between 47 and 70% used up. tskmger.exe, System, and one or two other MS processes are listed as consuming the CPU, mainly tskmgr and system! The only non MS services are google desktop, Google search, and Dell suport center? It takes 5 minutes or more to startup or shutdown, open control panel, event viewer, etc. Lots of (not responding)! There are alot of errors, warnings, etc. in the event viewer for Windows. System boot, system shutdown, etc. All errors apparently relate to the OS. Also, when I shut the system down, the power button on the case stays lit as if it's in sleep or hibernation. I've set Windows to shut down, not sleep or hibernate. It won't restart unless I hold the power button down for a few seconds to shut it off, then repress the power button to start it up. Windows update takes forever, 8 hours or more and the internet connection seems dead dog slow as well. Other systems on same cable work fine!

System:

Dell vostro 200, Windows Vista Home Basic, celeron 430 1.8 GHz, G33/G31 express chipset family, 1 GB DDR2 memory, integrated sound, NIC and video w' shared memory of 128 MB or so? 80 Gb, 7200rpm SATA HDD, DVD rom.

Attempts:

Reformatted C: and re-installed OS from Dell recovery partition. Ran memtest86+ in STD mode for 8 hours w' no errors. Tried using Ubuntu Live CD and it just stalled after asking for language, etc. Black screen! I disabled Windows search, indexing, Google desktop, search. Set system for maximum performance, i.e. It looks like windows 98, 2000??! No improvement! I've physically inspected the memory, MB and all hardware and connections. Everything "looks" fine.

I have the System disk and drivers from Dell and at this point my only option is to test the HDD? and/ or wipe the HDD, hidden partition and all, reinstall, OS, sp1, and drivers and utilities from disk.

Please help!

I realize the Celeron w' 1Gb shared memory w' video is probably undersized but it should function, shouldn't it? Others have said it does. There is nothing installed on the computer other than Dell support stuff and Google desktop stuff that it came with from factory. I can't rule out a defective HDD or MB, malware, virus, but have had no bluescreens and very limited internet access, as stated above, all while fully protected via KIS 2009.

 

Yes! and thanks! I am on a different machine as the Vista machine has virtually no internet access.

I'm not sure how to get the screenshot here. I do have a thumb drive I could use to transfer to this machine and upload, but need instruction how? Also, I could post a shot of tskmgr as well if needed.

Thanks again.

 

Still not sure how to post screenshots but,

I ran Process explorer.

Results: I'm not 100% sure what I'm looking at, but...

DPCs- 50-77% CPU
interrupts- 15-33%
System- 1.5-10%
procexp- 3%
svchost and explorer occasionally 1.5%

It appears the DPCs and hardware interrupts are consuming most on a regular basis. As a whole I'm still at 100% CPU usage.

Now, what to do with these numbers?

 

This is a long shot, but I had a vista laptop with fairly similar symptoms recently, and it was down to a faulty hard disk.

Could you try sticking a different disk in and putting a clean install on and see how you go?

 

do a right click on my computer and select manage

click on the system tab to look at any errors, click on the errors and click the link to the microsoft database this should give you information on what these errors are.

As for any error messeages you are getting on screen when you get one press the print screen button on your keyboard, now open up paint or wordpad or notepad and select paste this will paste the screen shot into a document. Save the document as error or something and when you do a reply on here slect the manage attachments button and then browse and find your error document then select upload and it will upload the screenshot to your reply

 

Modey, the HDD checks out as A-OK. Thanks though.

Greenbrucelee, I don't get on screen errors, only errors in event viewer. Thanks for the tip on getting screenshots. I tried the link in event viewer for error codes, etc. but the system isn't able to get online. The DPCs and interrupts are hogging all available CPU and not allowing anything to operate. I entered several of the errors into my other system's search browser and came up empty. The errors were listed as non critical or something to that effect and MS offered no solutions to fix.

Bottom line, after doing a little research it appears the DPCs and interrupts relate to service/s or most likely driver/s that are out of control and taking priority over all other CPU requests. I believe herein lies the problem, but am unsure of how to proceed to narrow down the driver/s or service/s that are causing the problem.

Like I said I may have overlooked something as I'm new to computers. Thanks again for the replies and help.

jk2447, I will post a screenshot of event viewer errors.

 

Its a Driver issue. Check drivers for your video card or (more likely) network cards - especially WLAN drivers. Try running msconfig and disabling everything not explicitly needed at startup. that will at least get you a responsive system - then try enabling things one by one and seeing if you can locate the culprit that way.

 

Out of interest what did you check it with? My first port of call for checking disks is the DOS utility provided by most drive manufacturers which will perform some pretty low level checks. If you just checked it with something like CHKDSK, then it's not necessarily going to catch certain hardware errors that the utils I mentioned will.

GL sorting the issue anyway.

 

Modey, I used HD tune.

Zebulebu, thanks. I will try that and report back.

 

I disabled several devices in device manager to see if there was a problem, nothing was affected. FDC controller, NIC, DVD, realtek sound. I have no WLAN driver or device.

Then,

I went thru each individual device in "device manager" to check for "device working properly" and "conflicts". Only one device showed a conflict and several said there was no driver installed.

The conflict: High Precision Event Timer shows a conflict w' memory range FED0000-FED003FF, which is used by: ACPI x86-based PC. HPET has no driver installed as well.

Other devices with no driver installed are as follows: Intel ICH9 Family SmBUS controller-2930, Direct Memory Access Controller, Intel 82802 Firmware Device Hub, Numeric Data Processor, Programmable Interrupt Controller, System Speaker, System Timer.

I have no clue if these things should have drivers, be disabled, or if the conflict is a problem or not. I'm in over my head!

Does anyone think this could be the problem?

 

Get the appropriate chipset drivers for the motherboard and install them. That should take care of the devices that don't currently have drivers installed. It may help ...

 

I agree with Modey, those disable devices and chpsets are part of the motherboard driver disc. If you do not have the disc then you will have to visit the computer manufacturers site and they should have them on there.

 

Thanks to both of you, someone else suggested the same thing. I haven't had time to determine what those items were for. I do have the driver disk that came w' the system from Dell, hopefully the drivers are on it. I'll check and fix if possible.

I should point out that this OP was posted in several other forums as well. I thought I made that clear in the OP, and subsequent posts, but members of other forums have taken offense to the fact that I seeked help across the internet from other sources than their own.
I apologize if this is unnacceptable. I would think one would search for answers everywhere possible, but that's just me.

Anyway, thanks again for all your help.

 

BURN HIM!!!! Come on, who's with ME!!

 

Right click the Log,
Save Events as (make sure save events as is in txt)
place the file on your thumbdrive
upload here as an attachment

 

I went to Intel's site and installed the chipset drivers they had listed. It did not install drivers to the devices that were missing them. Here is what I've done so far today. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5088295&postcount=27

I'm trying to keep other forum members happy and resolve my issue at the same time. so, I provided a link.

Thanks again.

 

Here are the error logs for the past 24 hours. I included errors, critical and warnings in the report.

Thanks again

 

you need to install or update all of those drivers otherwise you will continue to get errors.

 

http://www.eventid.net/