Massive CPU usage/spikes even when Idle.

**Alkarin** · June 19, 2012, 03:42 AM

Hey I've had an issue the last couple months of just massive CPU Usage and spikes even when say just browsing the internet or surfing through some desktop files. Theres nothing massive running in my processes and all of that so I'm not sure what the problem is or how to fix it. I'm running Windows 7 and I've surfed the internet a bit for a solution and lots of people have been asking about it but I haven't seen any other answer than "yeah me too" So if anyone could help me pin point the problem that would be great. Thanks

**Akaie** · June 19, 2012, 05:25 AM

When you say "there's nothing massive running in my process", do you mean you've been monitoring the CPU usage at the time of the spikes? Use resource monitor (it comes with Windows 7) to pin-point which process(es) are creating the CPU spikes.

Under the CPU tab will be a list of processes. The last column - Average CPU - will show you what process is spiking the CPU.

**Bolkonsky** · June 19, 2012, 06:55 AM

This sounds like the nefarious "System Idle Process"

What's your antivirus, by the way?

**Taiji** · June 21, 2012, 06:58 AM

Sounds to me like using a PC. Is there a problem?

**paradamed** · June 21, 2012, 10:36 AM

Some mouses can cause spikes when clicking if you increase the polling rate too much (1000Hz). That is all I can think of.

**Alkarin** · June 24, 2012, 04:53 AM

According to resource manager it seems to be coming from Google Chrome which is odd, because I never had this issue before, and deleting my cookies and cache hasn't seemed to help and also its from system interrupts.

**PoleCat** · June 24, 2012, 08:18 AM

Originally Posted by Alkarin

According to resource manager it seems to be coming from Google Chrome which is odd, because I never had this issue before, and deleting my cookies and cache hasn't seemed to help and also its from system interrupts.

Open both your Processes tab and your Resource Monitor side-by-side, take a screenshot and post it here. That will cut out a lot of the guesswork on this end. Good luck!

**Alkarin** · June 29, 2012, 08:52 AM

If you can see before I opened up MSpaint and such I had CPU usage around 20% on average there in that side graph.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**irishron** · June 29, 2012, 09:21 AM

What is Chrome doing in the background? Just in the screenshot, it has five processes going and using over 150mb of ram by itself.

**Alkarin** · June 29, 2012, 07:12 PM

A couple youtube tabs, TWC tabs and some reddit tabs is the usual

**PoleCat** · June 29, 2012, 07:49 PM

Alkarin - could you do us a favor and count the number of [old_chrome.exe] instances that are running in your process tab at any given moment? Try it two times - once with Chrome open and another with Chrome off.

I count six in your screengrab and that doesn't even cover what may be down the list beyond our sight. And this also seems to show IE open at the same time. Do you use both browsers at once? Something seems off there. What version of Chrome are you using? Good luck!

EDIT: Whoops. What this guy said:

Originally Posted by irishron

What is Chrome doing in the background? Just in the screenshot, it has five processes going and using over 150mb of ram by itself.

**irishron** · June 29, 2012, 08:06 PM

This is why my background noise is at a minimum. IE is not even running while gaming.

**PoleCat** · June 29, 2012, 08:37 PM

Originally Posted by irishron

This is why my background noise is at a minimum. IE is not even running while gaming.

You and me both. But can you answer a simple question regarding IE as I don't use it - how many instances in Processes are open at any given time no matter the amount of pages or tabs you have open? Good luck!

**irishron** · June 29, 2012, 09:09 PM

I normally only have one tab open. A second tab open when I'm doing some research and using both for referencing. A third tab sometimes gets opened by a website that I am researching. I only get to four tabs open about once every six months.

Attatched is what I'm running right now.

**Alkarin** · June 30, 2012, 10:29 AM

No I never use IE. But I did notice once I exited out of Google Chrome the explorer.exe starts taking up a lot of processing power and I looked it up and it may be infefted, since when explorer.exe is infected it causes CPU issues. Not sure on how to fix it though.

**irishron** · June 30, 2012, 11:35 AM

IE is built into Windows API whether we like it or not. Is it running in the background short of unplugging my modem? Odds are it is but I haven't checked it.

Post a pic of its processes and I'll match it against mine.

**Timefool** · June 30, 2012, 12:25 PM

IE and explorer.exe are not the same. explorer.exe is basically the UI for windows with the task bar and desktop icons and is a common target for viruses and trojans because Windows could launch the infected one instead of the real one.

**PoleCat** · June 30, 2012, 10:40 PM

Originally Posted by Timefool

IE and explorer.exe are not the same. explorer.exe is basically the UI for windows with the task bar and desktop icons and is a common target for viruses and trojans because Windows could launch the infected one instead of the real one.

Absolutely right. I was wrong to bring IE into this - damn my poor eyesight.

Alkarin - You should not have five processes labeled [old_chrome.exe] on that system. Chrome should run under [Chrome.exe]. I don't use Chrome so I can't say for certain but it may be artifacts from the Chrome updater or something more malicious. I found either/or/both in my quick search.

Do yourself a favor - navigate to your Chrome folder and delete any instances of [old_chrome.exe]. Afterwards check your Processes tab in Task manager to see if these processes still crop up after deleting the file in question. If you still see those processes then you may have something else at play. Good luck!

**irishron** · June 30, 2012, 01:17 PM

explorer.exe with browser closed = 24,00kb, IE open = 23,700kb

Right now, IE has ttwo processes open, 8,376kb and 183,552kb.

Some have had to close explorer.exe to get certain programs, usually games, to work in the past.

**Timefool** · June 30, 2012, 11:08 PM

You can see what all the Chrome processes are by going to the menu and then clicking View Backgroung Programs. The reason there are so many processes running is because the browser has its own process, each tab has its own process, each add-on (like ad-block) has its own process, every non-html part of a website (like Flash or Java) has its own process, and then there is the gpu process (I don't know what it does and closing it doesn't seem to mess anything up).