CPU usage running at 50% or more even at idle

I

Iowabucks

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 22, 2008
Messages
186
Hey everyone, I have a fairly new computer I built with these specs.

Asus P8 Z77-V Pro
Intel Core I5-2500K 3.30 GHz running at 4.33GHz right now. The OC is very stable.
Asus GTX 670
16GB Corsair Vengence DDR3 2133
Crucial M4 512 GB SSD
Win7 64bit OS

This computer was built mainly for gaming, but I have noticed BF4 crashing lately and found a lot of processes running, (over 100) and my CPU usage going from 0 to 5% at startup and then jumping to 50% or more later on. It then stays about 45 to 50% CPU usage even at idle.
I know most will say shut down processes in Windows Task Manager until you find the one hogging all the CPU cycles, but i've tried that without any luck. The computer runs fine so maybe i'm blowing this all out of proportion. But my CPU usage is always around 50% and nobody else i have compared it to has CPU usage of over 8% at idle.

Malware Bytes and MSE did find a Trojan or two last week but it tests clean now.

Does that amount of CPU usage sound normal and what can i do to figure out what is using it all?
 
that's a lot of processes running.
Checking mine (which was up for ~2 days and my daughters been watching monster high and Barbie videos on it) is only showing 63 processes and 4% cpu (Amd 8150)
I had a customer Friday that had high 90 process running, after I did the usual cleanup of 'coupon toolbar printer apps" it was back to 58 process and 8% cpu (E8400)
 
I try my best to keep my system clean and not download any unwanted "crap", but after time, it does build up a little.

Any other opinions?

I have a monthly routine of

CCleaner
Malware Bytes Pro scan
Microsoft MSE scan
 
you likely have an "infection" or corrupted process. Clean install is drastic, it does however have a very high rate of success.
 
Iowabucks said:
I try my best to keep my system clean and not download any unwanted "crap", but after time, it does build up a little.

Any other opinions?

I have a monthly routine of

CCleaner
Malware Bytes Pro scan
Microsoft MSE scan
Click to expand...

If you're running into issues often enough that you've got a routine of scanning for bugs, it may be a good idea for you to look into using virtual machines for your internetting

Build a VM and run Linux in it. Snapshot a nice clean updated instance and then if you're even remotely unsure of its status, you can just roll back to the snapshot and keep rockin' n' rollin' to midgets in iron tubs full of crank case drippings from a 1956 Chevelle while reading Gun's n' Ammo! :D
 
MSE might be be stuck monitoring its own program folder. That would cause it to constantly be using cpu 50%+ cpu resources. I've had two employees that had that issue. Check by either removing MSE or setting it to not scan its own program folder and reboot. If that's the case uninstall and reinstall MSE or leave its own program folder out of monitoring. Hope that helps.
 
I have only these two files excluded from the scan.
C:\Program Files
C:\Program Files (x86)
Wouldn't I want those folders scanned? Not sure how these two were put in there.

So would I rather want to exclude, C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client and C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Security Client?
 
In the task manager make sure the check box at the bottom is checked to show processes of all users. And scan everything including program files to be safe.
 
Iowabucks said:
I have only these two files excluded from the scan.
C:\Program Files
C:\Program Files (x86)
Wouldn't I want those folders scanned? Not sure how these two were put in there.

So would I rather want to exclude, C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client and C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Security Client?
Click to expand...

Definitely don't exclude the entire "Program Files" directories. Since you're running x64, the MSE folder in "Program Files" is the one you'd want to exclude. If you want to be extra safe, you could just exclude the main MSE executables -- msseces.exe and MsMpEng.exe.
 
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