CPU hitting 100%

[lans83]

For some reason, my system keeps bogging down and the cpu keeps tapping out at 100% both in and out of playing WoW. I can just be surfing the net and it happens. I've run my windows updater, nothing is available, ran Spybot and AVG antivirus and found nothing. Windows updater is set to check at 9am, problem never happens then, while playing WoW, I turn off both Spybot and AVG to cut down on cpu/ram usage, while surfing, I turn them back out once I'm done playing. Happens either way, so I can rule them out. If anyone has any ideas, please post some suggestions. Specs for my laptop are in the link in my sig, if you need any system info, I've heard of software programs I can run then post to detect the problem, but can't remember the names. This is a reoccurring problem, times are different when it happens, and I can't do anything when it happens. FPS in WoW drop to 1.2 and stay low till it stops, sometimes slaves in background will stay within the 10-15fps bracket, but main suffers more. Could this be the CPU overheating perhaps? I have it sitting on a really good laptop cooler that stays cool (it's made of metal with two fans set at max). I'm pretty sure that just websurfing wouldn't cause the temp to spike too high, so I'm not sure that's the cause either. Thank you for any input.

[Freddie]

I would suggest that you look at TaskManager to see which process is consuming all those CPU cycles.

To do this, press Ctrl-Alt-Del, click the Processes tab, click "CPU," and look at the table to see which image name is at high end of the list.

[Fursphere]

EDIT: Nvm, Freddie beat me too it.

[GS4Clagg]

I have this same problem. I have checked processes and find that it is the explorer.exe process. One day I did the ole "end process". Well it shut down my desktop but wow sure did run better. I'm not sure the consequences of doing this so I wouldn't recommend it. I'm okay with it at this point. To get back desktop I have to restart computer via alt cntrl del.

[Freddie]

It would be better, if you can, to figure out what Explorer is doing and make it stop doing that particular thing.

[Maxion]

yeah, cause explorer.exe is basically your windows.

[jstanthr]

make sure under the performance tab, that you have "search" or "file indexing" turned off. and all of the "pretty" features in ur GUI, those are the shadow apps that eat up usage in explorer.exe. and i would also reccomend taking all the acer installed crap off of that laptop. as far as virus protection goes, i use and reccomend panda's new "cloud" antivirus, its free, and is hosted on their servers, some viruses actually mess with your installed stand alone virus scanning apps to hide themselves, but id say your cpu usage is directly related to file indexing. and you do have your wow folders symlinked correct? if your running out of one folder, a c2d has a few problems with that, (i use to run a duo b4 i went to multiple pc's)

[lans83]

Pretty much cleaned out all the nonsense crap once I got my laptop last summer, but only recently been dealing with this problem. here's a screenshot of my task manager on average of whats running, minus the 4xWoW windows and Keyclone. Every time I manage to open this when it bogs down, the only things that top the list on the Processes section is either my main WoW window which averages around 600k, TeaTimer.exe, or Firefox. I clicked on the Performance tab and it won't let me turn off Search or File Indexing. How else can I go about turning this off? And yes, I do have my 3 slaves symlinked from my main folder. I redo the symlinked folders (delete old ones and resymlink) after every patch to make sure they'll work without any problems. But again, this has happened a few times when I haven't even started the game up after turning on my computer. Keyclone also has my main linked to the first core and 3 slaves on core two on my dual-core. Anyway, here's that ss:

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/777/taskmanager.jpg

[Freddie]

...here's a screenshot of my task manager on average of whats running, minus the 4xWoW windows and Keyclone. Every time I manage to open this when it bogs down, the only things that top the list on the Processes section is either my main WoW window which averages around 600k, TeaTimer.exe, or Firefox.
You need to take this screenshot while the problem is happening. You need to look for the highest CPU usage. That number appears in the column called CPU. The number is a percentage.. It doesn't end with "K".

L:ike I said above, you should click on "CPU" at the head of the CPU column. This will reorder the list by CPU usage.

[lans83]

ok, ty, i didn't think about that. I just popped the hatch off my laptop to reveal the innards to if it was clogged with dust. wasn't bad on the inside, but the fan had a few thick chunks in it. dumass me forgot to clean it out periodically, so hopefully that solved the problem. might just've been overheating, but only time will tell. If this does happen again, I'll definitely try to grab a snapshot of it.