Why is my CPU usage so high?

Question

Hi guys, I have a 4 month old laptop with 4.00 GB of RAM, Intel core duo processor. My laptop's rating for windows experience index is 5.2. When I installed Norton's internet security, I noticed that my CPU system usage was always low. That was normal. I do not download any harmful material from the internet, and after a month from installation of Nortons, I noticed that on Norton's Internet Security, my CPU system usage was up at 100%! Before it only used to be less than 25%. I do not know what's wrong with my laptop, but I do know that I shouldnt be experiencing a slow computer when I have 4.00 GB of RAM. I watched the computer performance on Task manager, and sometimes it spikes up to 100%. When that happens, everything lags. I really hope you have suggestions if you're reading this. This laptop costed me an arm and a leg. I ran a full system scan, ran disk clean up, and defraged the computer. I still get high CPU usage at times.

Answer 1

Uninstall Norton.Problem solved.

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039



Use an A/V program that just concentrates on keeping viruses and trojans and malware off your PC.

AVG AVAST AVIRA

Norton does all kinds of weird unneeded things that slow your PC to a crawl.

Answer 2

When you are experiencing high CPU usage, some program is running in the background. It may be a AV system scan, or the indexing service, or another program.

Scan for viruses and malware, use Malwarebytes in addition to Norton. It will find things Norton won't find.

When you see the CPU spike on Task Manager, click the CPU tab in Processes to see what process is using the CPU cycles. If it's unfamiliar, google the process to see what it is. You can end the process and see if your usage drops.

Answer 3

It seems as though Norton always fills your computer with updates about nothing. My suggestion? If you can re-install Norton later, then uninstall it. See if this solves it. If so, install something like Symantec or anything else. If not, reinstall.



Also, is it doing a virus scan every 15 minutes? If it frequently does scans then its likely to slow down your computer, no matter how much RAM or how good of a processor it has.

Answer 4

First of all, make sure you're not running any programs in the background that you shouldn't be running or that you closed. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del, open task manager and under processes, see what the highest "Memory" number is. Look at the name, this will tell you what program is using the most resources on your computer. Next, make sure your laptop running vista meets the proper requirements. Vista MINIMUM requirements are 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor and 512 MB of RAM. This is half a gig of ram. Remember that these are minimum requirements and thus, you will witness vista run at the minimum required speed. Also, check for spyware that could be running in the background. Google "Ad-Aware" or "Spybot S & D" and download one of these. Run a scan. Also if you take my above mentioned advice, please take this advice: Take an extra 30-seconds and formulate your questions in proper sentences. Look at your question. It looks like it was written either by a toddler or a chinese speaking person. You don't use capital letters, instead of periods you have running dots "..." and you separate sentences by using the enter key, which means a new line. Why is this significant? Look at the answers you received other than mine. They're all written in a second and don't solve your problem. (At least when I began writing this.)

Answer 5

in order to check for what is causing your high CPU usage, go to Windows Task Manager and select the Processes tab and then click the CPU header 2 times and it will bring the process with the most CPU usage to the top. a lot of the time it can be System Idle Process or whenever you security software does a scan it takes a lot of CPU usage. i hope this helps.

Answer 6

Get rid of Norton, it is a terrible memory hog. Use AVG free