Very high cpu usage on start-up?

Question

What causes a high cpu usage at start up? Just about 20 minutes ago, Windows 7 restarted my laptop so it could install some updates. When it finished its business, my cpu meter was up between 50% and 100% for the 20 minutes and is now back to its low percentage.

l was getting so worried because l thought something was wrong! [silly me..] But my question is: what causes very high cpu usage after start up/reboot? What happens inside the laptop after having a window's update reboot?

l have a 6 month old HP dv7-3165 dx, if that helps any.

Answer 1

there may be too many programs trying to load at start up

try the CCleaner to reduce them

Answer 2

Basically during a Windows update your computer is essentially installing new or upgrading old software that windows uses to run or protect your computer. When you install soemthing your cpu will always run on higher loads than when your doing nothing. When you reboot your computer after an update the blue window with the updating percent installs the software and once it gets to desktop there maybe still some other components running to complete the installation. Also whenever you boot your computer the CPU will always run at a very high load, this is because its starting up all the programs you installed to run at startup as well as windows, once the programs are opened and running the CPU doesnt need to "work" that hard anymore hence the cpu load lowers again. Also you will notice once the CPU meter is low again the RAM meter is higher this is because once the programs are booted up and running in the background the RAM takes over to store the memory the program is using.

Answer 3

A high CPU usage at the start up for about 5 minutes is normal.. However, if it takes 20 minutes there could be only two reasons:



1) You have a large number of start up programs.. Since all of them just rush to load themselves up, it clogs the CPU.. Imagine 50 people trying to enter into a door at the same time! You must remove some programs from the start up.

2) There is something scheduled to run in the start up which uses a lot of CPU resources. It could be a start up scan from your antivirus, a failed scheduled task, a login script or anything..



First find out what exact process is using 100% CPU.. It is easy to troubleshoot when you find out which one is clogging the CPU. You can check it very easily in the 'Processes' tab of task manager.

Answer 4

The CPU is increasing output because the laptop is asking it to install software, so as the system installs the software it uses up the CPU. Once the update is complete and the system is idle, the range goes back to normal limits. Not to mention all the startup programs that need to load, and the drivers as well, those eat CPU power.

Answer 5

OK once your updates have been installed your laptop reboots to save them settings to a place called your registry ( A database on your Hard drive that stores all accounts, passwords, configurations, everthing!)



here are steps of what happens when a latop OR PC starts up:

POST (Power on self test) checks the power, bios settings and other basic settings.

NTLOADER ( loads your operating system

NTDETECT ( detcts all hardware and prepares it for cummincation with the operating system)

BOOT INI. ( the menu for a list of operating systems to choose from + boot options e.g. safe mode etc)

Then Windows loads your account, all the background services, applications on startup and much more.

all the above take CPU processing power at startup. your CPU was high on startup with all this and with the addition of the updates being configured aswell just before you log back in. this is why once they were configured and all services and apps were up and running your CPU slowed down! nothing at all to worry about!

if you need any other advice email me on [e-mail] and I would love to help you! :)