Help! CPU @ 100%!

[1QWIK6]

I have a Pent 4 with 2 gig ram & 550W power supply.

The computer has been acting sluggish lately. I havn't added anything lately. One day I turned the computer on and the start-up motherboard screen said "OVERCLOCKING FAILED". I didn't overclocking anything.

I rebooted and the windows xp opened fine. But there was a key press delay and screens were really sluggish. I did the CTRL-ALT-DEL and saw my CPU useage at anywhere from 2%-100%!

I reinstalled Windows XP, but the problem is still there.

Please look at the attached pictures. What is slowing my computer?

 

[SGRIM]

Sounds like a virus But if you did a fresh install it shouldn't be there. Maybe a bad motherboard....

 

[Jbenn911]

Look at the processes and sort them by CPU load, and see which one pops up, might want to checkm your BIOS and see if either your vid card or cpu was overclocked somehow..Do you have a gaming card, is that why you have the 550w PSU ?? Also, just for kicks, check your HDD space remaining..if you are low for whatever reason, you will load up the machine..I dont see anything in those pics that show why you are going to 100%..also was it a "clean" reinstall of XP or just overtop of what you had ?

edit: Agreed on virus too! Bring it up in safe mode, after you check the BIOS settings and do a scan

 

[1QWIK6]

Look at the processes and sort them by CPU load, and see which one pops up, might want to checkm your BIOS and see if either your vid card or cpu was overclocked somehow..Do you have a gaming card, is that why you have the 550w PSU ?? Also, just for kicks, check your HDD space remaining..if you are low for whatever reason, you will load up the machine..I dont see anything in those pics that show why you are going to 100%..also was it a "clean" reinstall of XP or just overtop of what you had ?

edit: Agreed on virus too! Bring it up in safe mode, after you check the BIOS settings and do a scan

I ran 3 virus checks.

Norton (updated w/latest updates)
SPY-BOT (updated)
AD-Aware (updated)
And I use Comodo Firewall.

I checked the BIOS and no overclocking on MotherBoard. No OC on videocard.

Yes I am running a 9800PRO video card for gaming.

I have 47% HD space left on my 200G HD. I also ran the disk defrager too. No change.

No, It wasn't a "clean" install. I just reinstalled XP over what I had.

 

[SouthernCal GN]

I'd get an external HDD, back up all your data, reformat your onboard HDD, and then do a fresh install. Go into the BIOS and set all parameters to "default".

Before you reinstall your data, check it a dozen times for trojans/viruses, etc.

 

[xrunner123]

It should be easy to find if your cpu is pegged. Just sort by load and find the culprit.

Use TaskList.org - List of Windows Proccesses and Descriptions to help identify what it is and make sure that the processes running are supposed to be there and not some trojan.

 

[hmz029997]

It is spyware.