help please someone, 100% cpu usage all the time, can someone tell me how to find out whats wrong before i throw this comp out the window !!!

go to start>run>msconfig>startup>and uncheck everything. then reboot and see if it happens. you probably got allota adware and spyware on that comp from many years of internet usage.

AMD Athlon XP *barton* 3200+
Asus A7N8X-X
Kingston PC3200 512 DDR
ATI Radeon 9600SE
40 GIG Western Digital 7200 RPM
20 GIG Maxtor 5400 RPM
X-Dreamer II

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or u can press crt alt del and click processes and see which programs are using your CPU and then find out if its a virus or not

here a task manager programs list, look up the ones that are using the cpu
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

Asus A7N8X Deluxe 2.0
ATI 9800 Pro
AMD Barton 2500+
1024 PC3200 Ram
120gig Maxtor HD
Audigy 2
420 watt psu

The main cause I have found is actually a problem with the way explorer handles avi files! Let me explain a bit, it you have an incomplete avi file, or a damaged avi file, explorer will read it frame by frame to determine it's properties (such as video size, length etc..)
You can confirm this by starting the task manager next time it happens, I know it will takes ages to open but be patient! if you see that explorer.exe is the process using all your CPU do the following:

1. Open up regedit
2. Goto HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler
3. Delete the "Default" value which should be "{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}"

After restarting the problem should be solved. **note** You won't have any video properties any more if you right-click and avi file, but I'm sure you never use it!

If the process is not explorer.exe then there are a few other problems that could cause the same symptoms. Some people suggest that the print spooler of all things was the cause!

You could also have a keyboard issue, some logitech keyboards have some driver issues which can cause the 100% cpu usage. Also physical damage could case the problem (which could mean continuous interrupt requests and hence 100% CPU utilisation)

keep us posted

i am also having a problem w/cpu usage its at 100% also i dont have any viruses or spyware on this computer (win 98) HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations
isn't there , In my reg. the computer is a 266 fake p2 (top mount bracket cpu, not socket) forget the name ,any who. Any other sugestions on this problem would be apreciated!!! thnx mustard