Hello chaps, I'm posting from Australia, down under. See here's the deal: I brought a new setup about 3 weeks ago, and in about 2 days of owning the system, it started to boot with 80% - 90% CPU usage. Not knowing this is a large subject to deal with, I spent weeks browsing the internet for similar problems, there were too many. None of them fitted my symptom criteria exactly. Since that 3rd day, I formatted "Whinedows" again with the same version (XP Home, Legal) and the problem soon arose in about the same time frame as last time. After taking the Harddrive, CPU, Motherboard, RAM, GFX card in for a test at the shop I brought all the components from, everything seemed to be fine and running well, they even swapped me out a PSU unit, although the problem still existed What twists this sad story is the fact that I can SOMETIMES start the computer alright, and have a wizzy little X2. This mostly happens in the morning after I switch the computer on at the wall (for about 5 minutes earthed), then boot up, but as soon as I power down/Restart... The CPU winds up and Process Explorer shows epic amounts of Hardware Interrupts-11. The measurement of this is usually at 80-100, compensating for any small programs that may be started in the background. Another thing that is odd is that I have also had it boot with 40%-50% hardware interrupts. I own an ASUS A3M Mobo'which I have updated the BIOS on. The XFX GT8600 is up to scratch (drivers) AMD Cool 'n Quiet is fine The LAN/Ethernet connection works on the Chipset The Sound is fine (onboard) Western Digital 80GB (tested fine at shop) Kingston 800mhz 1GB x 2 (tested fine) 400Watt PSU (more than enough power to run such a simple system) I have malwared the computer several times during both Windows installs, everything turned out inconclusive. The temps of the Graphics card stay around 56~ at Idle, and 74~ - 79~ playing "Race 07" full tilt boogie. The Motherboard is at 31~ constantly where the CPU runs about 40~ (right now, under 100 usage) I have, however, tested a pair of Samsung 667mhz 1GB sticks in the computer, and under the first try the CPU usage dropped till normal, the next boot, it jumped up again. I do recall one time fiddling with all the hardware after having a massive CPU load, then booting back up after taking everything out and putting it all back, to have the CPU register at normal. Then only yesterday I tried this again, with no such luck. What is significant that has happened this morning is that I turned the computer on, CPU usage was at ~40%, so I shut down. After booting up straight away (2 seconds or so wait) I could hear the CPU fan pickup like a cammed up 351ci. During this, the power circuit wasn't interrupted by a powerdown (static) or anything. This is where I think it's getting a tad bit too confusing and far out of my reach. I'm on summer holidays over here now, and this was my Christmas gift which I placed some money towards. I still have a few weaks to diagnose the problem further with you tech chaps, which I will be largely greatful for any input. - Having said all that, I do not believe this is a Hardware problem, it is far deeper, and my warranty has "used up" everything that I brought that was under warranty has been tested and passed - I look forward to hearing from you all, if there is something I have missed or you would like to question more about my system and what things I have tried, please just ask. I am more than willing to receive help from anyone in this forum, and I'd rather you all were as educated as I could get you with my system details. Look forward to discussion!

I would also like to add that if I standby my computer when the CPU load is at ~0%, it will come back to life (under a keystroke/mouse movement) at ~0% also. Process Explorer is the program I have been using to determine what has been loading the CPU, Hardware Interrupts is the only process worth of mentioning.

I would like to add further, that today when I shut it down from 100% load, and I unplugged it from the wall socket, plugged it back in, and waited a few seconds, then booted up, the CPU usage was perfect, back to 0%. For now I'm just going to keep it in hibernation/standby until we get somewhere with it. Just keeping all details up to date, Instigator.

Actually this is not a CPU problem par-se and really belongs in the Hardware or XP Forum as your CPU is obviously working fine.....

Ah, well that's where my uncertainty has brought me. Could this please be moved to where ever is appropriate. It's definitely something unusual as it decides it's path directly at bootup. Thank you.

Start by not using Standby or Hibernate...they are power saving features meant for latptops/notebooks & should not be used on desktop machines. Did you hit Ctrl-Alt-Del > Processes tab to see which program(s) is hogging the CPU useage? Is this ar etail version of XP or a "restore CD"? Have you run MSCONFIG from the start menu to disable any useless/unnecessary programs from loading at startup? http://www.netsquirrel.com/msconfig/

I've just started using standby to preserve the CPU load at a 0% boot, because it's that unpredictable on a genuine startup to jump the CPU load back to 100. The task manager is useless to this issue, it assumes that System Idle is running all of the CPU in the PROCESSES tab (normal), when clearly if it was there would be no full graph in the PERFORMANCE tab, when sadly there is. Process Explorer (as said above) details all the CPU usage is going to Hardware Interrupts-11 (the only process at any stage when CPU is under 40/80/100% load). I have also removed all unnecessary hardware/updated all drivers and tried pretty much all other recommendations I have found on similar threads, but no luck. That is why I have posted here. I have also malware scanned extensively, and about msconfig, I have tried booting in a diagnostic mode with the most necessary processes at boot up, and it has proven to be no different. This is a fairly fresh install of XP, so there isn't much crap on it.... Yet =P Thank you for your interest so far.