3 year old desktop high cpu usage.

[Tophat]

Hi guys, Im the guy with the watery laptop
I've had my desktop pc for about 3 years now and it has become really slow all of a sudden.
i7 2600
6gb RAM
In games I have been getting under 40 fps and really bad stuttering and crashing problems. My ram usage and cpu usage was at 100% in task manager too even at idle and my GPU was not getting to it's max clock speed.
Any ideas as to what might be causing this?
I keep the PC dust free too.
Thanks.

 

[TheGeeza]

100% usage certainly isn't normal at idle for the 2600 and 6gb or ram.
I would suggest running a virus scan a couple of times to see if there is anything running in the background that might be hogging resources. In processes can you see anything that you don't recognize?
As for your GPU not clocking up high, that is likely due to thermal throttling as your cpu and ram are running both maxed out.

 

[Jamed]

The 2600 is old now so it will probably run at that usage while playing games.
Are you sure you are running the right amount of ram? I though it was supposed to be 2 4 8 16 32 64.

 

[TheGeeza]

The 2600 is old now so it will probably run at that usage while playing games.
Are you sure you are running the right amount of ram? I though it was supposed to be 2 4 8 16 32 64.

RAM can be pretty much any configuration. 2,3,4,5,6,8 stick set-ups. Some just tend to be more stable than others.
It can be 2 4 6 8 12 16 24 32 48 64 and so on.

 

[Tophat]

100% usage certainly isn't normal at idle for the 2600 and 6gb or ram.
I would suggest running a virus scan a couple of times to see if there is anything running in the background that might be hogging resources. In processes can you see anything that you don't recognize?
As for your GPU not clocking up high, that is likely due to thermal throttling as your cpu and ram are running both maxed out.

Thanks for the reply.
Just did a scan with avast and malwarebytes and they found nothing. Anything else you would suggest doing?

I saw a few things I didnt recognize in processes.
Conhost.exe
Winlogon
CAHS

 

[TheGeeza]

Try doing the same except this time in safe mode.
When the machine is starting up press f8 just after the bios flash screen. That will give you advanced boot options. From there select safe mode.
This will load windows with only key drivers and services.

I saw a few things I didnt recognize in processes.
Conhost.exe
Winlogon
CAHS

Conhost and winlogon are normal windows services.
CAHS is corsair software. Do you own a corsair headset?

 

[Tophat]

Try doing the same except this time in safe mode.
When the machine is starting up press f8 just after the bios flash screen. That will give you advanced boot options. From there select safe mode.
This will load windows with only key drivers and services.



Conhost and winlogon are normal windows services.
CAHS is corsair software. Do you own a corsair headset?

Did what you said and it's all sorted now.
In safe mode malwarebytes found 81 objects and avast found 3 things too. I'm guessing that is bad
Anyway, I've booted the computer into windows now and everything seems back to normal. 10% CPU usage with a browser, steam and music on and 2.6GB of RAM used. Games are running great again too.
Thanks!
PS. I have the corsair 1500s.

 

[PokerFace]

I would suggest running a virus scan a couple of times to see if there is anything running in the background that might be hogging resources.

Just did a scan with avast and malwarebytes and they found nothing.

Try doing the same except this time in safe mode.

Did what you said and it's all sorted now.
In safe mode malwarebytes found 81 objects and avast found 3 things too. I'm guessing that is bad
Anyway, I've booted the computer into windows now and everything seems back to normal. 10% CPU usage with a browser, steam and music on and 2.6GB of RAM used. Games are running great again too.
Thanks!

So how does that work? Does it mean we should always do the scans in Safe Mode?

Have some rep Geeza.

 

[TheGeeza]

So how does that work? Does it mean we should always do the scans in Safe Mode?

Have some rep Geeza.

Scanning in safe mode will prevent the virus or whatever has infected the system from loading up anything that may stop the scanner from detecting it.
Most of the time it's not necessary as most antiviruses will detect any suspicious software and stop it from preventing detection straight away. I still try to do it in safe mode once in a while just to be safe anyway.

Thanks for the rep btw

 

[PokerFace]

No probs That was some good advice.

Hey Geeza, we both have 2247 reps! Weird!