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The processor is 100% loaded for no apparent reason, it slows down - what to do?

Good day!

I think almost every user, at least with a little experience, faced a similar problem: you work and work at a computer, and then you begin to notice that it somehow slowly reacts to pressing the buttons of the mouse, keyboard, slows down ...

Very often the reason for slow work and brakes is the processor load, sometimes it reaches 100%!

Solving this problem is not always easy, especially since the CPU can be loaded for no apparent reason (i.e., you may not have launched any resource-intensive programs: games, video editors, etc.).

In this article, I'll walk you through the sequence of steps you can take to remove CPU utilization and return your computer to normal performance.

So...

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What to do if the processor is loaded: tips and tricks

The first thing to try is to identify the process or program that is using up the CPU. As happens in most cases: some program (or game) was launched, then the user exited it, and the process with the game remained, which loads the processor ...

By the way!

If the computer slows down, I recommend trying to clean Windows from garbage to speed up its work. The instruction is here: //ocomp.info/kak-pochistit-kompyuter-ot-musora.html

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What process, the program is loaded with the processor

The fastest way to determine which program is using the CPU is to call Task Manager (buttons: Ctrl + Shift + Esc ).

In the task manager, open the tab "Processes" and sort applications by CPU load. In the screenshot below, you can see that the lion's share of the CPU (~ 84%) is consumed by the Firefox browser (although I have not even started it ...).

If you have such a "hidden" program, then you can close it from the task manager (just right-click on it ...).

Windows Task Manager - CPU Usage

Note

Windows has its own resource monitoring, which can also be used to view the load on the processor, memory, disk and network. To call it, press the buttons Win + R , then type in the line "Open" command resmon and press Enter .

Resource Monitor in Windows

Important!

In some cases, the task manager does not allow you to calculate the cause of the processor load. By the way, the processor may be loaded not by 100%, but, say, by 20-50% ...

If the task manager did not give information for thought, I recommend using one utility - Process Explorer (by the way, located on the Microsoft website ...).

Process Explorer (search for the "invisible" cause of the brakes)

Website: //technet.microsoft.com/ru-ru/bb896653.aspx

An excellent program that has helped me out more than once! Its main direction of work is to show you ALL the processes and programs running on the computer (probably no one will leave it ...). This way, you can determine for sure which process is using the CPU.

The screenshot below is very revealing:

  • System idle process Is an indicator in% of system inactivity. Those. in the first half of the screen below - the processor is almost 95% idle (this is how it should be if a couple of programs are open on it: a browser, a player);
  • and on the second part of the screen System idle process is 65%, buthardware interrupts and DPCs as much as 20% (and sometimes even up to 70-80%! It shouldn't be like that. In general, interrupts (these are system interrupts) during normal operation rarely go beyond a few percent! Here is the reason for the brakes and loading of the computer!
  • by the way, the svchosts.exe process very often loads the system. In general, this is a systemic process, but there are a number of viruses that disguise themselves as it and impersonate it. Below we will consider the question of how to catch them ...

Process Explorer: in the first part of the screenshot - everything is fine, in the second - the processor is loaded by ~ 20% with hardware interrupts and DPCs.

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If the CPU loads interrupts

If the problem is related hardware interrupts and DPCs - then most likely the problems are related to the drivers. More precisely, with their conflict between themselves, and even more likely, incompatibility with your Windows OS. Moreover, even if your version of Windows appears in the driver description, this is not a 100% guarantee of compatibility.

Pay special attention to the drivers: video cards, chipset mat. boards, network card, Wi-Fi, sound card. I recommend downloading several versions of them at once and trying them one by one.

Less commonly, the problem is associated with viruses, even less often with peripheral equipment: a printer, scanner, network cards, etc.

Checking and updating drivers

Sometimes it is not as easy to find suitable drivers for a computer / laptop as it seems at first glance ... In general, usually, the new version of the driver works better than the old one (but sometimes it's exactly the opposite). If your CPU load is related tohardware interrupts and DPCs - recommend:

  1. try to install drivers from the official website of your hardware manufacturer. Usually, this requires determining the manufacturer - for this you can use a special. utilities for determining PC characteristics - //ocomp.info/harakteristiki-kompyutera.html;
  2. if you did not find the site or could not identify the manufacturer, you can try using some special. utility for updating drivers: //ocomp.info/update-drivers.html
  3. if during installation there were problems with removing the old driver from the system, I recommend this instruction: //ocomp.info/kak-udalit-drayvera.html

To find out if you have devices on your system for which there are no drivers - open device Manager ... To do this, call the menu "Run" - buttons Win + R, enter devmgmt.msc (example on the screenshot below).

How to start device manager

Next, pay attention to all devices on which an exclamation mark (sometimes a red cross) is lit - it means that there are no drivers for the device in the system.

There is an unknown device

Virus scan

Viruses can be the cause of anything ... Usually, when the processor is loaded due to viruses, you can find some process that loads the system. Most often, this process is systemic: for example, viruses are disguised as a process svchost.exe - even a user with experience can not immediately find and identify among real processes, viral (but this file will be discussed below) ...

By the way, I recommend booting Windows in safe mode - and checking if there is any CPU load (often in safe mode - the processor is working fine!). This can be done in different ways:

  1. In Windows XP, 7: when loading the OS (immediately after turning on the PC), you can press the key several times F8 - a "black" window with a choice of boot options should appear;
  2. in Windows 8, 10: press Win + R , enter the command msconfig ... Further in the section "Loading" select Windows OS and check the box next to "Safe mode" ... Save settings and restart your PC (screenshot below).

How to start safe mode

And already from safe mode, it is advisable to run a virus scan. To do this, you do not need to have an antivirus installed on your computer - there are special utilities that you do not need to install.

Recommend use this article (part 2: about AVZ) - //ocomp.info/esli-antivirus-ne-vidit-virusov.html

Periphery equipment

If the problem has not yet been found, I recommend trying to disconnect everything unnecessary from the laptop (computer): printer, scanner, mouse, etc.

I will also focus on device manager (more precisely, on the drivers). It is possible that for some peripheral equipment drivers are not installed in the system and an exclamation mark is on ...

Pay special attention to old devices that may work in the new Windows OS, but you installed the drivers for them "forcibly" (for example, Windows could warn that there was no signature, and you continued the installation) ...

In general, it is quite difficult to find the true culprit in this case. If the processor does not load in safe mode, I recommend trying to remove the drivers on the peripheral equipment one by one and watch how the load behaves.

To help! How to remove old or unnecessary "firewood" - //ocomp.info/kak-udalit-drayvera.html

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Svchost.exe loads the processor - what is it?

Very often the processor loads the file svchost.exe - at least he says so Task Manager... The fact is that this is the main process for loading services - that is, roughly speaking, the necessary system process, which you cannot do without ...

There are two case options here:

  • viruses are often disguised under this process, and to distinguish real svchost from disguise - even experienced users are not always able to do it;
  • real svchost can load the system (in certain situations).

To begin with, I recommend that you determine if you have any suspicious processes in your system, called svchost .

I also recommend that you read the article on why svchpst.exe loads the processor: //ocomp.info/svchost-exe-gruzit-protsessor.html

How to determine: which svchost.exe file is the system file and which is not?

In my opinion, the easiest way is to use the utility AVZ(description and download link can be found here: //ocomp.info/luchshie-antivirusyi-17.html#AVZ).

When you start it, you need to go to the menu Service / Process Manager (see screenshot below). Next, you will see ALL processes in the system - they need to be sorted by name (this is more convenient, it seems to me ...).

The bottom line is: all system processes that AVZ knows about are marked with green color. Those. if you have on the list svchost black colors - look at them very closely, they are most likely viral.

By the way, with the help of this AVZ, you can analyze all other suspicious processes.

AVZ - process manager

Disable automatic Windows updates

Often svchost overloads the processor due to automatic Windows updates enabled. I propose to disable it (there is nothing wrong with that - just a couple of times a month you will manually check for updates - click 1-2 times with the mouse ...).

First you need to open the tab service ... The fastest way to do this is by clicking a button WIN + R , enter services.msc and press Enter (as in the screenshot below).

How to open services

Further in the list of services, find and open the service named Windows Update ... With the service window open, do two things:

  1. launch type put "Disabled";
  2. and click the Stop button.

Save your settings and restart your computer.

Windows Update

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Is there overheating? Checking the CPU temperature

A possible reason for the processor load may lie in overheating. Moreover, if everything was fine with you before, this does not mean at all that now it cannot start to overheat.

The most common cause of overheating is:

  • dust (especially if the system unit has not been cleaned from it for a long time). Dust forgets the ventilation holes, the air starts to circulate badly in the device case - and the hot air from the processor remains in place, and the temperature starts to rise.
  • The easiest way to get rid of dust is to open the lid of the system unit and blow out the dust with a vacuum cleaner (turning on the reverse mode). With laptops, everything is more complicated - if you have never disassembled it before, I recommend giving it to specialists ...
  • high room temperature ... This usually happens in hot summer weather when the temperature outside the window can rise significantly. In this case, you can open the side cover of the system unit and direct a regular fan towards it. There are special cooling pads for the laptop on sale.
  • broken cooler (or it could also get clogged with dust). Here the advice is simple: replace or clean.

To help!

I recommend that you read the article on cleaning your computer from dust - //ocomp.info/kak-pochistit-kompyuter-ot-pyili.html

Signs by which you can suspect overheating:

  1. the computer (laptop) starts to freeze, a blue screen may appear, a sudden restart or shutdown;
  2. strong hum of the cooler - this is especially noticeable in laptops. Your hand, if you get closer to the left side (where, usually, laptops have ventilation holes), you can also feel the hot air coming out, sometimes it does not even tolerate it его.
  3. crash of various applications with errors.

To find out the temperature of the processor, I recommend using some utility to determine the characteristics of the PC. For example, I like the Speccy and Aida 64. You can see a screenshot of the processor temperature from the Speccy below (t = 49 ° C, degrees Celsius).

Utilities for viewing computer characteristics - //ocomp.info/harakteristiki-kompyutera.html#_1

CPU temperature

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What should be the temperature of the processor?

A very popular question that cannot be answered unequivocally. The fact is that different manufacturers have different critical temperatures.

Supplement from 1.10.19.

Intel processor temperature: how to find it; which is considered normal and which is overheating - //ocomp.info/temperatura-protsessora-intel.html

For personal computer

In general, the ideal option is to look at the model of your processor and open the manufacturer's website: critical temperatures are always indicated on it.

Generally speaking, if the temperature of your processor is up to 40 ° C (degrees Celsius), then everything is in order with it, the cooling system is coping. Temperatures above 50 ° C - May indicate a problem with the cooling system (or a lot of dust). Anything above 60 degrees must be carefully examined and measures must be taken: clean it from dust, install additional coolers (or replace old ones).

For laptop

As for laptops, here the bar is somewhat different. Since the space in the laptop is limited, the processors here heat up higher. For example, it is not uncommon for many processors to operate at a load temperature of about 70-80 ° C (especially for gaming models).

When idle, as a rule, this bar is about 40-50 ° C. In general, it is worth starting to worry (for most modern laptops) if the processor temperature rises above 75-80 ° C (at least check if this is normal for your device).

Most often, such high temperatures are reached when running games, editors, and other heavy applications.

By the way, many experienced users (and some experts) echo the critical 105 ° C for modern laptops. I will say this, a laptop can and will work at 90-95 ° C, and even, perhaps, at 100 ° C - but the main question is: how much? In general, this topic is debatable for many ...

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PS

One last tip. Sometimes finding and eliminating the reasons for the high load on the processor and computer brakes is a rather tedious and difficult task.

In such cases, I recommend trying some LiveCD disks with different operating systems, or replacing your Windows 7 with, say, a newer Windows 8/10 - the problem can be solved with just a 10-minute OS reinstallation ...

Well, that's all for me.

Good luck!

First publication: 22.12.2016

Correction: 1.10.2019

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