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XP 100% CPU on Login, by random processes

I have a serious issue on my Windexs XP machine.

When I start it up it takes ages to login, then when I bring up task manager I find that its running at 100% CPU However, the process taking the CU are random (and there are usualy about 4 of them). They change a bit, but the CPU never drops below 100% at all.

I have to hit the reset button and try boot again to resolve the issue, usually it takes two or three times to get a login without the problem, and then I just put the machine in standby mode when I'm not using it.

I can't remember when this started happening, but its deffo more than a year ago.

Its not just services though ... Things like NetMeter or TaskbarShuffle take up the CPU ... Then whenever I kill the processes, the CPU doesn't drop below 100% for even a second as some other random process takes the CPU.

I know its not a virus ... What could it be ? Driver issue ?

Any suggested paths for resolution would be appreciated.

Cheers, Ro

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How do you know its not a virus? Sounds like pretty suspicious behavior to me. – heavyd Feb 24 '10 at 13:33
I know you've given a couple of examples of the offending processes, but can you list more? There might be a pattern. – ChrisF Feb 24 '10 at 13:46
Try Soluto to see what's running when booting ;-) – Ivo Flipse♦ Jun 28 '10 at 10:00

marked as duplicate by Dennis Williamson, Ivo Flipse♦ Jun 28 '10 at 10:00

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1 Answer

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The first step is to install Process Explorer (Sysinternals) in order to gather more information.

For instance it has a hierarchical view of processes (which process started a given process, all the way back to System and explorer.exe)

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I've just Run Hijack This and Identified some Services that are perhaps unnecessary. Will update my Video drivers also to see if they are the issue – Ro. Feb 24 '10 at 13:36
@Ro: for information on which services can safely be eliminated I can recommend Black Viper, e.g. blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm – Peter Mortensen Feb 24 '10 at 13:44

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