Solving problems with unreasonable CPU load. Why is the CPU busy and how can I reduce CPU usage? Why is the CPU always 100 what to do

Good day!

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

Very often the reason for slow operation 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., perhaps you did not run any resource-intensive programs: games, video editors, etc.).

In this article, I will look at the sequence of actions that can be taken to remove CPU load and return the computer to normal performance.

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

What process or program is the processor loaded

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

In the task manager, open the tab "Processes" and sort apps 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 don't even have it running...).

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

Note

Windows has its own resource monitoring, which can also be used to view CPU, memory, disk and network load. To call it, press the buttons Win+R, then enter into the line "Open" team resmon and press Enter .

Important!

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

If the task manager does not give you any food 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)

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

The screenshot below is very indicative:

• System idle process- this is an indicator in % of system inactivity. Those. in the first half of the screen below - the processor is almost 95% idle (this is exactly 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%, but hardware interrupts and DPCs as much as 20% (and sometimes reaching 70-80%! This shouldn't happen. In general, interrupts (these are system interrupts) during normal operation rarely go beyond a few percent! This is the reason why your computer slows down and loads!
• By the way, very often the system is loaded by the svchosts.exe process. In general, this is a system process, but there are a number of viruses that masquerade as it and pretend to be 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 ~20% loaded with system interrupts (hardware interrupts and DPCs).

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 with each other, and even more likely, incompatibility with your Windows OS. Moreover, even if your version of Windows is listed in the driver description, this is not a 100% guarantee of compatibility.

Pay special attention to 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, and even less often with peripheral equipment: printer, scanner, network cards, etc.

Checking and updating drivers

Sometimes choosing the right drivers for a computer/laptop is not as easy 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 usage is related to hardware interrupts and DPCs- I recommend:

1. try installing drivers from the official website of your equipment manufacturer. Usually, this requires identifying the manufacturer - for this you can use a special one. utilities for determining PC characteristics -;
2. If you didn’t find the site or couldn’t identify the manufacturer, you can try using some special one. driver update utility:
3. If during installation you have problems removing the old driver from the system, I recommend this instruction:

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 in the screenshot below).

Virus scan

Viruses can be the cause of anything... Usually, when the processor is loaded due to viruses, you can find some process that is loading the system. Most often, this process is systemic: for example, viruses disguise themselves as a process svchost.exe- even an experienced user cannot immediately find and identify a virus among real processes (but this file will be discussed below) ...

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

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

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 once again draw attention to device manager (more precisely on the drivers). It is possible that drivers for some peripheral equipment are not installed on the system and the 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 is no signature, and you continued the installation) ...

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

To help! How to remove old or unnecessary “firewood” -

Svchost.exe is loading the processor - what is it?

The file loads the processor very often svchost.exe- at least that's what he says Task Manager. The fact is that this is the main process for loading services - that is, roughly speaking, a necessary system process that cannot be avoided...

There are two possible cases here:

• Viruses are often disguised as this process, and it is difficult to distinguish real svchost from masquerading - even experienced users are not always able to do so;
• real svchost may load the system (in certain situations).

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

When you launch 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 point is: all system processes that AVZ knows about are marked green color. Those. if you have on the list svchost black colors - look at them very carefully, they are most likely viral.

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

Turn off automatic Windows updates

Often svchost loads the processor due to automatic Windows updates being enabled. I suggest turning it off (there’s nothing wrong with that - you’ll just manually check for updates a couple of times a month - click the mouse 1-2 times...).

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

1. startup type set "Disabled";
2. and click the "Stop" button.

Save the settings and restart your computer.

Is there overheating? Checking CPU Temperature

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

Most often, the 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, air begins to circulate poorly in the device case - and the hot air from the processor remains in place, and the temperature begins to rise.
• The easiest way get rid of dust- open the cover of the system unit and blow out the dust using a vacuum cleaner (turning on the reverse mode). everything is more complicated - if you have never taken it apart before, I recommend giving it to specialists...
• high room temperature . This usually happens in hot weather in the summer, 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 sale for laptops.
• broken cooler (or it could also become clogged with dust). The advice here is simple: replace or clean.

To help!

Signs that may indicate overheating:

1. the computer (laptop) begins to freeze, a blue screen may appear, a sudden reboot or shutdown;
2. strong cooler noise - this is especially noticeable in laptops. Your hand, if you get closer to the left side (where laptops usually have ventilation holes), can also feel the hot air coming out, sometimes it doesn’t even tolerate it ☝.
3. Various applications crash with errors.

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

What should the processor temperature be?

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

Update dated 10/1/19.

Intel processor temperature: how to find it; which one is considered normal and which one is overheating -

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 fine with it, the cooling system can handle it. Temperatures above 50°C may indicate problems with the cooling system (or a large amount of dust). Anything above 60 degrees must be carefully examined and action taken: clean it from dust, install additional coolers (or replace old ones).

For laptop

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

When idle, this level is usually about 40-50°C. In general, you should start 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 a high temperature is reached when running games, editors, and other heavy applications.

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

PS

Last tip. Sometimes finding and eliminating the causes of high processor load and computer brakes is quite tedious and not easy.

Hello.

One of the most common reasons why a computer slows down is because the processor is loaded, sometimes by incomprehensible applications and processes.

Not long ago, on a friend’s computer, I had to deal with an “incomprehensible” CPU load, which sometimes reached 100%, although there were no open programs that could load it like that (by the way, the processor was a fairly modern Intel inside Core i3). The problem was solved by reinstalling the system and installing new drivers (but more on that later...).

Actually, I decided that this problem was quite popular and would be of interest to a wide range of users. In the article I will give recommendations that will help you figure out why the processor is loaded and how to reduce the load on it. So…

1. Question No. 1 - what program is the processor loaded with?

To find out what percentage of the processor is loaded, open the Windows task manager.

Buttons: Ctrl+Shift+Esc (or Ctrl+Alt+Del) .

By the way, very often the problem arises in the following way: you were working, for example, in Adobe Photoshop, then you closed the program, but it remained in the processes (or this happens all the time with some games). As a result, they “eat” resources, and not small ones. Because of this, the computer starts to slow down. Therefore, very often the first recommendation in such cases is to restart the PC (since in this case such applications will be closed), or go to the task manager and remove such a process.

2. Question No. 2 - there is CPU load, but there are no applications and processes that load them! What to do?

When setting up one of the computers, I encountered an incomprehensible CPU load - there is a load, but there are no processes! The screenshot below shows how it looks in the task manager.

On the one hand, it’s surprising: the “Display processes of all users” checkbox is turned on, there is nothing among the processes, and the PC load jumps by 16-30%!

To see all processes that load your PC - run the free utility Process Explorer. Next, sort all processes by load (CPU column) and see if there are any suspicious “elements” there (the task manager does not show some processes, unlike Process Explorer).

Link to office Process Explorer website: https://technet.microsoft.com/ru-ru/bb896653.aspx

Process Explorer - system interrupts and DPCs load the processor by ~20%. When everything is in order, usually the CPU load associated with Hardware interrupts and DPCs does not exceed 0.5-1%.

In my case, the culprit turned out to be system interrupts and DPCs. By the way, I will say that sometimes fixing the PC load associated with them is quite a troublesome and complicated task (besides, sometimes they can load the processor not only by 30%, but by 100%!).

The fact is that the CPU is loaded due to them in several cases: problems with drivers; viruses; the hard drive does not operate in DMA mode, but in PIO mode; problems with peripheral equipment (for example, printer, scanner, network cards, flash and HDD drives, etc.).

1. Problems with drivers

The most common reason for CPU usage is system interrupts. I recommend doing the following: boot the PC in safe mode and see if there is a load on the processor: if there is none, the reason is very high in the drivers! In general, the easiest and fastest way in this case is to reinstall the Windows system and then install one driver at a time and see if the CPU load appears (as soon as it appears, you have found the culprit).

Most often, the culprit here is network cards + universal drivers from Microsoft, which are installed immediately when installing Windows (sorry for the tautology). I recommend downloading and updating all drivers from the official website of your laptop/computer manufacturer.

Plus, sometimes check your computer with third-party programs (which look for advertising modules adware, mailware, etc.): more about them.

3. Hard disk operating mode

The operating mode of the HDD can also affect the loading and performance of the PC. In general, if the hard drive is not operating in DMA mode, but in PIO mode, you will immediately notice it with terrible “brakes”!

4. Problems with peripheral equipment

Disconnect everything from your laptop or PC, leave the bare minimum (mouse, keyboard, monitor). I also recommend paying attention to device Manager, whether there will be any installed devices with yellow or red icons (this means either there are no drivers or they are not working correctly).

How to open device manager? The easiest way is to open the Windows Control Panel and type the word “dispatcher” into the search bar. See screenshot below.

Device Manager: there are no drivers for devices (disk drives), they may not work correctly (and most likely not work at all).

3. Question No. 3 - could the processor load be caused by overheating and dust?!

The reason why the processor may be overloaded and the computer will start to slow down may be due to overheating. Typically, characteristic signs of overheating are:

• increased hum of the cooler: the number of revolutions per minute increases because of this the noise from it becomes stronger. If you have a laptop: then by passing your hand next to the left side (usually there is a hot air outlet on laptops) you will be able to notice how much air is being blown out and how hot it is. Sometimes the hand doesn’t tolerate it (this is not good)!
• braking and slowdown of the computer (laptop);
• refusal to boot with errors indicating failures in the cooling system, etc.

For example, in the AIDA 64 program, to view the processor temperature, you need to open the “ Computer/sensor«.

AIDA64 - processor temperature 49 degrees. C.

How do you know which temperature is critical for your processor and which is normal?

The easiest way is to look at the manufacturer's website; this information is always indicated there. It is quite difficult to give general figures for different processor models.

In general, on average, if the processor operating temperature is not higher than 40 degrees. Ts. - everything is fine. Above 50g. C. - may indicate problems in the cooling system (for example, an abundance of dust). However, for some processor models this temperature is the normal operating temperature. This especially applies to laptops, where limited space makes it difficult to organize a good cooling system. By the way, on laptops and 70 gr. C. - may be normal temperature under load.

Cleaning from dust: when, how and how many times?

In general, it is advisable to clean your computer or laptop from dust 1-2 times a year (although a lot depends on your room, some have more dust, some have less...). Once every 3-4 years it is advisable to replace the thermal paste. Both operations are not complicated and can be performed independently.

To avoid repetition, I will provide a couple of links below...

How to clean your computer from dust and replace thermal paste:

Cleaning a laptop from dust, how to wipe the screen:

PS

That's all for today. By the way, if the measures suggested above did not help, you can try reinstalling Windows (or even replacing it with a newer one, for example, changing Windows 7 to Windows 8). Sometimes, it’s easier to reinstall the OS than to look for the cause: you’ll save time and money... In general, you sometimes need to make backup copies (when everything works well).

A variety of troubles can occur during computer operation, but not all users know how to fix them. One of the most common problems is 100% CPU utilization, when the computer is literally loaded to capacity and stops functioning normally.

What is the problem?

Many people are looking for how to reduce CPU load when their computer starts to slow down very much, as a result of which it is impossible to open applications or use at least those that were launched previously. But at the same time, first you need to figure out what caused such a serious load and how to deal with it.

First of all, you should find out how powerful your processor is. If you bought a relatively cheap computer quite a long time ago, then it may be that it simply cannot handle some resource-intensive applications, and you shouldn’t even think long about why the CPU load is 100 percent. What to do in such a situation? All that remains is to upgrade your PC if you really need some resource-intensive applications or modern games.

But such situations are often isolated, and the main reason most often lies elsewhere.

What else could it be?

If you don't know what to do if the CPU is 100% loaded, try the following:

1. Open Task Manager.
2. Click the Processes tab.
3. Filter all processes by the “CPU” parameter.
4. See which ones are consuming the most power from your processor and, if possible, disable them.

Most often, the reason for such a heavy load is all sorts of browsers like Google Chrome, in which each individual tab is given its own process, and therefore creates a serious load on the computer. So, if you are looking for how to reduce CPU usage for running some games or programs, just close everything else before activating them.

In extremely rare cases, it happens that this or that program launches the svchost file, which often consumes the entire remainder of the processor and RAM that was available at the moment. When it appears, immediately disable this process and continue to use your PC normally.

The computer slows down terribly, and Windows takes a long time to load (reboot). The central processor is loaded at 100 percent. The cooler (fan) is humming and does not have time to cool the CPU. The sound in the speakers can be greatly distorted: wheezing, pulling, grunting. :)

However, if you open the task manager and look at the “Performance” tab, you will most likely see 100% CPU usage. Sometimes the dispatcher does not open, which means it is blocked by a virus and you need to unblock the dispatcher.

What to do? If you briefly install the security task manager, identify the slow process, remove the malware that creates maximum 100% CPU load.

100 CPU load

Strong braking also occurs after repeated installations and removal of various programs, during long or short periods of using the PC. And as a rule, this can be treated in most cases, without torturing yourself or the computer with dangerous experiments on the registry or reinstalling the Windows system. This is of course an extreme measure and yet... Yes, this happens, but not always with 100% CPU.

This also happens when malware gets into the system, which happens very, very often. The computer suddenly fails and this happens mainly during the first possible boot (reboot) after the virus is activated. If in the first case it is stupid, but the processor is not so loaded and you can still work on the PC, then if such a pest gets in and is activated, it is almost impossible to perform any actions on the computer.

100% CPU is a virus

To identify such guests that create 100% processor load, there is a very good utility. I say it’s not bad because I myself found myself in such a situation and she helped me out :)

Download!
Security Task Manager

Security Task Manager - Security Task Manager displays the level of possible danger of a particular process. That is, it finds and shows everything that not only interferes with loading the OS, but also prevents Windows from working correctly (in its opinion). And you decide for yourself what you need and what you don’t. If a program is at risk in the first position, and you have not installed it and do not know what it is, remove it immediately.

Install the manager and remove malware that interferes with the normal operation of the CPU.