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Thu, 04/03/2010 - 15:57
Peaking CPU causing short (half second) freezing
Peaking CPU causing short (half second) freezing
My PC freezes for say one to half a second a number of times a minute and is effecting my ability to use it at all. In Task manager the CPU peaks at 100% and this corresponds to the PC not responding to mouse or keyboard. I've set the CPU column to display the max CPU level but the spike happens so quickly that I cannot identify what program is using all the CPU and I assume is causing the short freezing. A file called services.exe seems to appear close to when the PC freezes so could this app be the culprit?
I'm using an AMD 3500+ CPU with 2GB DDR SDRAM and Avira AntiVirus. The only recent change to my system was that I've moved My Documents to a D drive as C was almost full. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Neil
Multiple copies of
Multiple copies of Services.exe can be running at any one time without affecting operation (it's a required part of the Windows system, so you can't disable it.)
Having said that, there was a problem with it in Win 2000 (same problem you report — 100% CPU utilisation) for which MS posted a fix — don't know if it carried on to XP but the problem does get reported from time to time. Try a google search.
There's also a trojan of the same name — try running a scan in case you have it.
Also look in Task Manager (ctrl-alt-delete gets you into it, but I expect you already know that...) for anything unusual that's running when the halts turn up.
Disable Avira and see if the
Disable Avira and see if the problem stops. If it does, uninstall Avira and install Microsoft Security Essentials - it's free and as effective as any other free or paid-for antivirus.
Thanks for the replies and I
Thanks for the replies and I appreciate the help. The problem is now solved.
I've happened to notice that the red light in the mouse stopped working for a short period and after more freezing of the PC found it was corresponding to when the mouse light (laser) was off. The 100% CPU usage appears to be when WinXP was not recognizing the mouse. After changing the mouse all is working again. Thanks all