Lately, my laptop is very sluggish. Task Mgr shows that my CPU Usage is 100%. How do i reduce this?

Question

I've tried ending several processes but not much difference. Could it be due to the McAfee antivirus which i've just installed?
Or is it a virus/infection? pls help...
btw.. my laptop is running on Pentium M - processor 1.6 Ghz with 1 GB RAM.

thx in advance, guys

Answer 1

First, remove McAffe and replace it with something like AVG or Avast. Both are free and both work much, much better than McAffe or Norton. Then scan for viruses.

Second, install an anti-malware program or two, such as Ad-Aware, SpyBot, or Windows Defender. All three are free, and all three are highly rated and recommended. Have each program you install scan for malware separately. Also, if you install more than one anti-malware application, make sure that only one has active protection turned on, as more than one program with active protection enabled will slow your computer down.

If going through both steps doesn't solve the 100% processor usage issue, due to no malware or viruses found, take a look at any P2P file sharing apps you might have (LimeWire, BearShare, BitTorrent). Even in the background, these programs can give a Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor a strong workout.

If all else fails, back up any data you wish to keep and reformat your laptop using the factory restore feature.

Answer 2

To find out which program is using up the CPU, open Task Manager. In the processes tab, check for the process that is using the most CPU. If this is not a nessesary process, then just end it.

Answer 3

I hate McAfee and Norton. I would recommend uninstalling McAfee (although it will probably leave junk behind) and then installing AVG Anti-Virus (they have a free version and it's the best I've tried). See if that helps. I would also remove any unecessary programs that run in the task bar. My bet is McAfee is your problem.

Answer 4

You need to look at the processes tab to see which process it is that is taking up all your cycles.

Then you need to figure out how to stop it from doing that which will depend on which process is chewing up cycles.

Since you have only one core it is probably just a single process.

Answer 5

Hello;
You're having some programs running in the background, checkout your startUp list.
Go to RUN and type msconfig then startup to disable the programs you dont need.

RUN - type msconfig - startup.

Answer 6

try removing some files that you do not use. remove apps that you don't use to clean up and free disk space.