CPU spiking and freezing

[Acid_death69]

Hey i went to my mums the other day and took my pc. When i got there and turned my pc on the CPU meter started spiking irratically and making the programmes that i was running freezing:s but the wierd thing is, its not a proper freeze cos the mouse cursor still moves. Anyway i went back to mine and was fine a for a couple of days and now all of a sudden its started doing it again.
The programmes that im running dont take up alot of CPU power nor ram.
is there anything i can do about it?

[Detale]

Hey Dan, What are your system specs? Might be a failing Ram issue maybe try using memtest (http://hcidesign.com/memtest/download.html) and see what happens there

[clocker]

Since these symptoms appeared after you moved the PC, first thing I'd do is pop the sidepanel and check that everything is properly seated-RAM, heatsink, etc.

After that, open Task Manager and see what's using up the CPU cycles.

[Acid_death69]

Detale ive run the ram scam and everything seems to be alright there were no errors though it did take a while my specs are;
Manufacturer:WinFast
Processor:AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+, ~2.2GHz
Memory:1022MB RAM
Hard Drive:160 GB Total
Video Card:Radeon X1550

Operating System:Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6000) (6000.vista_gdr.071009-1548)


clocker i did what you said i had a nosey around the case everything was in its place and plugged. I looked at the CPU cycles and nothing was using the CPU. I think it might be th heat:s when i was at my mums the case was right to the wall and i dont think any cold air was getting to it. If your CPU gets to hot is this what happens?

[clocker]

Well, you could run Core Temp (http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/) and see what you're running.

Not a bad idea, in any case.

And yes, extreme heat will cause the CPU to throttle back but the emphasis has to be on "extreme" because it really does take quite a lot.

You might want to check your power settings and see if Vista itself is doing the throttling or maybe something else in the OS was spiking.

I've noticed that even with the Vista indexing shut off, the hard drive seems to be constantly accessed in Vista...I have no idea what it's doing.

Jumping between XP Pro and Vista shows that my core temps run @5c hotter in Vista, presumably the CPU is always running more stuff just to keep the OS up.

The extra HDD activity and higher temps are really starting to put me right off the OS, honestly.

[Acid_death69]

why is it that it takes windows such a long time to sort out an OS? ya pay this money and it aint up to scratch!

[clocker]

I can think of a couple of reasons...

-Hardware advances at such a rapid pace that it's tough to keep up with.

-MS has to at least pretend to accommodate old stuff so there's lots of legacy hardware support.

-Like everything else, MS tries to cram too much stuff into the app...browser, media player, etc. If they'd ditch all the extraneous stuff and just concentrate on the core of the OS, it'd probably be much leaner, meaner and better.
Of course, if they did drop the browser and media player, half the users would be unable to get on the net or play a movie and then you'd really hear some bitching.

[Acid_death69]

lol yerr you would like. Well my core temp at the mo is -49C dunnoi why it has the lil minus sign before it. But is that temp any good?

[clocker]

Try another program like Everest and see...that temp doesn't seem right.

[Acid_death69]

Is that to high?

is the programme called everest cos i typed it into google and it came up with aloud of software and bits and pieces about the mountain.

[clocker]

Everest Home Edition. (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html)
Install it, click on "Computer" then "Sensors".

It'll scan the PC then give all the temps that your motherboard reports.

And yes, your temp seems high, even if you're using the stock heatsink.

[Acid_death69]

right installed it and got it running it variying between 4C - 48C not sure why its doing that.

[clocker]

Me neither...either end of that spectrum is hard to believe.

[Acid_death69]

well ive had the radiotor on full blast and it hasnt spiked or froze so i think something has been fixed:) thanks for your help clocker:)

[clocker]

For such as it was, you're welcome.

Still be interesting to know what the temp is...maybe Speedfan would work? (http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php)

[Acid_death69]

Well i installed that speedfan. And it gave results for different things but i take it core is for the CPU and the temp was a constant -49C :s i dont think its working.

[clocker]

All the programs seem to be giving pretty consistent readings...actually, not surprising given that they are all working with the same sensors...so it must be the motherboard that's screwing things up.

What kind of PC is this?

[clocker]

Stupid board software....

[clocker]

Stupid board software....

[clocker]

Stupid board software....

[clocker]

Stupid board software....

[Acid_death69]

Lol this is my motherboard http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MBB-AM366M
heres everything else, very much doubt you need most of it.
Manufacturer:WinFast
Processor:AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+, ~2.2GHz
Memory:1022MB RAM
Hard Drive:160 GB Total
Video Card:Radeon X1550 Series
Monitor:Generic PnP Monitor
Sound Card:Speakers (Realtek AC'97 Audio)
Speakers/Headphones:Logitech
Keyboard:USB Root Hub
Mouse:USB Root Hub
Mouse Surface:Logitech
Operating System:Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6000) (6000.vista_gdr.071009-1548)

[Detale]

Damn Clocker is good.

IMHO I would agree that your Mother Board has something wrong with it Like Clocker said 49C seems high indeed do you have another CPU cooler to try and see if that changes the temp? If not I would imagine the sensors are screwey

[clocker]

Clocker ain't good enough to figure out what motherboard that is.
Or why the temp readings are so weird.

If it read consistently at 48c I'd guess the heatsink was either dirty or just inadequate but the ultra low reads are a mystery.

[Acid_death69]

Nah unfortunately i dont have another heat sink to try out however i will be getting a new CPU and heatsink next week so i will do the test again then.