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    HIGH cpu usage

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by woolavoo, May 19, 2009.

  1. woolavoo

    woolavoo Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi, I know I have already asked this question, but I'm really concerned. I have a xps 16, and after it wakes up CPU stays above 80% for the entire time. I just talked to a dell techie and they said it might be caused by a virus. What do you think? It's brand new and I have McAfee on all the time. (I ran fn+power on diagnose, everything's fine)

    Thank you very much!
     
  2. ahl395

    ahl395 Ahlball

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    Right CLick Taskar > Task Manager. Go to processes tab.

    Check the box that says "SHow Processes from all Users"

    Find out which ones are most using your CPU Usage, and post them back. ;)
     
  3. ag62

    ag62 Newbie

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    Maybe this was already asked, but did you look at the task manager to figure out which process is taking CPU time. Use "Show processes from all users" and then sort by CPU column.
     
  4. idq000

    idq000 Notebook Deity

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    The reason is because McAfee is constantly checking your system for viruses + malware, even if it doesn't need to. McAfee is just as bad as Norton when it comes to memory and resources management since both just eat the CPU and memory to death.
     
  5. Luke1708

    Luke1708 Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

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    I think you should do a clean reinstall.
     
  6. ag62

    ag62 Newbie

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    How do you know? I'm running McAfee on mine XPS1640 and my CPU doesn't go above 5% on idle use.
     
  7. woolavoo

    woolavoo Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thank you very much everyone. My machine magically stopped doing that. Maybe only for now. After waking up it's still 30%, that's great! But I decided to remove mcafee and put on nod32. I remembered how nice it was on my old system. =)
     
  8. Koer

    Koer Notebook Deity

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    well im no expert, but doesnt McAfee have many different functions and tools? and i bet when all of those run simultaneously your cpu gets used up to a high %

    i NEVER liked norton or McAfee, its just not worth wasting your computer just to feel "safe" and "virus free" ( there is no such thing, sorry :D )

    nod32 is a lot better since it runs lightly on your computer, but i prefer AVG over all of those, because after you install it, you feel no performance loss at all, or startup time for that matter.
     
  9. woolavoo

    woolavoo Notebook Enthusiast

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    Well, strange, because I can see AVG slow down my system more than NOD32 do
     
  10. Koer

    Koer Notebook Deity

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    Really? hmm weird... well whatever works best for everybody i guess :D