High CPU usage even at idle? Here is the solution

I got my new DV5t couple weeks now, and out of the box, the cpu usage was constantly at 50%, even at idle.

I thought it was because of HP bloatware. So I did clean install Vista. some thing happened again. did a extensive search and this thread but the solution did not work for me.

so I tried to disable "startup Item" under "msconfig" and found out it is Digital Persona sofware which cause this high cpu usage.

but disabling this will make my fingerprint useless. So I did some more try and error and found that if I uncheck "show fingerprint reader icon on taskbar" under Digital persona Property, the cpu usage is gone. So I can still use fingerprint, and no icon on taskbar is no big deal.

 

Seems stipud that 1 application would need so much computing nice fix though.

 

it is not one software (digital persona) that cause high cpu usage. it is Vista Explorer.exe issue. it cause this high cpu usage for other apps as well. if you read the link I posted above, many people experienced high cpu usage which are caused by explorer.exe and other app, such as Parental Notification process in one case, McAfee Enterprise 8 in another case, etc.

 

I spent hours and was frustrated. Did clean vista install so many times over and over.
I even installed and used MS Process Monitor and Process Explorer to track down the culprit.
what a quite experience.

 

Dude I can only run off what you wrote and to me it reads you delete the icon and it fixed your issue. I run vista on my last rig and it run like a clock (rock solid), sold that and I'm infront of a XP desktop now, the stupid thing needs tinkering every now and again and some here are dumping Vista for XP?

 

I love vista but it needs tweaking first.

 

Tweak away my friend, in the good way I hasten to add!

 

What kind of tweaks are you talking about?

 

just a few you can find everywhere on google.

 

Wow... just for high cpu utilization, you wiped out your whole OS?

Hoped you checked what is causing the high cpu utilization first.. did you check task manager and resource monitor for the process that is eating your cpu? Maybe it needs some updates/patch or be disabled altogether.. Had same problem before with UPEK something process, since i dont need the thing, i just uninstalled it...

Here's some pix of how task manager looks like in case you havent brought it up before...

 

see this thread..

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532

 

Thanks for this!

 

Make sure you check the performance monitor first, because it might not be Digitalpersona.

I had the same problem, 50% cpu usage even at idle and it was the Intel graphics drivers I got off of HP's support site and just installed.

Uninstalling those and using the newest drivers off of Intel's website fixed the problem.

 

I had a similar problem, so used Process Explorer and Resource monitor but couldn't track down which .dll was causing the problem. A clean re-install solved it for me

 

I already saw everything in that thread. I meant if there's anything else that might be useful. Anyway, if I do get a new laptop in the future with that item in the startup items then I will remember this solution.

 

i have a very weird symptom where my cpu usage is in the 50s-70% and i see my cpu working at the highest multiplier but my computer should be idle with no programs open. i usually see the culprit in processes in task manager and sorting the cpu usage, but this time i dont see any program that is being a hog. its the most perplexing situation i have encountered. is there anything running in the background that does not show up in processes that is causing this problem in windows vista?

 

holy thread revival

i think this is what ur looking for
process explorer
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

 

thanks for the help, i have isolated the problem to be associated with symantec
smc.exe using 50% on my dual core

http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/sep-client-offline-without-green-dot

i guess they have not found the solution to this...

edit: i saw some other thread that this happened after connecting to VPN, and in my case, it happened after i turned off vpn. so i turned on vpn and the problem went away! after i turned off my vpn the problem started again, but symantec asked me to update something and i allowed it this time (wasnt sure what it was before) and so far everything is smooth!

edit 2: ok that didnt work... apparently i have to be connected to VPN or else my virus scan will use up my cpu. so my current fix is to be connected to vpn... sigh... thanks for the program "process explorer" so i know it was smc.exe that was causing the problem