Vista: CPU 100% on every boot (HP pavilion dv2200)

I've had my HP dv2200 notebook since Vista came out and yes I've had problems with it, but I've never had this one.

Since two days ago, every time I boot up, my CPU is running at 100%. This is from a full start-up or even out of hibernation mode. After 10-15 it dies down to 5-15% but occasionally goes back up to 100% even when idle.

Besides going to the usual sites I go to, I didn't download anything or visit any sites I'm not used to going to. There was a Windows Update I had in my task bar for several days that I finally installed, but it didn't require a restart.

My anti-virus software is avast! free version (latest version w/ definitions updated).

Under task manager there are two svshost.exe's that jump around from 30 to 50, and Firefox is at 50 or so when I try to run it (which takes 30 seconds to open during the 100% cpu). And when the CPU does die down to 5-15% it says that 'System Idle Process' is jumping up to 95 which doesn't add up.

What could be the issue here?

 

I had this issue on a desktop, and it ended up being a nvidia file, after I updated the issue went away. But because it's a svshost, it really could be anything. You can right click on the svshost file, and end process tree, and see if that clears it for the time being, but your browser being at 50%, kind of sounds like a virus as well..

 

I had a similar issue due to NOD antivirus. I uninstalled it and my CPU went back to normal.

It might be worth a shot to uninstall Avast and see what happens...

 

I thought Avast was terrible. Resource hog, just like all the others, but it doesn't keep a very good updated virus database compared to other AV's. I have tried everyone of the free AV's and finally went back to AVG 9.0

I had the same issue on my Vista 64 partition, uninstalled Avast, dl'd AVG 9, updated and wiped out a few viruses that Avast wasn't catching. Problem solved. Now I hardly use that partition since the Windows7 RTM install, but it's there and ready. I would upgrade to Windows 7 anyway if i were you.

 

Might want to give Microsoft's Security Essential a try. It's free and very good and integrates perfectly. Plus they update the definition database every few days.

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

Review: Microsoft Security Essentials Review - Security Software

 

Thanks 2.0, I'll have to try that one out. I heard about this before its public debut. Sounds like the experienced folk have been saying some good things about it.