System Idle Process gone haywire

Much like my old computer, my laptop has now been attacked by a virus (or something). Whatever it is, it causes the CPU to use nearly all of its power on the system idle process and in turn slows every other possible program or task to a crawling speed.

How do I make it stop?

McAfee is finding nothing and I don't know where else to turn. I found some suspicious program files titled "microsoft frontpage" and "xerox," both of which I've never had anything to do with. The folders within carry strange names and hold hidden files. When I try to delete them it says they are in use by another person or program. Could these folders be the perps?

ANY HELP AT ALL is so greatly appreciated. I'm at a loss as of what to do and I can't stand these slowdowns.

 

right first off get rid of mcafee cos its crap- before you do that install a different one- something like eset nod32, then install a decent spyware scanner and reboot. start it up in safe mode and do full and thorough scans with both. This will prob do the trick as most viruses dont start up in safe mode.

 

What Spyware scanner would you suggest? I can easily get Spysweeper.

 

the old ewido was very good- its now part of avg. Download avg spyware scanner but not their antivirus one

 

oh and believe it or not, windows defender is quite good as well

 

Not a virus.

System Idle Process reports the unused CPU power.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/873289

 

ttupa, you spoiled it! I wanted to see how long this would go on for.

 

Just thought I'd mention that the following directory is not a virus...:
C:\Program Files\microsoft frontpage

The folder exists even if you have never installed FrontPage. I believe it comes in a service pack or something...

Also his problem is not necessarily solved. He said all other programs are acting slow... maybe that's a different issue though.

 

But it's not the System Idle Process.

 

I know.

(10 char)

 

Make sure your HDD is not in PIO mode. If it is, and assuming you haven't hard set it that way in BIOS, check this link on a quick way to solve it.

 

I read online that the System Idle Process can be hijacked by spyware. According to task manager, it is using 50 to 96 in the CPU usage column with a frequency of about every seven seconds and a duration of about five. This of course takes away from what other programs could be using and causes everything to slow down. I cannot even play music without a terrible skipping noise.

If you know of a possible fix I'd rather you try to help than sit back and enjoy someone giving the wrong advice...

 

OK.

1) What antivirus are you running? Have you done a recent scan?
2) What antispyware are you running? Have you done a recent scan?
3) What firewall are you running?

 

McAfee Antivirus and Firewall.
AVG Anti-Spyware.

I have run full system scans on both and neither returned anything that solved any problems. McAfee found absolutely nothing wrong, while AVG found 97 "possibly malicious tracking cookies" of some sort, and deleted them.

Otherwise nothing has shown up.

It may also be worthy to note the problem took effect while I was downloading music (cough il cough cough legally of course) on LimeWire. During this, McAfee Firewall was set on tight security.

 

Try and see if another process is jumping wildly along with the System Idle Process. As that one indicates unused cpu process time another process has to be jumping with it. The column has to add up to 100% in the end.

 

Nothing out of the ordinary. Messenger programs use some ocassionally and depending on what virus scan or spyware scan is running, they sometimes use it as well. It is never anything great.