Vista is getting slow.CPU usage goes to 100% in normal usage. Help pls.

It appeared recently, all is getting slow, and i'm not doing anything during this slowdown.. cpu usage gets from 60% to 98%. not always, after nearly 30min cpu usage reduces to normal. This is definitely not a hardware problem, watched through some russian forums and some people have the same problem. some say it is caused by:
Microsoft Windows Internals

All i've found is http://blogs.msdn.com/adioltean/archive/2004/12/21/329321.aspx
but i don't understand how to use it.

Also i have suspicion that it is caused by Starforce protection system..

 

Try opening task manager and see which process is hogging all the CPU. Also I wouldn't try that guide, since you're using vista and it's dated from 2004.

 

Open Task Manager and see if you can find what process is using all that CPU. My guess would be the System Idle Process, which I don't know how to fix, but it may be something else.

 

Yeah w/o telling us exactly what process(es) is taking up your cpu cycles there is no way for us to tell what's wrong.

 

Is your Vista up to date? I know that a clean, november 2006 11th DVD install with no updates does that.

 

windows vista contains heaps of automatic services that runs in the background. some of this is usually activated when you're not using the computer. things like disk defragmentation, and the like might cause the slowdown.. although i cant be sure, since many things like spyware or operating sytem bugs might cause the problem...

 

Wobble is right. I can tell when Vista is doing something, because whatever I'm doing will slow down. Urgh.

 

No, vista doesn't slow down things like that. Identify the process that consumes most cpu usage. My CPU always remains at 0-5% when idle.

 

AH! i just remember! how about windows indexing service? did he just add huge number of file/newly acquired the computer? windows might still be indexing. although i dont know how slow is he refering to... if its crawling slow, i dont think that it is normal.

 

TrustedInstaller.exe (Windows Modules Installer - part of the update service if I'm not much mistaken) - the single biggest source of around 5-20 minute CPU "spikes" on my system, running usually between one and four times a day - though I'm not entirely sure what the hell it's actually doing all that time considering there are rarely any updates to install (and I'll only be notified if there are any).

I don't know if this is what's causing your excessive CPU use, but given the length of time you specified, it could very well be.
If I recall correctly, the modules installer doesn't show up in the task/process list - you will need something like the Sysinternals Process Explorer to see it. Download it, and it should confirm whether TrustedInstaller.exe is the culprit.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

 

thanks for your support guys. i have already disabled indexing.. but it doesn't help.

Miths, i opened Process Explorer, but there is no TrustedInstaller.exe process.. maybe cos there is no slowdown at the moment. i'll now restart my pc for slowdown to begin(slowdown begins everytime after restart/shutdown).

 

Did you check for virus/spyware? It could also be that you download so much stuff that your system gets cloggered. USe Ccleaner and run a spyware scan

 

Knightendo, yes i did. no viruses or spyware found.
There was another slowdown, so, i've started Process Explorer and there was no TrustedInstaller.exe process.
Going to make a system restore..

 

If it only slows down after you reboot, how long does it take before the slowdown goes away? A few minutes means the system is still starting up. If it's longer than that, it could be something else. The next time you get the slowdown, please open Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Esc) and look at what's using all the cpu.

 

no, it does not only slow down after reboot, and after reboot it takes about 30min. to go away.
ok, i'll try and then in task manager where should i go? in resource monitor> CPU, right?

 

If you cant find the source, maybe try a clean install..that will get rid of anything bad.
Just an idea as a last resort tho. But i realy dont understand why your system slowdown like that. I do regular maintanace to mine and it runs great. I do have ocasional slowdowns but they go away in secs. Try optimizing your system and cutting down services....

 

Go into Task Manager (by pressing Ctrl-Shift-Esc), then the "Processes" tab. There you can sort by CPU by clicking on the CPU heading.

 

So i found it in task manager>processes>cpu.
Miths was right, it is TrustedInstaller.exe, it uses 40% of CPU.
it is situated in windows/servicing/ folder. it is part of windows update system.
i can also see it in Process Explorer, then right click on this TrustedInstaller.exe> kill, but then it appears again..

Any suggestions?

 

Is your system set to automatically download new updates? I just check my task manager and i dont have TrustedInstaller.exe
Also i have my Windows updates to notify me rather than automatic

 

Knightendo,
i've already set it to download updates automatically, previously it was set not to download updates, only to check them.
You will not see it in processes, you should go to Perfomance>system monitor, but it only appear when vista start to slow, and cpu usage grow up.

P.S: how did you get only 43 processes? some tweaks? it's very good.

 

TrustedInstaller.exe only shows up in the process list when it's actually running (as suggested, I wasn't even sure if it actually appeared there - I had been using Process Explorer - but apparantly it does?).
It sounds a bit excessive if it's running for around half an hour after every boot though - as mentioned it rarely runs for more than 15-20 minutes on my system, and usually less than ten minutes.

I'm not sure if turning off automatic updates will actually stop it from running - I do have them turned on, but it still seems odd that it usually feels the need to run several times a day rather than just the once a week I've set it in the opdate settings in the control panel.
There's gotta be a bit more to this Windows Module Installer than simply "dialing" Microsoft to see if there are any OS updates available.

No suggestions from me other than to let it run - it's obviously a needed system operation. As I said above though, it does sound like it's taking an unusually long time to run its course on your system - half an hour is a bit too long to lay claim to half your CPU resources, and I can imagine that can be rather annoying, particularly if you shut down and start up your system several times a day (I don't).
On my system it doesn't even necessarily run right after system startup - those one to four times a day often seem to be more or less random.

 

Tweaks pretty much.
There is a Vista tweak guide you can download at tweakguides.com. It has lots of info and tweaks. There is also a section which tells you a number of services you dont need and therefore shut them down to same RAM. Its pretty useful and informative. As far i sytem wise i tend to turn off the showdow copy, some eye candy and i always do a clean install.

 

There's not much you can do about trustedinstaller. Google will show a lot of people complaining about it. The solution is to just let it go, and eventually it will stop. Another process is mcupdate, which tends to run when you have new video files added to the system. I've had my system running for at least 6 months now, and I haven't seen much from trustedinstaller.

PS. Number of processes is a terrible measurement of system usage. Please don't even talk about it -- it's like measuring how full your hard disk is by weighing it.

 

thanks for your replies, sounds not well, especially after using mac and OS X, but anyway it seems that i can't do a lot to fix this.
also i'm going to do a system restore..

 

Some info here: http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/201251.aspx
The suggestion about the "Problem Reports and Solutions" control panel looks interesting....

 

swarmer, thank you for the article.
i did the following:
Start > Control Panel > Classic View > Problem Reports and Solutions > Clear Solution and Problem History > (Confirm that you want to clear the history) > Close the control panel.

EDIT:Remember i said that i suspect Starforce? so, when i went into Problem Reports and Solutions under the Installed solutions section, in Others solutions there was Starforce..
Now will test if it would help.

 

made a system restore, vista is not slowing down..hoping Not to say "not slowing down for now". and even when i went to task manager, to check for processes i saw TrustedInstaller.exe, but vista was no slowing.