High CPU usage reported yet running processes are not active

[intelwizrd]

I have noticed a problem recently in which the CPU usage percentage is staying around 10 - 30 % and the system idle proccess is reporting 96 - 99. anyone know why this might be happening?

I have run NAV2004 (full system scan in safe mode)
I have run spybot sd (nothing came up except for cookies)
I have checked the running processes and all seem to be legit

The problem only seems to occur when i am at the office.
Computer is a HP Pavillion zx5000 w/ WXP PRO (all patches and service packs)
2.4GHz CPU w/ 1GB Ram

It doesn't matter if I close all open windows and programs. The mouse seems to hang and jump around recently and sometimes when i am typing a letter will repeat itself numerous times. Keyboard and mouse are both wireless (brand new batteries and latest software).

Thanks to anyone who can offer some insight. this is driving me nuts.

 

[linney]

It might be worth your while to try a different type of mouse and keyboard just to see if that is the problem.

 

[judgehopkins]

Do you have McAfee Firewall? It is a notorious stealer of memory.

Look for mpfagent.exe under processes after you press ctrl-alt-delete.

"If the people don't want to come out to the park, nobody's gonna stop them." - Yogi Berra

 

[intelwizrd]

i might try the mouse/keyboard suggestion, but it still does it if i don't plug in the mouse/keyboard.

no mcafee firewall installed either.

The memory isn't being used up either. its just that the processor usage is being reported to be around 20% (by the meter and graph) but the processes are only adding up to like 6 and the "system idle process" is at 94.

i'm stumped.

 

[YellowOnline]

It might sound stupid, but don't you participate without knowing in one or another scientifical project?
I know, there is something wrong with the question, but anyway: there are projects on the internet that need to perform tasks for which they need so much processorspeed that they divide it over clients all over the internet. Normally you know about these things, as they mostly for a good reason (it was done e.g. for AIDS-research) or at least for something meant good (e.g. decrypting alien sounds from out of space). A few weeks ago I discovered such a module on someone's computer without the person in question knowing about it, hence... .

Peace,

Yellow

 

[linney]

Another thing to try is to temporarily disable as much of NAV2004 as you can (test offline only) and see if that causes any improvement.

Can you clarify what you mean by this "The problem only seems to occur when i am at the office".

 

[intelwizrd]

it is a laptop and only seems to occur when i am plugged in at the office. and thinking about it, i have different hardware profiles set up for home and office. maybe something in my hardware profile is messed up.

will check the NAV2004 later today and let you know what happens. strange thing though, it hasnt started yet today, maybe it is a fluke or there is some backdoor/trojan on my computer that NAV, Adware, and SpyBot cant find.