Why is System using 85% of my CPU?

July 6, 2007 7:10 AM

The task manager on my WIndows XP SP2 box shows 100% CPU usage constantly. Whenever I'm not doing anything actually resource intensive (like using Firefox, sigh), "System" uses up 80-90% of the CPU. This is not normal

Procces Explorer shows a thread within "System" which is using around 75% of the CPU with the following start address: parport.sys+0xe474

Any suggestions? I'm running NOD32. Could post a hijackthis log if that helps.

posted by signal to computers & internet (9 comments total)

Parallel port driver? Try unplugging your printer.
posted by Floydd at 7:18 AM on July 6, 2007

I'm running NOD32.

Funny, my first thought was to turn off any antivirus software. Try that. If that doesn't work, the HijackThis log might help diagnose.

I also have a thread at parport.sys+0xe474 but it doesn't take 75% of the CPU. You could also install the debugging tools to see what it is.
posted by grouse at 7:20 AM on July 6, 2007

Close all programs and then kill processes one by one until you're left only with the system processes. You'll then find out what's causing the problem.
posted by humblepigeon at 7:23 AM on July 6, 2007

Yeah, it is probably your printer, as Floydd said -- I think I found a person with an identical problem here,by googling for "parport.sys+0xe474":

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/showthread.php?t=197951

His solution was "unplugged parallel port to my printer and that stopped it from hogging my system"... Good luck.
posted by wonderwisdom at 7:29 AM on July 6, 2007

Similar to what Floydd said, a couple years ago I had a usb scanner driver/utility that consumed almost all system resources after installed (it was crapware that installed with the driver and put itself in the startup without asking; Mikrotek I think was the company; the scanner has since died anyhow). Good starting point in these situations is to think carefully about what you might have installed or changed right around the time the issue started.
posted by aught at 7:30 AM on July 6, 2007

Yep, did what humblepigeon suggested, and it's the printer spool service. (spoolsv.exe)
aught: this started a few days ago, haven't installed anything printer or scanner related.
What would be a definite fix for this, other than never using a printer again? Reinstall something?
An idea: I ran out of ink a few days ago, haven't replaced it or turned off the printer, which is flashing its blinkenlights? Maybe this is a "feature"? Your computer becomes unusable until you replace the ink cartridge?
posted by signal at 7:36 AM on July 6, 2007

The printer may still be telling the PC it's out of ink every few seconds. I've run into Epson printers that had monitoring software that ran in the background, and if there was anything the printer was trying to report (low ink, out of paper, jammed) the system would slow to a crawl.
posted by pupdog at 8:01 AM on July 6, 2007

pupdog: yeah, it's an Epson. Thanks all, I got my computer back!
posted by signal at 8:19 AM on July 6, 2007

If you discover that you don't really have any processes using up 100% and it just seems like the system is slower--it could be that your motherboard has throttle down the speed of the system to accomodate the over-heating of a particular component.

This is a good time to take it into your local friendly PC depot and ask them to check if any of the fans are faltering. But it might be something deeper than fans.

They should also be able to do a Return-To-Base for a brand name component if this is a D-I-Y PC. If this is a brand name PC just called the original company for repairs.

If this doesn't directly apply to your problem, I hope it will help others.
posted by iheartcanada at 2:26 PM on July 6, 2007