Hi guys! I'm new to the forum and I was reading some threads and seems like a very useful community here. I am a graduate student and recently my computer has been very "laggy" and when I go to Windows Task Manager I see that CPU Usage is fluctuating from 10-100%. I really am not sure how to diagnose the problem.

I have scanned for viruses through Norton Antivirus and the hard drive appears to be clean. I have tried "defragging" the computer and this does not help either. I am a relative novice so please help me fix my problem as it is becoming very annoying to use my computer. Thanks for your ears and hope someone can help out.

When you go to task mamger how many processes is running?

also go to start run type Msconfig click the startup tab and disable anything you don't need running at start up.

The only startup items you absolutely need are:

• ScanRegistry
• TaskMonitor
• SystemTray
• LoadPowerProfile
• Your antivirus program (trust me, you won't have a hard time figuring out which one is your antivirus program. It is pretty obvious.)

Since you need these startup items to be running all the time in order for your computer to work properly, make sure there is always a check mark next to all of these startup items.
If you don't see one or two these items in your list of startup items, that's cool. For example, some people may not have a LoadPowerProfile while others may have two. The big thing to remember is that you don't want to uncheck any of these files if you have them.
The rest of the startup items, however, are completely optional. Whether you leave these optional startup items on or turn them off is completely up to you. A good rule of thumb is to disable only those programs that you recognize and don't need to have running all the time. When in doubt, leave it on.

If your really not sure go here and you can search and find out.

http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php

also do you have a virus protector?

if so is it updated?

if not,Why not?LOL you really need one and keep it updated.

get these and update and run it.

http://www.adaware-antispyware.com/

http://spywarebot.com/?hop=advanced9...5447&oid=&aid=

get this also

http://www.ccleaner.com/

This seems to have not solved the problem. I removed several processes from starup (msconfig). However My CPU Usage is still flucuating a lot. I have updated my virus scans and used ccleaner as well. I did notice one time that svchost.exe was using all of the CPU Usage, however it dropped down to 0. What do i do?!?!?!

are you running any p2p like bittorrent, kazaa, limewire?

No, I am not using any of those programs.

what are the CPU and RAM specs of the PC

if you have less than 512mb ram norton is known to make your PC extremely laggy

hey ppl ,,i have the exact same problem ,,need a solution 2

hey ,,i have the exact same problem ,,need a solution 2 ,,if urs os ok ,,what did u do to stop the fluctuation

I have the same problem, I try couples spy-wares and anti-virus program, But still idn't solve the problem. I reinstalled the window XP, it works for a while then 1 or 2 days later. The CPU flutuate again from 2%-34%. Please help me.

i want to help u but , but nothin is workin for me too, even reinstalling didn't help ,,