Windows takes 1+hour to load and CPU@100%

Hi there,

I normally do the cleansing rituals you guys suggest about twice a month. Last done about 2 weeks ago. My laptop was working perfectly fine 2 days ago. I turned it on today and windows takes 1+ hour to load. When it's finally up all i can open is msconfig using command prompt and task manager using alt-ctrl-del. In task manager it says my cpu usage is at 100%. The system idle is at 0 and taskmgr.exe is at a constantly changing number between 60-99%. The other things on the list have random percents popping up as well between 0 and 20%. When highlighting an image name, the blue bar constantly is flashing. I've tried to run SBSD, CCleaner and AVG but nothing loads. Taskmanager says the process is running but i can't see it. I tried to do this stuff in safe mode and that didn't work either. Also, I tried to use system restore but that wouldn't come up either. I'm guessing this is mal-ware/a virus but i really don't know.

Thanks for your time and wisdom!

-Mitch

 

Hi dustfire,
Welcome to Major Geeks!

I'm glad you like the procedures

Have you tried going back to a restore point which precedes these problems? There are several things which can lead to the symptoms you are describing. One of them is a software conflict. The other could be that there's a bad sector on your harddrive, which I can have you look for if the restore point doesn't help. The other things is a possible RAM problem. Well, and there are probably a few other things also.

Try the restore point. If that doesn't work, then go to Start / My Computer (left click) and then right-click on your c-drive (or the drive where your operating system is located). Then click on properties and then on tools. At the top of that tab is a box where the disk will be checked for errors. It will probably say something about volume.

See if either of these steps bring you farther and let me know.

abri

 

Thanks for picking up my case!

Although it took maybe 5 hours here's the results:

I couldn't run system restore..it came up but it wouldn't let me choose any restore point other than one from today (i tried going back days and months) part of the problem is that after i click it takes 5+minutes for what i've clicked on to show the response. After waiting and clicking for a few hours (as in click walk away for 15 minutes check it and repeat) and it still not working, I gave up.

I had to run scandisk on restart because it couldn't access some areas...on restart it said 10,336 in bad sectors......then it said no problems detected.

What's next on the list?

-Mitch

 

further...adding to this i believe that system restore was shut off for some reason. When i went to use it it asked me if i wanted to turn it back on. Then it created the only restore point i have...which is from yesterday (as in after the bad stuff began occurring.)

I didn't realize that having system restore off deletes ALL points from the past...I don't know why it's off as I don't remember shutting it off but the fact remains it was off.

This probably complicates matters...

-Mitch

 

anything i can do besides replacing the drive (it's in a laptop)

 

I did what you asked but it required a restart to do it. It took maybe 6 hours to run and i freaking missed the screen with the report...long and short of it....i'm buying a new hard drive. I was able to use my jump drive to get what i needed off the system. Thanks for your time.

-Mitch

 

Hi again.

So I thought that all would be good with a new hard drive...but it isn't. I started from scratch with a new drive and partitioned it. When I went to install windows it took maybe 18 hours to install (it ran all night.) Now that it's installed I again do ctrl-alt-del and it gives me 100% cpu being used...so at this point i used microsofts memory diagnostic program called windiag.exe. I created a boot CD and ran it...it says that no errors have been found. So from what i understand that means the RAM is still ok. So I guess I'm back to square one as it still takes 30 minutes to an hour to load windows (now without even any other programs installed) and the CPU is constantly at 100%. Any suggestions will save what's left of my hair...thanks!

-Mitch

 

ran the memtest....3000% and no errors (in about an hour)...guess it's over to the hardware department?
(thanks for your help so far)

-Mitch