High CPU usage ~100% ; extremaly poor performance

[lord jim]

Just started recently; not making any software changes or hardware. CPU hovering around 100% sometimes jumping down briefly to 50% or so and back to ~ 100%. Then sometimes, less often recently, stays around ~15 - 30%, still very jumpy. All this is idling conditions. No of processes ~150 but only few takes CPU time (by task manager).
Reading from HWiINFO64: both cores 1198.4MHz. temp. around 50C, both cores voltage shows 0.826 - 0.846.
noticed also less hot air venting out. but I can hear fun turning. Memory usage is stable around 30%
Win7 Pro, T430, CPU i7-3520M. Kaspersky Internet Security allways running (kind of ruling out machine has been hacked)
Anybody can give me a clue whats going on?, never have such a experience yet, going back years to XP and IBM T-pads.
BTW this is thing is still on on-site repair warranty, shouls I call Lenovo?, wouldn't want to hear reinstall clean and see as I don't think this is to solve the problem.
Thanks for some info and suggestions.

[precip9]

Hit CTL-ALT-DELETE

Start "Task Manager"

Go to "Processes" tab

Click "CPU" until it appears evident that the list is ordered in accordance with CPU usage.

Report back.

[lord jim]

taskmngr.exe 25
WmPrvSE.exe 23
explorer.exe 21
sidebar.exe 17
svchost.exe 11
top line but they alter, rest of processes sits at 0 at times going to 1 or so, and then avp.exe*32 (kaspersky AV process)will go to 20 and over what seems to be normal activity.

[precip9]

It's not obvious. However, there have been many complaints about Kaspersky causing high CPU usage. WmPrvSE.exe is a Windows process that Kaspersky would be expected to call.

Unlike other programs, an antivirus program actually changes over time. This is completely intentional; it helps the av defend itself, and it is also necessary to detect new threats. So, when you consider a machine in which "nothing has changed", always suspect two things:

1. Malware
2. Misbehavior of the antivirus program.

Now you have to test. You have two choices:
1. Remove the disk physically from the machine, and scan on a machine you are confident is clean.
2. Uninstall Kaspersky, and see if the problem goes away.

To be thorough, you should actually do both.

And finally, you could regen the system, and install another antivirus program. Currently, I rely on MSE, which, while not the best, is unobtrusive. Combining it with Microsoft EMET may provide better protection with the least impact on performance. See
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2458544

[lord jim]

Thanks for suggestion; hmm...sort of was thinking about Kaspersky as it evolved over years to rather hungry beast, but then what kept me from being too suspicious was fact running it on two XP machines with noticeable but livable performance.
Give it a kick out and see what happens.
For malvare scanned with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware recently with one count found and successfully (I hope) removed, but getting that drive scanned on external machine will take me some time to get it accomplished, I'll try one thing at a time.
thanks again.

[GACrabill]

.... For malware scanned with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware recently ....

Here are my favorite three, free tools for eliminating problems :

1. MalwareBytes :

http://www.filehippo.com/download_malwa ... i_malware/

I normally leave MalwareBytes installed on all PCs that I work on. It is the best free anti-malware product. It does not run constantly so it needs to be started and updated from the "Update" tab on a regular basis ... I suggest monthly. If you ever think that you may have a malware infection, then start MalwareBytes, update it if possible, and then run it's "Quickscan" and "remove" whatever it finds (a re-boot may be required).


2. SuperAntiSpyware :

http://www.filehippo.com/download_superantispyware/

After downloading and installing, click on the Preferences button and uncheck the top two options in the left column ('Start SuperAntiSpyware when Windows starts' and 'Show SuperAntiSpyware icon in System tray'). It also does not run constantly so it needs to be started and updated from the "Check for Updates" button on a regular basis. If you ever think that you may have a malware infection, then start SuperAntiSpyware, update it if possible, and then run it's "Quickscan" and "remove" whatever it finds. It will normally find lots of 'tracking cookies' ... they are not really harmful and it also doesn't hurt to remove them. Removing the other items that it finds will result in less crapware on the PC (a re-boot may be required).


3. TDSSKiller :

http://download.cnet.com/Kaspersky-TDSS ... 22087.html

Click on the "Download Now / CNET Secure Download" button.
TDSSKiller does not 'install' ... it simply runs whenever it is double-clicked upon (you may want to save the .exe to the Desktop).
TDSSKiller is the best, free rootkit removal tool ... allow it to remove anything that it finds (a re-boot will be required if it finds something).

[lord jim]

Thanks for link I'm gonna try TDSSKiller; somehow I cannot come to terms that Kaspersky I have trusted in since I believe 2007 wold bring T430/Win7 to a stand still after for years defending my XP's that is after Malwarebytes Anti-Malware ( just doing full scan) finish and clean what it finds. ALREADY DETECTED 14 OBJECTS !!!. (wonder when and how)

Philosophic Note:
Internet starts to stinks more and more, I remember times when it was "wild and free", not as much commercial with a lot of good free and useful, trustworthy software, somehow difficult to navigate, no google no yahoo and such. Ah well,... progress, really?

[lord jim]

BTW isn't my CPU throttling down?; Reading from HWiINFO64: both cores 1198.4MHz? under heavy load and voltage 0.826 - 0.846.? seems strange thing. As far as I remember correctly that was about the voltage I was able set on Intel "Dohan" CPU with its lowest 800mhz setting

[lord jim]

To finalize the discussion: KIS 2010 was the offender. I uninsulated and that was a different machine, idling with 1-3% CPU use, starting apps, going to sleep and back instantaneously.
I was tempted not to install any AV software, well finally I did . . . . KIS 2013, partly because I still have obt. 300 days of license.
So far so good to my surprise. I'm idling at about 2-5%, more when KIS scans for anything or updates dbases; slight degradation of course but really not that much not for all the time. Hope it will stay that way.
I'd like to thank personally precip9 for giving me good suggestion.

[precip9]

Thank you for giving me the satisfaction of actually helping someone.

For everyone: Antivirus programs are not actually very effective. The best catch between 90% and 97% of attacks. Think of what this would mean if you were a soldier in a combat zone: You'd be dead in less than a year.

For some years, Microsoft has been working on the other side of the equation: how to harden the environment by making it harder for hackers, even if their exploits are indetectable by current virus signature dictionaries. This project, called EMET, now version 4.0, has been developed to the point where you, the average person, can use it:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2458544

Everybody, without exception, should install EMET. The only reason is is not installed by default is that it breaks some programs. EMET is now so easy to use, and to adjust to these situations, you can gradually work it into your system with very little pain. When you're done, your system will be hardened to a much greater extent than any antivirus program can accomplish by itself. You still need an A/V program, but the combination of EMET and A/V is much more effective than either by itself.