Hi Everyone- I'm not very computer literate. I have been using same applications since I bought my computer. Usually based on what the task manager tells me, CPU never get above 17-25%. However, in the last couple of weeks I have noticed a considerable spike in CPU usage as high as 100% and now never goes down below 40%. Could anyone tell me what might be the cause of this spike? I have a Dell XPS 600
Hit CTRL ALT DELETE keys and then click the tab that says process. It will show you what programs are using what % of CPU resources. Also a highly fragmented hard drive will cause spikes.
My charting software uses anywhere from 28-35, then if add my trading platform etc...it goes well over 60%. Might be time to upgrade some memory. Not sure it will help. Will it?
What are the specs on the computer as far as ram and cpu speed ? That seems really high. What charting and platform are you using ? I can have 7 to 10 windows open including java based programs and my cpu usage rarely goes over 10%. You might need to clean up your hard drive, run scan disk for errors and defragment it. When is the last time you have done those 3 ?
You might have a trojan on your computer that is connecting to some website--I've had this a couple of times over the last year, and noticed it only when IB's java slowed down and started hogging the CPU. So you might also try deep scanning with several different anti-spyware etc programs. I have 4, and only 1 caught the last trojan.
I noticed this little icon on the bottom right corner that keeps blinking and when i click on it it directs me to a website for spyware software. I tried to get rid of it but I can't do it. I used McAfee and Lavasoft Adware. No luck. I guess that is probably what causing the spike in CPU. But it doesn't show up in the task manager window.
Try running this http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html Also what antivirus are you using ? Norton is notorious for hogging resources.