My Dell Inspiron 5150 laptop is overheating and using 100% cpu

[thestonefox]

Hi all

I am having a strange and most annoying problem with my laptop.

Nearly all programs now are using up 100% of the cpu and the cpu temp then s
tarts to rise (above 60'C)

I can replicate the cpu increase by simply going into microsoft excel and dr
agging a cell range down (as long as i have the mouse button held down, the
cpu stays at 100%, as soon as i release the mouse button the cpu returns to
about 1 or 2%)

It does the same thing in nearly every other application, in windows media p
layer 10 with visualisations on, it uses 100% of the cpu (if i turn visualis
ations off it only uses around 20 or 30%) if i rip a cd it shoots up to 100%
(which is probably quite understandable)

I have taken the laptop apart, the fan seems to be working quite well, and i
t gets up to about 130000 RPM's when its over 55'C so it is doing its thing
but still the cpu does not cool down.

Ive heard that the cooling chimney can become blocked, but if that was the c
ase then the cpu would get warm at less cpu usage surely and this is to do w
ith programs causing the cpu to use 100% when there is no need for it to use
100% (for instance the excel cell dragging, doesnt even go above 5% on my s
ony vaio laptop which is much older than the dell laptop).

Does any one have any ideas or experience in this problem?

 

[Big B]

I'd start by looking at the programs where the CPU usage goes up. If it's only certain ones, look and see if there's issues on CPU usage relating to them.

 

[thestonefox]

I'd start by looking at the programs where the CPU usage goes up. If it's only certain ones, look and see if there's issues on CPU usage relating to them.

It hasnt always done this

and for instance, excel should never be using 100% of the cpu especially only when im dragging cells.

could it be a hardware issue or a software issue?

 

[StimpE]

I think this is a software issue, potentially spyware and/or viruses/trojans, or hey, Windows is known to break down over time. Try a virus scan with Housecall and then download Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D. After that, try uninstalling your office applications, then re-install Office. If you still get 100% CPU usage, I'd look at formatting your Hard Drive and re-installing WindowsXP. Good luck!