[fharvey]

My computer has been struggling lately, and I’ve already removed a bunch of stuff that runs in the background. The computer starts whirring and everything slows down. When I look at the running processes, Firefox usually takes up the most RAM and the System Idle Process the least, but the System Idle Process is taking up 99% of the CPU. Even when my computer isn’t whirring away Windows Task Manager still reports that the System Idle Process is taking up 90+ percent of the RAM.

I’ve got Avast, Zone Alarm, and I’ve run both Lavasoft and Spybot’s Search and Destory and have found nothing. Any other suggestions as to how I might figure out what the problem is?

[WhitPhil]

When the processor is not being used 100% by active programs, the "left over" % is absorbed by the "System Idle Process".

Thus, if it is sitting at 99% your PC is doing nothing.

[fharvey]

Glad you cleared up that mystery! Thanks. But I'm still left with the issue of my computer slowing down periodically. It seems to be doing stuff, it whirs (which is either a hard drive or fan going), and when it gets through with that then I can proceed again. I remember svchost occupying a lot of resources at least once when I looked, but that apparently is a legitimate Windows program, and the scans I've done don't detect a thing wrong with it. So . . . ?

[Tufenuf]

fharvey, It could be something like Windows automatic updates or your Anti-virus Program automatic updates, etc.

Tufenuf