Hey everyone, I'm totally losing it here. Just a couple of days ago, my PC was running like a dream, handling high FPS gaming without a hitch. But now, it seems like my CPU is constantly maxing out—it's hitting over 100% even when I'm just trying to browse the web. Currently, Chrome alone is using a whopping 25% of my CPU and 1,600 MB of memory! I've tried a lot of troubleshooting tips online, like cleaning out my computer and making sure everything is up to date. I really need help getting to the bottom of this issue—it's extremely frustrating!
5 Answers
Open up Task Manager and sort by CPU usage. That should give you a clue as to which application or service is hogging all the resources. It’s likely the first step to troubleshooting this problem.
Check if anything suspicious got downloaded—sometimes a random click can trigger a background process. You might need to use Ctrl + Alt + Delete to access Task Manager and shut down unnecessary tasks. Also, check what’s running at startup. Usual best practice is to back up your important files to avoid disasters like needing a complete reset!
We really need specifics to help out. Can you share your PC specs? Also, what application is consuming the most CPU? And don’t forget to check those temperatures.
First things first, check your temperatures. If any components are overheating, they can throttle and cause performance issues. Take a look at your fans, thermal paste, and airflow inside the case. And hey, cleaning it out was a good move!
There could be several reasons for this, from system updates to malware taking over. I’d recommend running a malware scan—Windows Defender is a good start, but Malwarebytes is solid too. You could also use Process Explorer to dig deeper into what's using your CPU cycles.
Yeah, that makes sense! I'll definitely do that first. Thanks for the tip!