CPU usage all over the place...

[stereophonie]

I will apologise straight off the bat as this is old hardware. I am currently refurbishing an Acer Aspire 5630 that has a core 2 duo in it. The usage is all over the place and keeps hanging/pausing. I've just finished some tests on the HDD and I tested the RAM last night and everything seems to be coming back OK. Any ideas what could be causing this?

[LemonSpice]

I will apologise straight off the bat as this is old hardware. I am currently refurbishing an Acer Aspire 5630 that has a core 2 duo in it. The usage is all over the place and keeps hanging/pausing. I've just finished some tests on the HDD and I tested the RAM last night and everything seems to be coming back OK. Any ideas what could be causing this?

what are you doing while this is happening what os gen xp vista or 7 and is it freezing up

wha temps as the tpu (thermal paste) could and probably is dry

[stereophonie]

Windows 7, first with x64 then changed to x86 in case it was a problem with that. Could be doing anything, lately just installing software and updates as it's a fresh install.

[typographie]

Sounds like you may have something running that you weren't aware of. When you notice it happening, check Task Manager to see what processes are eating up CPU cycles. Ideally, System Idle Process should have about 99% if you're not running anything.

[stereophonie]

Nothing running that shouldn't be, fresh installs both times. Temps are around 45 degrees.

[Enderman]

Look at task manager under processes. Find the process that is using the highest 'CPU'

[stereophonie]

Nothing is at the moment. Explorer and task manager are using 1 to 2 percent.