9 Years Ago

I Had A Freaky Computer Problem Yesterday.

Techies, have you ever heard of this? Yesterday afternoon I was doing a little online research. I had three browser tabs open, all on sites I've visited before with no problems (one of them being this forum). After opening the third tab from a Google link my CPU usage shot through the roof, and my computer fans started howling like mad, louder than I've ever heard before.

Shutting down Firefox didn't stop the noise, but did reduce the CPU usage somewhat. I went to the task manager and found a "Host Process for Windows Services" was consuming a lot of CPU resources, but it has always done that now and then with no problems.

I then shut down my PC, and Windows shut down OK but it took longer than usual. Even after Windows shut down, the fans were still running like mad! Worse, the power button wouldn't work and I had to unplug the computer to stop the fans. After a restart everything was running normally again.

I ran a complete system virus scan, and it removed a couple of viruses, so that might have caused it, but I have no way of knowing for sure. Has anyone else experienced this? In almost 20 years working with computers I've never even heard of mechanical fans running amok. I have an older computer, a seven year old HP desktop running Vista.

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Mike Savad

9 Years Ago

sounds like a motherboard issue. i wonder how hot it was running. usually when my fans go on full throttle it's because i'm playing an intense game. at that point it sounds like the computer will start flying. i would say you had spyware or something that is eating up your processor, like one of those data crunching things they used on SETI. or there might have been a background check with another virus program and it got into trouble. the power button is hooked up through the bios, it doesn't do anything if windows turns it off. i have a master switch that i can turn off.

check the event log and see where errors might be. disk issues, etc. check to see how dusty it is in there, see if the fans are clogged as well. i wonder if the processor is going - or maybe the thermometer, like it thinks its hotter than it really is.

---Mike Savad

Jason Politte

9 Years Ago

Try replacing your power supply first. I've had problems similar to yours and a new power supply took care of it.

James B Toy

9 Years Ago

Well, my 'puter is humming along fine now. I'm thinking maybe that third web page I opened had some strange script that threw my CPU into overload.

David Pinsent

9 Years Ago

'Host Process for Windows Services' is a generic term for many different services running on your system. It could have been a one off but definitely saying that it's one thing or another based on your description is nigh on impossible.

With that being said, the company I work for has seen this issue with many laptops and different solutions have been found for each. Update your computer BIOS and make sure you have the latest video drivers. The combination of those two have always worked for the issues I've experienced which match your description.

Hope that helps

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