HIGH CPU usage

Something installed on your computer is using a higher than normal amount of your CPU or processor's power. It can be malware, have you run a scan?

You are running a program or process that is using the CPU a lot. How much RAM does you computer have? How old is this system?

Norton is just giving you info about your computer. You could have an unknown program using your processor. This probably is not the case.

If you use Chrome browser, It will have a few pages running in the background. Internet Explorer will do the same thing. You could be downloading a program.

I usually check the "task manager" if my computer likes its running slow.

Yes, I run scans often.

Hmm. I have no idea how much RAM my computer has. It's an old system. Windows Vista and the newest IE browser I can have which is an old one.

I don't use chrome

Shutting down and restarting the computer will typically fix this issue with no trouble. Sometimes programs or plug-ins will go a little crazy and grab resources they don't really need. You can go into Task Manager and see what processes are using what resources, but it's usually easier to just shut down and restart. that should solve the issue, If it recurs frequently, then troubleshoot it by going into Task Manager to find the culprit. It's not a big issue.

Open up Task Manager (Control+Alt+Delete buttons at the same time) and see which program you're using is hogging the CPU.

You might have too many programs open at the same time that are competing for CPU cycles, or may have left a graphics-intensive program running in the background or perhaps multiple browsers.

Check out the Norton forums to see if they have any mention of a similar problem.

http://community.norton.com/forums

Check whatever logs your Norton program might create to see if they list which program triggered the alert.

If you've got regularly scheduled security scans running, then perhaps they were running while you were using some other CPU intensive program.

The Vista OS is known for "hard drive thrashing". Most often, it's because of Search Indexing. I completely disabled Search Indexing on my DH's Vista system; the constant drive thrashing gets beyond annoying. That worked for several months, but I've noticed that the drive has started to thrash again and now, I don't know what to do to stop it. It's pretty much constant, from the time we start the computer until I get so frustrated I have to shut it back down.

Google "Vista hard drive thrashing" and you'll see what I mean. I think this is what you're talking about. It has nothing to do with malware; it has nothing to do with any program or software that you're running. Check it out.

It's a common thing with Vista and if you figure out how to stop it (and keep it stopped), please let me know.

On 10/10/2014 gardenman said:

Shutting down and restarting the computer will typically fix this issue with no trouble. Sometimes programs or plug-ins will go a little crazy and grab resources they don't really need. You can go into Task Manager and see what processes are using what resources, but it's usually easier to just shut down and restart. that should solve the issue, If it recurs frequently, then troubleshoot it by going into Task Manager to find the culprit. It's not a big issue.

Thank you! Amazing how doing a re start solves so many problems.

On 10/10/2014 Mayfayre said:

Open up Task Manager (Control+Alt+Delete buttons at the same time) and see which program you're using is hogging the CPU.

You might have too many programs open at the same time that are competing for CPU cycles, or may have left a graphics-intensive program running in the background or perhaps multiple browsers.

Check out the Norton forums to see if they have any mention of a similar problem.

http://community.norton.com/forums

Check whatever logs your Norton program might create to see if they list which program triggered the alert.

If you've got regularly scheduled security scans running, then perhaps they were running while you were using some other CPU intensive program.

Thank you. I have used the task manager before but only when my computer freezes up which it doesn't very often. I'm going to remember this for next time the CPU warning shows up.