Sometime in the life of your computer you are going to experience the ultimate of all computer freeze ups. This occurs when your CPU processor caps out at 100% and stays 
there. Once this happens, you will not be able to perform such simple tasks as opening documents, starting programs and sometimes you cannot even access your start menu. This type of behavior can happen in any version of Windows and in every case, it takes some detective work to find the culprit.
The first thing you should do in a scenario that involves a freeze up or slow down is to start your computer in safe mode. When you start the computer, hold or tab the F8 key on the top of your keyboard until the advanced boot options menu comes up. Choose the Safe Mode option and hit enter. If you are using Windows 8, it is Shift plus F8. Once you are logged into Windows, open a Run box by pressing the Windows Key plus the R key. This will open a RUN box. Type MSCONFIG into the space provided and press OK. Go to the Start Up tab and hit Disable All. Click Apply and Close and then reboot the machine in normal mode. See if that corrects the issue. If not, more detective work is going to be needed.
To investigate the issue further, we are going to use a free program called Process Explorer. This gem of a program can be a techs best friend. Once you download the .zip file and extract it to your computer, simply click on the procexp.exe file and the program will open. There is no installation needed. You will be greeted with a treasure chest of information on what your computer is doing at any given time. What makes this program unique is the ability to identify what is going on with generic processes such as svchost. When you have a process such as this using an extremely large amount of CPU cycles, you will be able to right click on the process and then choose Properties in the context menu. Here you will see almost everything there is to know about that process.
Here is where this program can become your best friend. If you click on the Services tab, you will see a list of all the services that svchost controls. From this window, you can Start and Stop services to see which service is causing the high CPU usage. Once the service is identified, you can make the necessary repairs in order to fix the service. If the service is one that you have no need for, you can disable it so it will not create another problem the next time you reboot your machine.
If you look at the Options menu at the top, you will notice that you can have the program start at startup if you desire. The app will run from the system tray and at a glance can give you basic information on how your system is performing. The app is lightweight and runs without slowing down your system at all.
In addition, this is a great tool for identifying rouge processes that might be running on your system from a virus infection. This program is so light it will run even when your system is slowed down from an infection. From here, you can stop or suspend known Malware services for easier removal by your anti-virus program.
If after stopping all the bad processes and getting your CPU cycles manageable your system is still crawling, your problem may due to hardware and not software. This will require a more advanced approach and an expert may need to be called to get the issue resolved.
by Joe Z
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