Hello, recently I bought an Antec earthwatts 500W PSU. When I turned on the computer after installing it CPU usage was about 30% at idle. According to Process Explorer, that 30% is Hardware Interrupts. I know this only popped up AFTER installing the new PSU. Unfortunately, in trying to find a solution on google no one else with the problem seems to have solved it in a way that works for me, and I've already checked my IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers in device manager, and they are all set to DMA if applicable. I tried the old PSU and the hardware interrupts is still there. Safe mode, it's still there, and I also tried the RAM, only using 1 stick at a time to test if one is broken but it didn't solve the problem.
Because of this, I'm guessing it is the CPU, hard drive, or motherboard. What comes to mind is I did remove the heat sink when I first put in the new PSU, and I had some troubles as one of the two sockets for the securing screws for the heat sink seemed to sink down lower than it should be, so that it was actually under the motherboard and I had to push on the other screw socket to push it back up above. In the course of this the heat sink would have rubbed against the CPU itself and I wonder if something was messed up, though I would think that would make the CPU not work rather than give this strange hardware interrupts. Is there anyone who has experienced this? Is there a way to test if it's the hard drive? Is it possible just to unplug it and run the computer without it?
I appreciate any help.
Because of this, I'm guessing it is the CPU, hard drive, or motherboard. What comes to mind is I did remove the heat sink when I first put in the new PSU, and I had some troubles as one of the two sockets for the securing screws for the heat sink seemed to sink down lower than it should be, so that it was actually under the motherboard and I had to push on the other screw socket to push it back up above. In the course of this the heat sink would have rubbed against the CPU itself and I wonder if something was messed up, though I would think that would make the CPU not work rather than give this strange hardware interrupts. Is there anyone who has experienced this? Is there a way to test if it's the hard drive? Is it possible just to unplug it and run the computer without it?
I appreciate any help.