CPU gauge fluctuations and whining noise

[fofura]

Sorry for the seemingly stupid question, but I can't figure out why my Toshiba 1,50gb ram Intel celeron cpu 540 @ 1.86 with 66.7 gb free on it, is making these weird cpu gauge fluctuations with just one window open. As I am typing it's going from 08% to about 36% and even higher, and there is a whirring noise as if there is some program open, weird, there is also a kind of clicking noise off and on.... my ram is at 57%. When I make a search and switch to a new window it goes up to 100% on the cpu I can't figure out why it is making all these surging noises, even not typing it goes up and down and up to 49%. What's making it do this? Something ready to blow like a mother board?

 

[hundredislandsboy]

Check task manager process for what is running in the background. Worst case scenario is virus.

 

[fofura]

Check task manager process for what is running in the background. Worst case scenario is virus.

Mahalo IslandBoy!
I looked in there and it looks okay, just what you would expect: microsoft stuff, avast, my firewall...I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary but then again there are a lot of things tickiing away in there. I just assume if it says microsoft or windows it's "safe".

I do have two firewalls running (yeah, call me paranoid, I spend a lot of time in Nigeria) windows7 and Threatfire, I turned off Threatfire and tried to see if that would make the meter act differently (I have no idea what I am doing but it seems logical) but it didn't change much. What gets me is the kind of start and stop whirring when I am doing absolutely nothing and the simple act of clicking on the google seach box shouldn't make your gauge go up to 100%, at least to my thinking.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

You've probably added/installed too many programs, tasks for your Celeron to handle and it's pushing itself hard just to keep up.

Did you try to defragment your hard drive?
Unless you're getting a lot of crashes or blue screens I don't see anything you've described to indicate your mobo is about to blow braddah.

You could temprarily unplug your internet cable and turn off yout AV and other firewalls, do some photo editing and see if that helps.

You could also try a system restore a time before the whirring
noises started. System restores won't delete your files so it's safe and yo can also restore forward if you don't like the results.

 

[fofura]

Hehehehe, it's Tita to you cuz

Okay, yeah I tried defragging, I suppose I could do system restore but the weird thing is I don't even have any photo files,videos, music or documents on this thing...it's practically bare which is what is freaking me out. I have Nero, the photo thingy and video thingy, I suppose I could dump something somewhere ...I just wish I knew more about what is supposed to be running in there, I can see them ticking away but who knows if all are good things. I have 3 laptops and theotwo with vista got internet explorer 8 rammed down their throats without me wanting it (is it just me or has anyone else found IE8 to be sneaky???) and sluggishness on both laptops seemed to coincide with it. I can tinker in a lot of places but I'm so stupid I can't seem to figure how to stop IE8 from loading itself on. I handpick what I want downloaded but somehow it gets on there...anyway...thanks for the suggestions, I'll probably do a restore and try to keep 8 away.