High CPU usage

[Aggers]

I occasionally get a message form Norton saying that there has been, or is, high CPU usage.

What causes it, and should I do anything about it ?

They say that it from a trusted source and does not present a threat.
If that is the case, why do they notify me ?

I'm puzzled.

[Workingman]

Hi Aggers.

Applications and services use up CPU power. When they open or are doing heavy work you might notice a spike in CPU usage. If it is happening quite a lot you need to know what is causing it, and why.

When the warning appears open up Task Manager with the Ctrl+Alt+Del key combination. In the new window open the Processes tab. Look for the CPU column and click on it, this will order the listings in terms of CPU usage - if it sorts low to high click again to get high users to the top.

Most things should should only use a few % of power, if that, but sometimes things go wrong and an app might get stuck in a loop sending its usage up to 100%. When that happens the way out is to kill the process/app. To do that using Task Manager you right click on its entry in the list and from the menu choose Kill Process. However, there are some things, such as e-mail, defrag or AV scanners, that can take up lots of CPU cycles. They might cause Norton to give the warning, but they should be left alone to do their work.

[Aggers]

Thanks, Frank. I think I now understand.

Norton have said on each occasion that there is no risk, but should they say there is a problem,
I now know what to do. Thanks, pal.

[Workingman]

Norton have said on each occasion that there is no risk, but should they say there is a problem?

Not necessarily, it could simply be that Norton is doing its job.

John, I do not use Norton, but I do know that it is pretty comprehensive. Is there something in Settings/Options to turn off alerts or increase the threshold of when they kick in? Alternatively, is there a link in the pop-up indicating what is causing the problem? Can you tell Norton to ignore it?