Windows MCE %50 CPU usage but no processes running

A collegue has a laptop with Windows MCE on.

He's clearly installed something a bit naughty as his laptop has ground to a halt.

The problem is slow response and broken sound. Startup takes a long time to actually startup and load all processes into the sys tray.

The startup folder has office startup and adobe reader in it.

The CPU is in use for about %47 constantly (ocassional negative spikes).


Task manager shows nothing running at over %1 - %3 and nothing really spiking.

There appears to be a process running thats eating process in the background/hidden or spiking so fast constantly that task manager can't pick it up.

Adaware and Nortan show nothing

I'm interested in thoughts on how to diagnose it, tools to use to diagnose it or possible reasons for this hidden cpu use.

No guarantees, but Process Explorer has been a godsend for me with these kinda things - no harm in trying

thank you, as you said. Worth a try

after I've done a mass clean up on this machine its still running dog slow, broken sound etc etc.

I've resorted to installing hijack this, does anyone have a reliable source used to analyize the logs and assist.

May be a long shot but since its MCE a wrong codec or a drm infection.

nah - this laptops been rooted.

Rootkit scanning shows a couple of very will hidden things.

naughty naughty.