WTF CPU usage 100%

Let me get out my important system specs before I get started.

Intel P4 2.53GHZ 533MHZ FSB
Soyo P4X400 Lite Mobo
1GB PC3200 DDR400
ATI 9700 Pro
SB Audigy Gamer
XP PRO

Okay here it goes, last night my CPU started running at 100%. I rebooted and went to bed. This morning it started again. Doing the ole ctrl+alt+del reveals that dfgntfs.exe is causing the trouble. I did a google search on it and couldn't come up with a solution. I tried ending the process to no avail. The only thing I did was install 2 games, Deus EX 2 and Crazy Taxi 3. I ran adaware and got nothing. I ran Norton AV and got nothing. All drivers are up to date and so is adaware and NAV. At this moment it is still running at 100% and he PC is going slower then molasses in January. Any suggestions?

did you mean dfrgntfs.exe?

Sounds like Automated hard-drive defragging...

Try looking if there's anything in the Micro$oft Scheduler.

Oops that is what I meant. I have never set this thing to auto start. It just all of a sudden happened. I'll look into it.

It is not scheduled in the Task Scheduler or anywhere else for that matter. Any other suggestions? This is really pissing me off.

look to see if it is in your boot process (start > run > msconfig)

If IH8Purple's suggestion doesn't work try editing the reg key

(I'm on Win2K at the moment so it should be close to this)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run

Although, *note -I highly suggest not editing your registry if you don't know what you're doing.

I checked msconfig and it wasn't there. The closest key in the registry I could find was this:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows

when you expand windows there is a ton of crap that all look legit. I am fairly comfortable with editing the registry as long as I have some clear instructions to follow.

What I did was disabled task manager and rebooted. all seems to be good now. I am a much calmer person. Thanks for the help. If it kicks back up I'll be back.

Not sure that was a good choice grinch2171 -- if you CTRL+ALT+DEL do you still get a task manager option?

Task manager isn't one you want to nix. It helps you fix what's broken. i.e. shows you all running tasks/applications/programs and what-not

I'm glad it gave you a temporary fix, but it certainly isn't going to be a permanent one.

you don't have "/currentversion/run" in that? -- I've never seen a windows version that doesn't -- in that key is all the tasks set to run on startup. The defrag key should be there.

Found it, was looking in wrong place, nothing mentioning defrag in that key

What's in the run key? (name is all that's needed)

Ad-watch
C media mixer
CT Startup
JetDetection
NeroFilterCheck
UpdReg

Do you have any idea what the CT startup is? I can't find out anything relevent about it.

EAX splash screen

Taking a guess that's where you're problem is. Keep in mind I have zero experience with EAX...but just reading this tells me you need to look into it:

http://www.gamersimpact.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3201