Sudden CPU spike in Snow Leopard

[vulcanman]

I am a noob when it comes to troubleshooting SnowLeopard.

On a freshly booted OS .. Activity Monitor shows 1-2% CPU usage. After letting it idle for several minutes ... the CPU spikes to about 30% and never comes down below 30%. When this happens I cannot even log out (Though I am able to log out fine before the CPU spikes up).

Here is the interesting thing ... when the CPU is at 30% ... the Activity Monitor shows no significant activity by any specific process. All listed processes are either 0% or 1-2%.

What diagnostic tests can I perform to see what is causing this CPU spike? I have the very latest software update installed.

 

[GGJstudios]

What diagnostic tests can I perform to see what is causing this CPU spike? I have the very latest software update installed.

Launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes", then click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top). Also, click on the System Memory tab at the bottom. Then take a screen shot, scroll down to see the rest of the list, take another screen shot and post them.

 

[-aggie-]

You mean all the 1-2% processes add to 30?