[tlug] Invisible process eating CPU time

[Dave M G <dave@example.com>]

TLUG,

A while back I posted because some process was eating up 100% of my CPU
time every now and again:
http://lists.tlug.jp/ML/0803/msg00402.html

Turned out the problem was a process called www-data, which I found by
running top. I now have a similar problem, but it is not the same as
last time.

For the last few days, the Gnome applet that displays my CPU use has
been showing my computer has been running at 55% CPU constantly. Since I
have a dual-core, this might be 100% of just one CPU.

I have tried rebooting, and the CPU use is always the same immediately.

I tried seeing what the offending process is in top, but nothing is
listed as being over 20% at any one time, most of the time there is
nothing over 1% or 2%, and the total of all process listed is never more
than about 20%.

Any ideas how I can find out what this stealth process is?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

-- 
Dave M G
http://tlug.jp/mediawiki/index.php?title=User:Dave_M_G