CSRSS.exe consuming CPU bandwidth

[Joel]

There is a process called CSRSS.exe that consumes no less than 39% of my cpu
bandwidth. When the computer first boots up things are fine but after an
hour or so things get slow and the mouse cursor no longer moves smoothly.
When I open the task manager to see what is causing the problem and
CSRSS.exe is always the culprit.

Killing this process is out of the question as it results in the BSoD. I
looked through Microsoft's support site and I see plenty of issues related
to it going back to Windows 2000, but none of them seem to be applicable to
me. Has any one else experienced this problem? How do I prevent this from
occurring?



Dell Latitude D830V
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition
4 Gigs Ram
160 Gig HD
Intel 2.2GHz T7500
Intel 965 Express Graphic Adapter (shared memory, using 358 Megs)

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

What is csrss.exe? Is csrss.exe spyware or a virus?
http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/csrss.exe.html

Download and run Ad-Aware 2007 Free: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

---------------------------------------------------------------

:

There is a process called CSRSS.exe that consumes no less than 39% of my cpu
bandwidth. When the computer first boots up things are fine but after an
hour or so things get slow and the mouse cursor no longer moves smoothly.
When I open the task manager to see what is causing the problem and
CSRSS.exe is always the culprit.

Killing this process is out of the question as it results in the BSoD. I
looked through Microsoft's support site and I see plenty of issues related
to it going back to Windows 2000, but none of them seem to be applicable to
me. Has any one else experienced this problem? How do I prevent this from
occurring?



Dell Latitude D830V
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition
4 Gigs Ram
160 Gig HD
Intel 2.2GHz T7500
Intel 965 Express Graphic Adapter (shared memory, using 358 Megs)

 

[Joel]

CSRSS = Client Server Runtime Server System.

Despite it's bad behaviour it is not spyware or a virus. It's an actual
windows component running as a system process. Like I said before there are
plenty of references to it as a problem process on microsoft's site
(http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=csrss.exe+site:microsoft.com&form=QBRE)
but none of the solutions seem applicable to me. You will find it in
c:\windows\system32

I understand that it manages graphical functionality in windows.

 

[Joel]

sorry, I misunderstood your reply.

I used a tool from System Internals to verify that it was actually an
executable from Microsoft and tried the spyware tool you suggested. The
image is authentic and I've got no spyware on my system (my use of this
system is very restricted so there's not much of an opportunity for spyware
to find its way on here).


Joel

 

[Sami Laiho]

As your familiar with Sysinternals try using their Process Explorer and
check the properties for CSRSS.exe. There you can find the threads tab which
shows what threads in that process are most active. If you can find some
thread name you can try to Google it.

Process Explorer works better if you have the Debugging Tools installed from
Microsoft.

Regards,

Sami

 

[Joel]

Per some one's suggestion I used System Internals Process Explorer to see
what was loaded into the process space for CSRSS.EXE. Of the CPU bandwith
being consumed by CSRSS.EXE it looks that 95% of it is being consumed by
what is identified as "cdd.dll+0x3c38" (where 0x3c38 is a start address).
Turns out that CDD stands for "Canonical Display Driver" from Microsoft.
I found some old slides on longhorn that shows where CDD lives in the
display model and it is sandwhiched between some other Microsoft components
(I had speculated for a while that the problem may be tied to the Intel
Express Graphic Adapter but now I am less confident in that).

Does any one have any ideas on what is causing my problem all

Longhorn Display Driver Model (Page 8)
http://download.microsoft.com/downl...41f2-893d-a6f2295b40c8/DW04018_WINHEC2004.ppt

 

[Joel]

Well it looks that no one else has a solution or is familiar with my
problem.

I thought I would share this in case some one else encounter's the problem.
The problem is made worst by certain graphics operations. I'm still trying
to isolate exactly which ones. However, I did notice that the CSRSS
bandwidth usage shoots up when ever the cursor is moving. This can be
either the text cursor moving from typing or the mouse cursor moving . When
the cursor is not moving then CSRSS bandwidth is around 20%. When I am
typing or moving the mouse cursor the consumed bandwidth goes up to 39%. I
previously had mouse trails turned on. I turned them off and saw a slight
improvement in cpu bandwidth consumption.

This may be nothing new given the current law suit related to computers with
Intel express video adapters and vista, but if I change my theme from
Windows Classic to Vista Basic then the computer will get stuck in an
endless cycle of BSoD shortly after logging in (that may be related, not
sure).