High CPU Usage

[Guest]

Hi:

I just installed a new motherboard using the same components that had
previously been running MCE 2005 just fine -- now everything runs slowly, and
I notice CPU Usage goes to about 100% whenever any program is launched --
even scrolling on a web page kicks usage up to 50-60%. Once the program
loads, total usage idles down to about 10% -- but then goes back up as soon
as a new page is loading, etc.

Here's what's onboard:

Windows MCE 2005 with Rollup Release 2 July Update
Asus P4V8X-MX Motherboard
Celeron 2.6GHz
2B PC2100 DDR Ram (2 Dimms)
160 GB Seagate SATA HD
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi
ATI Radeon 9550 AGP DVI/VGA Display Adapter 256MB
Hauppage WinTV-PVR-350

All drivers updated from vendors this week

Thanks,

Win

 

[Ron Martell]

Hi:

I just installed a new motherboard using the same components that had
previously been running MCE 2005 just fine -- now everything runs slowly, and
I notice CPU Usage goes to about 100% whenever any program is launched --
even scrolling on a web page kicks usage up to 50-60%. Once the program
loads, total usage idles down to about 10% -- but then goes back up as soon
as a new page is loading, etc.

Here's what's onboard:

If the new motherboard is not an exact replacement for the original
board (same make, model, and revision number) then you need to do a
Repair Install of your Windows XP in order to configure Windows,
especially the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) to operate properly
with the new motherboard.

See http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm for detailed
instructions.

WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If your installed Windows XP is a BIOS Locked OEM version and if your
new motherboard is not from the same OEM that provided the original
computer & OEM Windows then you will not be able to activate your
Windows XP after doing the Repair Install.

1. Open Control Panel - System - General and look at the 20 character
Product I.D. code shown in the "Registered to" section.

If the second segment (3 characters) of the Product I.D. is "OEM" then
the installed Windows XP is an OEM version. If the second segment is
numeric (3 digits) then it is either a Retail or Volume Licensed
version.

2. Look on the Start menu under Accessories - System Tools for an
"Activate Windows" entry.

If there is no Activate Windows item and the Product I.D. is OEM then
you have a BIOS locked OEM version and it cannot be activated on a
motherboard whose BIOS is not from the original OEM.

If there is no Activate Windows item and the Product I.D. is not OEM
then you have a volume licensed version of Windows XP.

If there is an Activate Windows item and the Product I.D. is OEM then
you have generic or non-BIOS Locked version and it can be activated on
a different motherboard. Note: You may also have a BIOS locked OEM
version that was activated on a different motherboard prior to March
1, 2005 in which case you will have problems if you are ever required
to reactivate because of further hardware changes or because of a
reformat & reinstall.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info, Ron -- I was not clear in the original post, though -- I
did a new reinstall of MCE 2005, and successfully activated and downloaded
all updates --

but what happens is that whenever I load a program it takes forever 5 sec
for IE, 15 for Firefox, 30 for iTunes etc -- and the loading app is consuming
100% CPU usage until it completes loading

Thanks again,

Win

 

[Alec S.]

I just installed a new motherboard using the same components that had
previously been running MCE 2005 just fine -- now everything runs slowly, and
I notice CPU Usage goes to about 100% whenever any program is launched --
even scrolling on a web page kicks usage up to 50-60%. Once the program
loads, total usage idles down to about 10% -- but then goes back up as soon
as a new page is loading, etc.

Sounds like a virus scanner; is it?

You'll need to find out which process (program) is eating up the CPU. Run the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete or taskmgr.exe), then
switch to the Processes tab and click the CPU column. The list will be sorted according to amount of CPU usage. Make sure you can
see all of them by resizing the window vertically (don't close programs, since one of those may be the culprit and closing programs
just to clear the list would end up getting rid of the problem but only temporarily). Also, make sure to select Option->Always On
Top. Now run a program or scroll a web page or whatever while keeping an eye on the Task Manager. Watch the process list as it
reorganizes; the process(es) that is sucking cycles will float to the top. Which one is it?

 

[Guest]

Based on your suggestions Alec I temporarily disabled McAfee anti-spam; only
IE is loaded, and when doing nothing, CPU usage ranges from 8-16% -- task
manager is 6-8%

When I clicked the reply button, total CPU went to 100% and IE topped the
list -- it took about 10 sec for the reply screen to load ( I had already
allowed popups for this site)

Next, I launched Firefox -- total cpu went to 100, Firefox at the top, took
about 6 sec to load the Google home page.

Thanks for yor help!

Win

 

[Alec S.]

Based on your suggestions Alec I temporarily disabled McAfee anti-spam; only
IE is loaded, and when doing nothing, CPU usage ranges from 8-16% -- task
manager is 6-8%

Makes sense, a virus scanner has to do a lot of scanning to check for all the thousands of viruses out there, so there's always
going to be a delay when running a program, which can sometimes be short and sometimes really long depending on the app.

When I clicked the reply button, total CPU went to 100% and IE topped the
list -- it took about 10 sec for the reply screen to load ( I had already
allowed popups for this site)

Ten seconds is still a little long. If you don't have too many add-ons installed, it should run in under five. Use a program like
BHODemon or something to see what browser extensions are installed, perhaps there's one or more that are causing it to take too
long.

Next, I launched Firefox -- total cpu went to 100, Firefox at the top, took
about 6 sec to load the Google home page.

Like with IE, FireFox should start pretty quickly from a default installation, but if you've got a lot of extensions, it can take a
while-occasionally, by the time the FireFox window shows up, I've forgotten that I've launched it.

Thanks for yor help!

No problem.

 

[SECTION25]

We have pretty much the same problem.

If you type in 9550 high cpu into google you will find a surprising
amount of results.

Have you tried removing the card (if it is an AGP card) and seeing if
it runs any better?

We have a machine which has onboard video and we added a 9550 to allow
dual head and it started running like a dog (CPU usage goes from 0-70%
for no good reason and then up to around 100% when you try to do
anything including small programs like windows explorer.

But if you take the card out, it runs fine.

The strange part is, other machines have this exact same card, but run
fine.

They have different motherboards though.

The motherboard in this example is a P4 Intel board - the D865GBF