high cpu usage

[Guest]

my pc is getting slower to access programs, in task mgr the cpu usage seems
too high - as high as 100% just by opening word. i have run adaware & spybot
as well as norton antivirus and an online panda scan and found nothing
untoward. i have telephoned the tech helpline for my pc manufacturer and been
advised "xp requires reformatting & clean installing every 18 to 24 mths"
"the problem will be your pc is cluttered up with old files". there is a lot
of common posts on here all with the same problem - do i really need to
reformat & reinstall everything? i have looked at all the
processes/applications and everything seems fine.
thanks in advance.

 

[R. McCarty]

No - Telling you to reinstall allows them (Phone Support) to go and
get a donut and coffee and tell each other how many customer's they
have BS'd with that lame response since they came on duty.

Something is causing the Sluggishness. Could be as simple as Temp
folders overloaded with Files/Sub-folders. One test is your profile.
Create a new user and log into that account. If performance returns
then the issue is with your old profile. If the new account is sluggish,
then it's system wide and you'll need to investigate further. As to Tech
support - never be timid with them. If an answer sounds like BS, it
likely is. They all have different levels of support. The first people you
talk to will be new grads from the "Bangalore Institute of Cheap but
ineffective Technical Support". Don't let them CLOSE your ticket
until you get an answer and NEVER accept Uninstall or Reinstall
as a viable solution.

 

[Guest]

Try going to run,type:Msconfig In Msconfig,select services tab,chk the box
"hide all microsoft services",then select disable all,close-out,restart
computer.
Back on desktop,the pop-up appears "You have changed start-up services,etc.
etc." select,dont show this pop-up,now see where the cpu usage is at.Next
reopen Msconfig,enable the disabled service 1 at a time till the cpu usage
gets
overloaded.This way you'll find the problem service then adjust,enable the
rest in Msconfig asap.

 

[Arne]

I use VCom program Fix-it Utilities to
1) Elimintate all cached Web and temporary files
and
2) Their Registry editor is excellent. The Registry Fixer
will locate entries that have not been completely
removed. Running the program multiple times will
sometimes locate more keys to eliminate. Be careful,
though about uninstalling any keys that are related to
program install - sometimes they are reported as safe to
delete (contain no useful information)

It might be a good idea to get Partition Magic and create
a logical partition (another drive letter) to store all
of the media files and documents separate from the OS.

Also try disabling the swap file, deleting the pagefile,
defragmenting the Hard Drive and then recreating the
pagefile.

Also try http://threadmaster.tripod.com/. The program
ThreadMaster will work on WinXP. It limits the maximum
CPU percentage that any program is allowed to use. You
might be experiencing a "traffic jam" as the programs are
upgraded, but the computer is a few years older.


Arne

 

[Al Smith]

my pc is getting slower to access programs, in task mgr the cpu usage seems

too high - as high as 100% just by opening word. i have run adaware & spybot
as well as norton antivirus and an online panda scan and found nothing
untoward. i have telephoned the tech helpline for my pc manufacturer and been
advised "xp requires reformatting & clean installing every 18 to 24 mths"
"the problem will be your pc is cluttered up with old files". there is a lot
of common posts on here all with the same problem - do i really need to
reformat & reinstall everything? i have looked at all the
processes/applications and everything seems fine.
thanks in advance.

Something is running in the background and chewing up all your CPU
cycles. Probably something you don't need. You just have to locate
it and kill it permanently. The problem has nothing to do with old
files, or reinstalling Windows. I use a little free program called
Process Explorer to locate what is using my CPU cycles.

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml

 

[Guest]

1.Try to defrag the hard drive, Clear all cookies, temp, history and cash.
Even if the problem aint in there it will speed-up your pc.

 

[Guest]

thanks for the replies so far - i will try the new suggestions next week
asap, basic other info if it will help - my pc is 2k athlon,512mb ddr
ram,120gb hard drive ,geforce 4600ti grafphics card, i have defragged the
hard drive regularly, cleared out temp files,cookies, run a disk clean up as
well as the spyware and antivirus software.i have installed and run "ultra
wincleaner"today - it found some broken registry entries and other temp files
but still the problem is there. ** as i mentioned b4 there is alot of
different posts on here all with the same cpu usage prob - i have copied 1
response -please advise what you think - can anyone tell me how to "disable
launch folders" to try it ?

thanks

he problem is likely that you've enabled 'Launch folders in a separate

process' (Explorer, Tools menu, Options, View tab, Advanced settings). what
is supposed to happen when this option is enabled is that additional
launches of explorer.exe open in their own (separate) process, BUT what
actually takes place is that only ONE additional instance of explorer.exe is
started for ALL future explorer launches AND (this is the important part),
that second explorer.exe process is started with HIGH priority. what
happens next of course is that the HIGH priority explorer.exe process
preempts all other processes (running at normal priority) when it launches,
and if you happen to be opening a folder containing objects with a lot of
metadata (like mp3s, etc), this explorer.exe running at high priority will
suck-up all cpu cycles as it processes the objects in the folder. that's
why if you've got music or video going in a media player at the same time
the new explorer is launched, the music/video will stall momentarily (the
player is running at normal priority and gets preempted by explorer).

the simplest work-around for this bug is to disable 'Launch folders in a
separate process' (disabled is the default) which will cause all instances
of explorer to launch as a child of the main (desktop) explorer.exe process,
which is running at normal priority.

the other work-around is to use the task manager to manually change the
priority of the second instance of explorer.exe (right-click on explorer.exe
process running at high priority and choose Set Priority, Normal) keep in
mind, when the second instance of explorer.exe is closed, the next time
explorer is launched, you will have to adjust its priority again.

(incidentally, i've reported this bug to microsoft on several occasions, but
they have neither acknowledged my e-mail nor the problem itself)

 

[ghayden]

thanks for the replies so far - i will try the new suggestions next week
asap, basic other info if it will help - my pc is 2k athlon,512mb ddr
ram,120gb hard drive ,geforce 4600ti grafphics card, i have defragged the
hard drive regularly, cleared out temp files,cookies, run a disk clean up as
well as the spyware and antivirus software.i have installed and run "ultra
wincleaner"today - it found some broken registry entries and other temp files
but still the problem is there. ** as i mentioned b4 there is alot of
different posts on here all with the same cpu usage prob - i have copied 1
response -please advise what you think - can anyone tell me how to "disable
launch folders" to try it ?

thanks

process' (Explorer, Tools menu, Options, View tab, Advanced settings). what
is supposed to happen when this option is enabled is that additional
launches of explorer.exe open in their own (separate) process, BUT what
actually takes place is that only ONE additional instance of explorer.exe is
started for ALL future explorer launches AND (this is the important part),
that second explorer.exe process is started with HIGH priority. what
happens next of course is that the HIGH priority explorer.exe process
preempts all other processes (running at normal priority) when it launches,
and if you happen to be opening a folder containing objects with a lot of
metadata (like mp3s, etc), this explorer.exe running at high priority will
suck-up all cpu cycles as it processes the objects in the folder. that's
why if you've got music or video going in a media player at the same time
the new explorer is launched, the music/video will stall momentarily (the
player is running at normal priority and gets preempted by explorer).

the simplest work-around for this bug is to disable 'Launch folders in a
separate process' (disabled is the default) which will cause all instances
of explorer to launch as a child of the main (desktop) explorer.exe process,
which is running at normal priority.

the other work-around is to use the task manager to manually change the
priority of the second instance of explorer.exe (right-click on explorer.exe
process running at high priority and choose Set Priority, Normal) keep in
mind, when the second instance of explorer.exe is closed, the next time
explorer is launched, you will have to adjust its priority again.

(incidentally, i've reported this bug to microsoft on several occasions, but
they have neither acknowledged my e-mail nor the problem itself)

I was fighting this problem on a client's laptop. He tried to install
a webcam, and the system just froze up. Uninstalled the software but
the problem didn't go away. I determined that Paging File space was
maxing out, increasing at a steady rate until it reached about 2GB.
stopping explorer.exe would drop the PF memory usage back to a normal
level, but after restarting explorer.exe, it would climb back up.
Something with the camera software had triggered a memory leak!

I was able to stop the problem by installing SP2. Now all the memory
levels are in the normal range and the system is back to a robust
speed. Update you OS!

 

[Jeff Loftus]

Please see this post regarding high-priority instances of explorer.exe:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group..._doneTitle=Back+to+Search&&d#b578df73a8d9172f

thanks for the replies so far - i will try the new suggestions next week
asap, basic other info if it will help - my pc is 2k athlon,512mb ddr