Windows 7 has High CPU Usage and slow performance

Anonymous

Hello all,

I've searched the forums, but was unable to find anything relevant. I recently upgraded to Windows 7 from Vista. It was running fine for about a week then all of a sudden everything started running very slow. I checked the the processes tab in task manager and I am constantly running at 70-80% CPU usage. I think this is very high considering the computer is only a few months old. It seems like others are having this problem as well, but no real solutions.

I have turned off file indexing as well as disabled the HD audio device.

Please help!

Here are my hardware specs:

AMD 9550 Quad-Core

64-bit

6GB Ram

Thank you in advance for your help. I am ready to toss this thing from my second story window.

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Anonymous

I think the answer might be the Windows Media Player and Windows Media Network Sharing Services as zxypher suggested. The fix for that is to adjust were the Windows Media Player services search for media files.

It seems to be a bad problem for me as well upgrading from Vista to Windows 7. The default search location for media is set to C:\Users\ instead of down in the My Music folders.

Go into Media Player. From the menu -> File -> Manage libraries -> select each library (music, video, pictures, recorded tv [if you have]) and check the paths that it is managing and make sure it is not too close to the root of the C: drive. For example, it should be something like c:\users\Jim\Music and c:\users\Public\Music BUT NOT **** c:\users as they will cause the whole directory tree to be re-indexed over and over (when you surf the web or change any files in your profile).

If you have multiple users who login to the computer, you may need to repeat the process for each user if all users have added managed folders which are actively changing on a regular basis.

If this is your issue and you do it correctly, then the high CPU should drop in minutes (or seconds down to nothing).

This is the CORRECT way to adjust the WMNSS/WMPNetwk.exe process issues.

A little more information can be found here:

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7performance/thread/2fe4901b-2eaf-4a99-b487-e6a6213b10b3/

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253 additional answers

Anonymous

2011-10-14T15:37:53+00:00

Wow. Instant relief. Who needs any stinkin' libraries when I don't use Windows Media Playe anyway. I just eliminated libraries altogether. CPU usage went from a constant 100% to a scant 8% with Safari running. Thanks!
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Anonymous

2011-10-13T02:48:11+00:00

Carl,

I can't see how I can fix this problem. I already use a selective startup. It mainly happen in a music room, and I can't not avoid using audiodg.exe file. The problem started with a hard drive change so I will see if it ends with a change to an SSD drive, and a storage drive, and a 64 bit OS?? Other alternatives are to use another media player, in lieu of WMP12? The other odd thing is that only 1 CPU core goes hyper??

P
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Anonymous

2011-10-11T15:24:56+00:00

I have had the same problem. It can be as a result of a corrupted media file as addressed in an earlier reply. Microsoft has a hotfix for this at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976417. I hope this helps. It helped me, but did not completely reuce the cpu usage.

Another thing to try if it does not fix the problem or only partially redues the cpu usage is to run msconfig, go to the startup tab and click the disable all button and then restart the computer. If the problem goes away, you can then selectively re-enable each startup item in mcconfig to identify the troublesome item. Just click the start button and type msconfig in the search box to get started.

Good luck!

sb

Thanks poster--this was EXACTLY the problem.
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Anonymous

2011-09-18T05:35:21+00:00

JM

I couldn't find Message Queing, so I guess it must already be disabled, either on my 32 bit desktop or 64 bit Laptop, but thanks for the info it may help a few others. I run Home Premium so I hope it is not related to a certain version

09/10/2011

As stated earlier, this all started with a harddrive change for me, and I an wondering if hardware can cause this, just of late the dirive I installed, has been running a lot of "chkdsk" scans. I also use System Mechanics, as a clean up program, another program I have been using for years, Norton flags that as an excessive CPU Usage when it optimises the drive, basically a fancy drefrag. So I am thinking I may have a few suspect sectors on the drive? Anyway I am going to get an SSD drive, and another spindle drive and see if that solves the issue?

Pisces
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