Windows 7 has High CPU Usage and slow performance

Anonymous
2009-11-18T04:59:29+00:00

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.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2010-01-02T19:29:42+00:00

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/

Was this answer helpful?

100+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments No comments

253 additional answers

Sort by: Newest
  1. Anonymous
    2011-04-27T21:50:01+00:00

    I used the Windows 7 restore capability to return the point right after I installed Windows 7 and Office 2010. CPU # is between 3% and 15% now.

    My next steps are to install all Windows updates, then reload software until the problem reappears. I will post here when I find the cause.

    My suspicion is some kind of malware that got past McAfee and my firewall. This will be indicated if the problem does not recur, but it is not conclusive. I am also watching the number of connections to outside sites (using the Resource Monitor). Whatever was eating CPU was making a lot of outgoing connections to port 80 on sites such as Google and Verisign.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2011-04-27T20:32:36+00:00

    Did you ever hear from Microsoft? Did you ever get a fix? I have the same problem. Microsoft is a real productivity killer.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2011-04-18T01:22:12+00:00

    itook pc back to store (asus) went with hp  it runs about 5 to 10 % all the timeonly thing different is i didnt install kodak software this time , relevant , i dont know.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2011-04-17T09:28:58+00:00

    Disabling services is not in general terms the solution as it leaves the computer with errors and it will malfunction. You are building a second level of error on the original problem.

    Look at Applications not Services!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments