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

2012-03-20T18:16:12+00:00

I found that none of my libraries were out of the ordinary. Although, MSCONFIG->Services->disable WMNSS= Success on my end.

My problem was my performance was cutting into my gaming and causing me to restart again and again from massive spikes in what I thought was my connection.

I brought up Task Manager just to humor myself and BAM! I see that it's my computer (75%-100% CPU USAGE) and not the ISP's fault.

I would apologize for the chewing out I gave them because of my own misjudgment, but they are terrible at being consistent anyway, so I'll say they deserve a little kick in the butt every once in a while.

Thank you for the answer!

Also to zxypher, I actually read his answer first. I tend to scroll through the pile and see which Solution is the most consistent, so I rarely read the first answer out of the gate.
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Anonymous

2012-03-15T02:26:22+00:00

Glen,

You leave your backup drive plugged in?? But you may be onto something, I have used WD internal drives on all my builds, only because the PC store I deal with is a distributor and close by a 5 minute drive from home.

How many others use WD drives internally and suffer the problem of excessive CPU usage??

Pisces
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Anonymous

2012-03-14T23:25:35+00:00

My cpu returned to normal after I uninstalled Western Digital Backup Software for my external drive. It was staying at 100% usage, you can imagine how bad that lagged the pc. I had Windows 7 on an HP Pavailion a1020n. Originally came with XP.
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Anonymous

2012-03-10T03:18:23+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.
Was this answer helpful?

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