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
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

253 additional answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2010-10-24T20:23:57+00:00

    also make a xperf trace and give the etl file

    "A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2010-10-24T13:57:20+00:00

    Thanks everyone for the info. I did download and run the Process Explorer and I will keep this for future use. However I think some of you miss understood my intentions; I posted here merely as information to others and to Microsoft that there are Problems with running Gadgets and the process “SideBar.exe”. I’ve had problems on my Home PC with running Gadgets where the Gadgets would eat up 20 to 30% CPU cycles at times. But on THIS PC (my Work PC) when I had Gadgets Loaded, the Process “SideBar.exe” would show usage of 5% to 10%. But the Process “SYSTEM” would show usage of 50% to 70% all the time which was totally confusing. After closing all Gadgets from my Desktop which then would also close the “SideBar.exe” process, I NOW have the “SYSTEM” process show usage of 0% to 2% except when I would have something running as normal. So my real question would be why would a Gadget ever need that much CPU time from the “SYSTEM” process? Anyway as much as I like using desktop Gadgets, until Microsoft can do something about this Monster Called Gadgets eating up CPU cycles, I’ve stopped using Gadgets. Therefore my Problem is solved. Again, Thank you for all your info and I hope that this might help someone else.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2010-10-24T12:39:56+00:00

    the kernel.etl doesn't have all data. You must run the 2nd xperf command to write it ito the latency.etl Also zip the file to reduce the size.

    "A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2010-10-24T11:03:37+00:00

    I'm sorry I didn't do it with Skydrive. But de file was to big.

    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YYBN2OC9 here you are. ;)

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments