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

2012-02-29T07:26:26+00:00

William,

By removing those links when i click on "music" which is where I store my music the folder it is empty, so I have lost my music stored @ c:\user\music\my music. Totally unhelpful idea. I hope when I replace it I can get all my music and pics back. yes your CPU usage is down because you just deleted the libary(s)?

Pisces

IT Tech cert 3

obviously you do not remove legitimate pointers to 'c:\user\music\my music' (lol) you should read original post by #djeffrey# again - he explains it perfectly - trust me it works :)
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Anonymous

2012-02-29T06:22:49+00:00

William,

By removing those links when i click on "music" which is where I store my music the folder it is empty, so I have lost my music stored @ c:\user\music\my music. Totally unhelpful idea. I hope when I replace it I can get all my music and pics back. yes your CPU usage is down because you just deleted the libary(s)?

Pisces

IT Tech cert 3
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Anonymous

2012-02-28T13:28:29+00:00

open WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER, you will see MUSIC/VIDEOS/PICTURES etc on left-hand side, RIGHT CLICK on MUSIC and select MANAGE MUSIC LIBRARY then REMOVE any short paths that 'djeffrey' pointed out, like c:/ or c:/users (too close to root) I just did it.....and it works, CPU USAGE at 2% now :)

I am sure that I am having the same problem with media player and libraries. Am operating at 99% cpu all the time now and can't make anything go smoothly.

When I upgraded to Windows 7 MUCH of my music was DOUBLED because Windows 7 wants to put things in "libraries" instead of "my music." I don't know how to fix this. One person said to go into "files" in media center but on my Windows 7 that doesn't exist.

HELP!
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Anonymous

2012-02-28T13:21:25+00:00

good shout - I just upgraded to Win7 64-bit XPS8300 i-7 12Gig RAM, 2TB external HD...slow as BEEP ! once I found your answer it worked fine back down to <5% when idle (was constantly 80-100% before) - thanks !!!!

djeffrey
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