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.

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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/

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-08-05T05:35:59+00:00

    I think and feel positive about this and its my remedy to all my problems without reservations 

    I never let anything sit on my hard drive and I clear my cache so often and this includes my 

    web history and I clear so many things, it just makes sense to me.  I also go and do a weekly defrag

    even my os doesn't need it.  I have Asus CM 5570 with 6gb and 750gigs and only using 190gigs of HD

    and everything thing else I put on an external and disk and without the dvdrw drive I would trying to 

    remember what I did and what I have on my hard drive just take the time to go through your hard drive

    and if it does not seem relevant then it must not be?  Do some homework people and do some maintence

    cause if it was a car or a boat you would!!!

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-07-30T22:26:38+00:00

    i had the same problem, when idol my system cpu cores would be around 20 percent, and when i watched videos online my cores would max at 100 percent through the whole video, believe it or not, one day i downloaded a registry cleaner and ran it and now my cores at idol are around 5 percent and when i watch online videos now the cores are at 30 percent, but they do max out for a second or two but they dont stay jacked up at 100 percent through the whole video, i did nothing to the page file or anything else, so i dont know if there was something going on in my registry or it was just a freak thing

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-07-26T21:16:54+00:00

    By the screen shot, one thing for sure you computer is infected with virus. End process the setup.tmp and your cpu usage will drop drastically. If it solve try to manually remove this virus. click start and type msconfig and hit enter. and in the startup tab uncheck setup.tmp and on the services tab click hide all microsoft services and then have a look for any suspicious service which is not related to any software you have installed. Also check the location of setup.tmp from startup tab and go to that location and delete that file. It will help you a lot i hope. Good luck

    This process will help also others but only have to find out program that is not windows program and still using high cpu usage.

    Vanshaj Daga

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-07-26T21:10:04+00:00

    try to update your display driver for your display card manufacturer website. It will surely help you at least. Good Luck!

    Vanshaj Daga

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