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

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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
    2010-03-06T10:56:23+00:00

    Looks like I have finally solved the problem, thanks to some of the information in the Get Satisfaction forum.

    A few people had fixed their problem by vacuuming their CPU heat sink / fan. So I thought, what the heck, doesn't sound like a solution but I will give it a go. And it has fixed my problem. So the dust on the heat sink (which it had a bit as it was a few years old), looks like the problem, well more specifically the CPU getting to hot. 

    Although I don't suppose that every user will be comfortable with pulling their CPU heat sink apart, it did fix my problem.

    I also had noticed that my Hardware Acceleration in Windows Media Center would stop, so it got me to thinking it wasn't just Flash that was turning off Hardware Acceleration. I mainly noticed this when watching High Definition tv, which puts more CPU load on the system.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-02-24T16:21:27+00:00

    Memory/Disk hogging problems? This really works. If you don't care about sharing your media with networks, then this is a simple and effective fix before Microsoft figures it out. It disables the culprit WMPNETWK.EXE file that runs the Windows MediaPlayer Network Sharing Service (WMNSS) routine. Simply do this:

    1. Select START (bottom left)
    2. Type RUN > enter
    3. Type services.msc > OK
    4. Expand the NAME column, then scroll down to : Windows MediaPlayer Network Sharing Service5. Right click on that line, select STOP and wait for progress bar to end
    5. Right click again on same line, select PROPERTIES
    6. Change Startup Type from AUTOMATIC, to DISABLED
    7. Hit APPLY then OK

    This works--no more high system usage from this needless routine unless reactivated by reverting back to AUTOMATIC, then selecting START on previous screen.  A happy ending to the most frustrating WIN7 problem I've had.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-02-18T23:59:31+00:00

    Anyone have a Problem with deleting the file and never using WMP? If not, then read this.

    Just started using Windows 7 myself and this same problem came up for me too.  What a frickin waste of resources!!  If you rightclick in the task manager to see the properties of this process then you can change Permissions in the security tab. Good News, this will allow you to delete forever!  In the security tab, click on Advanced ...Now click the Effective Permissions tab....now click the Select button on the Group or user name line...in the open space literally type the administrator user name you are using which it should automatically find and close that window for you....but before you close the next window, you should be allowed to give yourself Full Control by checking the top box.  Don't leave that window yet...now click on the Owner tab and change the owner to yourself by choosing one from the list, instead of "trusted installer" like mine says. Now close that window and hopefully you're back at the original properties window we began with and still in the security tab. now click the Editbutton to change permissions...After selecting administrators click full control in the Allow column, then choose trusted installer and click full control in the Deny column.  I then went the folder C:/programfiles/windowsmediaplayer and deleted the file.  Hasn't been back since, and I also forgot to mention that I never used Windows Media Player anyway, so I was happy to remove it.  Hope this helps some of ya'll.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-02-18T23:52:22+00:00

    I was able to disable and delete my wmpnetwk.exe file, which I was very happy to do .   If you don't care about using WMP at all, then give this a shot.

    Just started using Windows 7 myself and this same problem came up for me too.  What a frickin waste of resources!!  If you rightclick in the task manager to see the properties of this process then you can change Permissions in the security tab. Good News, this will allow you to delete forever!  In the security tab, click on Advanced ...Now click the Effective Permissions tab....now click the Select button on the Group or user name line...in the open space, literally, type the administrator user name you are using, which it should automatically find and then close that window for you....but before you close the next window, you should be allowed to give yourself Full Control by checking the top box.  Don't leave that window yet...now click on the Owner tab and change the owner to yourself by choosing one from the list, instead of "trusted installer" like mine says. Now close that window and hopefully you're back at the original properties window we began with and still in the security tab. now click the Editbutton to change permissions...After selecting administrators click full control in the Allow column, then choose trusted installer and click full control in the Deny column.  I then went the folder C:/programfiles/windowsmediaplayer and deleted the file.  Hasn't been back since.  Hope this helps some of ya'll.

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