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
    2009-11-25T18:49:00+00:00

    Well this looks more along of the line of the problem I am having. I've tried everything with no solution. At first I thought it might had been a hardware issue, but I can't be sure. When I do start experiencing the slowness, I did once disable my graphics card, and the spike was gone, or serverly reduced, and when I enabled it, the slowness returned. All drivers are up to date. I've checked the process list, but nothing is taking up resources, tried restarting explorer, nothing! Oh, and I've disabled all the eye candy, and I still get it.

    NVIDIA GTS 250

    AMD Phenom II X4 955 B.E.

    4 GB 1600 MHz 240-Pin SDRAM DDR3

    ASUS M4A79T Deluxe motherboard

    It would be great if a MS person posted in here letting us know whats going on!


    Randall

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  2. Anonymous
    2009-11-25T05:01:28+00:00

    zxypher's comment about Windows Media Network Sharing Service made me remember (i think) a similar problem in Vista.  Try opening up services.msc and changing that service to 'disabled.'  I'd be interested to know if it stops the spikes.

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  3. Anonymous
    2009-11-22T17:00:28+00:00

    I have noticed that Windows Media Network Sharing Service (WMNSS) is running between 30 - 48% of my CPU all by itself. Last night I had absolutely nothing running and wanted to watch a DVD on my computer. I had watched one already but when I stuck the next one in, the CPU jammed itself at 100% and the computer became unresponsive. I tried to shut down processes that were unnecessary, but all this did was make the situation worse. The last thing I did was try to stop services on the WMNSS then the computer pretty much froze. I would have to force a logoff and each time I started the task manager or even clicked the START button, it would just freeze again.

    I finally resolved this issue by restart--> going to msconfig-->shutting down a bunch of useless start-up items-->and making the start-up of WMNSS manual along with a couple other services.

    Now my CPU is at 8 - 10% on the low end but the performance monitor is still showing heavy spikes in CPU usage every second. At least it is only a quarter of what I was getting, but it still is indicative of some kind of stability issue in the system. DPC Latency Checker is showing 200 µs upwards of 321 µs upon start-up of this (DPC) program. Looking at processes in order of CPU usage, I noticed how 4 - 5 processes are jumping all over the place in %. AVG firewall services are going from 0% up to 46% back down to 2% and so forth each tick. This is not the only process doing this. And no its not a firewall incompatibility issue. It is the only firewall/AV I have running.

    Running an intel dual core processor with 6GB RAM on a 64-bit brand new computer, I should not be having an issue.

    I'm hoping someone may have a permanent fix for this that creates a more stable environment.

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  4. Anonymous
    2009-11-18T20:31:48+00:00

    Mine is a clean install. I have pandora one, firefox, and MS Antivirus running (plus taskman and Resource monitor).  And no, before anyone asks, MS AV is not running a scan.

    My CPU goes between 40 and 80 percent.

    I'm running Win7 Pro 64bit. Dual Core Intel CPU w/8GB of RAM.  Dell E6500.  Nvidia

    It doesn't do it all the time, but when it does, it just goes to ____ in a hand basket.

    I've monitored various aspects of the system trying to catch the culprit.

    From everything I can tell, it's a driver issue of some type.  Driver latency climbed through the roof (DBC Latency Checker).  My normal Latency is 500 or lower. When this happens, my latency is all over the place, spiking up over 4000.  DPC Latency Checker @ www.thesycon.de

    Anyway, it magically resolves itself. I've tried stopping services and just about everything else I can think of.

    It's so random. I've got the latest drivers, etc.

    As I write this my CPU has been fluctuating been 30 and 50%. Incredibly high considering what I have open right now.

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