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
    2010-07-25T20:19:02+00:00

    Have you made the xperf trace? If yes, share the trace file.


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

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-07-25T16:52:06+00:00

    Oh god, even I am going crazy over this! I had used both the RC version of Win 7 and the Ultimate version of Win 7 before, I never faced a problem before. My problem is that all my games lag when I start playing them. Even the ones that have very low system requirements as well as the ones that i used to play before getting a HD 4850 graphic card. I am at a loss as to why this is happening. I had made a system image of windows 7 right after installation. I have since then tried replacing the win 7 image file, which makes my OS installation "brand new", but that didnt seem to help.

    I have tried disabling all the services except for a few ones that were mandatory and couldnt be stopped. Defragmenting the hard drive. Vaccuming and blowing dust off my cabinet and processor. uninstalling all the apps. Playing the games at the lowest resolution possible. Disabling cool and quite from the BIOS. And may be a few things I dont remember...

    First I thought this was a problem when I was playing games and stuff. But since then I have noticed that "lag/stuttering/100% CPU utilization " appears even when I am watching online videos, and talk on Gtalk. There is this stutter that keeps on happening at regular intervals.

    I think I have a fairly decent pc.

    X2 6000+

    2GB RAM

    HD 4850

    24 inch Benq monitor

    I am at a loss as to why this is happening. If this problem isnt solved soon, I think I am going to get back to XP

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-07-24T18:31:12+00:00

    So still no solution?  Any other suggestions?  SMC Networks couldn't do anything.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-07-22T12:56:10+00:00

    It was the page file in my case. I moved the page file to a different drive (not leaving any on the system drive, despite Windows' warning), so that it would be created there.

    ok, thanks for letting us know what was your cause. So my guess with the pagefile was right.


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

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