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
    2011-07-08T15:00:48+00:00

    I too have a similar problem.

    I do not have any solutions. Sometimes the pc runs fine then it just slows right down with cpu at 100%.

    The problem usually occurs when online, sometimes with i.e. and sometimes with Firefox, however sometimes it does it offline too.

    It just seems so random. Someone suggested a trojan is in there somewhere...

    ...by the way, my sign in assistant has packed in the last time the pc had automatic updates. Anyone else have this also ?

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-05-02T15:34:06+00:00

    i have been having this prob as of late, though for me it seems to be only when my xbox is on downstairs and its streaming tv. if your doing the same turn it off and see if its still doing the same thing. for me it was my xbox using the 32 bit version of wmp     (windows 7 64bit)

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-04-28T21:48:08+00:00

    OK, I loaded all the available Updates (recommended) and moved back to Office 2007, doing the same steps I did before the problem. CPU % is still low, so I think we can rule out the updates for now. I have to reload some additional software and we will see how it goes. Still looks like this is a virus or other malware at this point. Will let you know if the problem reappears.

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-04-27T21:50:01+00:00

    I used the Windows 7 restore capability to return the point right after I installed Windows 7 and Office 2010. CPU # is between 3% and 15% now.

    My next steps are to install all Windows updates, then reload software until the problem reappears. I will post here when I find the cause.

    My suspicion is some kind of malware that got past McAfee and my firewall. This will be indicated if the problem does not recur, but it is not conclusive. I am also watching the number of connections to outside sites (using the Resource Monitor). Whatever was eating CPU was making a lot of outgoing connections to port 80 on sites such as Google and Verisign.

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