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100% CPU usage

nois forme

Scholar
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Joined
Jan 29, 2009
Messages
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Biostar P4M90-M4 w/ Celeron 2 GHz
2 gigs PNY DDR2 (PC2-6400, 400 MHz)
VIA Chrome9 HC IGP
Soundblaster 24 bit
Samsung 40 GB
XP Pro, SP 3
Linksys E2000


Problem: Browsers eating up 100% of CPU, esp. with flash sites. This is the case with firefox, IE, chrome and opera. All are sluggish and tough to use (loading, scrolling, new pages, etc.), but esp. on flash sites where they are just broken.

My other machine using the same browser and flash version, on the same network, runs great. That makes me think it isn't actually a flash or browser issue per se, but something very wrong in my machine.


I have...

freshly installed XP Pro, fully updated - SP3 (+defrag after the install)

removed and reseated the RAM

checked for updates on board (chipsets, graphic, ethernet, etc) and sound card

ran spybot and hijack this scans with clean results (though the machine hadn't been online 'till that moment)

done a few speed tests - results;
17.25 down, 4.16 up
12.21 down, 2.01 up
19.58 down, 4.06 up, on three diff. sites

installed latest browser and flash plugins

most unneeded services manual or disabled


Video in general plays well locally (even if I stream it from the other PC via the network), and my downloads don't seem half bad - just the browser(s) performance is non existent.

Any ideas would be appreciated - this things a paperweight. Thx
 
My mother's computer was doing the same thing, the problem turned out to be a setting in the anti-virus program. I unchecked a box and it's been fine ever since.

Are you sure it's your browsers that are the culprit? Have you brought up the task manager to confirm which program is hogging all your resources? Press ctrl+alt+del all at the same time to start the task manager. Then click the "processes" tab, and everything running on your computer should show up, along with what % of the CPU it's using.
 
WildCat said:
My mother's computer was doing the same thing, the problem turned out to be a setting in the anti-virus program. I unchecked a box and it's been fine ever since.

Are you sure it's your browsers that are the culprit? Have you brought up the task manager to confirm which program is hogging all your resources? Press ctrl+alt+del all at the same time to start the task manager. Then click the "processes" tab, and everything running on your computer should show up, along with what % of the CPU it's using.
Click to expand...

I'll second wildcat's hypothesis that this could be an antivirus issue. The only thing that I'd add to this is that after bringing up task manager, you may have to check the 'show processes from all users' box at the bottom of the task manager window to make sure you see everything. If there's a task that's using all the CPU power and you don't know what it is, google will usually know.
 
Perhaps a combination of the browser and antivirus? I'm forced to use Symantec nonsense on my work PC and there are times when the virus software's "web shielding" (or whatever they call it) goes hog wild with CPU and hard drive usage, to the point that I occasionally have to reset the PC to get it back to fighting shape.
 
I had a similar-sounding problem some months back when I accepted an update to my virus software onto an XP machine. I think the AV s/w was Symantec. Switched to Microsoft Security Essentials and all became well.
 
1. Run task manager, set it to see all users processes on the process tab, what is eating CPU
2. Depending on the process you can then try to run it down, although it is usually obvious

the alternative is to check you add ons and remove any and all BHOs, I think it is probably your AV, what do you use?
 
I would second what others are saying ie use ctrl+alt+del to call up task manager and look at the process tab to see what's hogging it. I've just had a similar experience and surprisingly it's AOL hogging 100% of my cpu even though I haven't upgraded it recently. It's intermittent as sometimes it's fine, sometimes it intermittently grabs 100% (even though I'm not actually doing anything) and sometimes it grabs 100% and won't let go (shutting down and restarting AOL seems to clear it then).

I'm limping along with it for now (just shut it down after checking my emails) as I haven't had time to seek a cure and can't be bothered to change ISP's as, despite reputation, they've actually given me years of good service and I can't face changing my email address all over the place.
 
Similar problem here. I was watching YouTube and it started doing the slide-show thing... Pulled up task manager and the "Performance" was showing spiking into the 100% use range and back down again.
The standard processes list did not show any unusual activity. ( I didn't try the "all users" trick)
I've been having lots of similar problems lately, multi-tasking just to the extent of having a couple of windows open causing severe lags or freezes...
I just assumed the rather old single-core machine is dying.
 
Flash of late seem to have become huge resource hogs for whatever reason (at least on XP). Even older games that used to play just fine have bogged down in the last 6 months or so even with a fresh install. I don't know enough about programming Flash apps but if I had to guess I'd say that the player has been adding features that are poorly written as far as system resources are concerned because the newer systems already had to have so much RAM to work anyway and Dual and Quad CPU's are becoming more common.
 
Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I started to respond individually, but that was gettin' messy.

Regarding whether or not it's a browser issue; Yes, that is the process that's consuming the CPU (which isn't to say I think the browser or flash is the issue per se, that's just where the problem rears it head). That is what shows in the task manager, for each browser I tried. Aside form essential Window's processes, nothing is running during these tests.

Currently, Firefox and Plugin Container (Firefox's counterpart) each fluctuate around 40-60% each, totaling 100% in the performance tab when viewing Flash vids. The same occurs with IE, Opera and Chrome when viewing Flash video. Otherwise they are still quite sluggish, but not stuck at 100% as they are with Flash. ex. - Resizing this window just put it between 90-100%, then it dropped back down. With Flash, it's pinned.

Second, the antivirus issue. Good call, as I've had that issue myself, but let me explain...please read on, no stone throwing! :) "I had not yet put any antivirus/firewall protection on" The steps were essentially this; completely wiped drive, new installation of XP Pro and updates, and updated chipset (integrated graphics, ethernet, etc.).

At that point, I wanted to see if the integrated graphics would stream Flash or not 'cause I've had issues with that before. I've only had experience with AGP and PCI vid cards, never just on board stuff, so I wasn't sure how they performed.
So for that first streaming, no antivirus/firewall protection was installed, specifically 'cause it can cause issues with stuttering, lagging, etc, depending on settings and the like, and I wanted to eliminate that possibility while I checked out what the integrated graphics would do.

I went to my YouTube page to stream one of my uploads. 100% CPU, right away, and it never let up. That's when I tried the other browsers, just to see. All the same. I had not been online with this machine before this, so no chance of infection prior to that. That said, I didn't want to overlook any possibility, so I have since scanned with Malware Bytes, Spybot and Hijack This with clean results across the board. (shortest 'hijack this' report I think I've seen -19 items total. Heh. So no, there's not much in the way of BHOs (2 actually, acrobat and divxhtml5). Nothing there but what I've put there - network stuff, Yahoo messenger, ...) I also had no extensions/add ons with FIrefox for the tests, and even tried it in safe mode. No joy.

So; - all browsers quite laggy, and Flash maxs CPU on all of 'em
- it isn't an antivirus conflict (as none were installed)
- the machine appears completely clean and is updated.
Oh, and I'm one of those that kill a number of the useless background processes in an effort to keep things streamlined. There's very little running here, and the CPU usage just doesn't jive at all.

One other thing; I'm leaning towards a driver issue, even though I've installed everything I could find. I say this because of my other machine. This is the worst of de ja vu incidents. It behaved identically to this machine at one point. Drove me nuts for so long, and ended up being a stinkin' audio driver for my m-audio card. I guess it had become corrupted(?). Changed that, and it's quick as could be now. No such luck here yet.

That's where it's at sadly. No progress yet. Thx folks
 
Sam.I.Am said:
Flash of late seem to have become huge resource hogs for whatever reason (at least on XP).
Click to expand...
Too true unfortunately. While searching numerous posts and forums looking for a solution, the number of cries for help about Flash and CPU strain was just nuts. Sadly, none of the solutions have worked for me yet, but there's a sizable number of people hating Flash about now. Personally, I can't decide, as it works well on my other XP machine.
 
Hmm, I have to wonder with that much RAM and your processor it should not be a problem.
I can stream Youtube with about 42% on Chrome. So I am sort of suprised bu then I have an outdated 128M video card as well, I only have 1.5 GB of RAM.

So it could be the onboard video card.
 
Seems to me most of the problems I've been having are while trying to view YouTube vids as well....
I have an older single-core processor, 2 gigs of RAM, and a decent video card (this used to be my gaming machine!)
I may try the current video-card drivers; never hurts.
 
If it's a flash issue, you should run the task manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL) and see if it's Firefox's "Plugin Container" task that eats up all your CPU-power...
 
Oliver said:
If it's a flash issue, you should run the task manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL) and see if it's Firefox's "Plugin Container" task that eats up all your CPU-power...
Click to expand...

Thanks, and it is in fact plugin manager that shows the most usage, but unfortunately disabling the dom.ipc in about:config (used to disable plugin container) is of no help. The load just transfers 100% to Firefox itself. Same CPU usage results in IE, Opera and Chrome BTW.

I was leaning towards some sort of realtek chip conflict (with my Creative card), but disabling that didn't help. *sigh*
 
Bikewer said:
...
I may try the current video-card drivers; never hurts.
Click to expand...

Definitely doesn't hurt. On my first machine, I had strikingly similar symptoms to my current dilemma. Flash vids would simply not play anymore. Horrible slide-show jerkiness...ugh.

It all turned out to be my m-audio driver (sound card). Perhaps it had become corrupted? Not sure, but replacing that fixed everything. No issues since (about a year ago). Certainly worth a shot updating all your drivers, they can be fickle beasts.
 
nois forme said:
Thanks, and it is in fact plugin manager that shows the most usage, but unfortunately disabling the dom.ipc in about:config (used to disable plugin container) is of no help. The load just transfers 100% to Firefox itself. Same CPU usage results in IE, Opera and Chrome BTW.

I was leaning towards some sort of realtek chip conflict (with my Creative card), but disabling that didn't help. *sigh*
Click to expand...


Well, maybe you don't have to disable the plugin manager. I use an addon called Flashblock that replaces every flash file with a play button so I can choose whether I'd like to run the flash data.

The add-on is available here:
Flashblock :: Add-ons for Firefox
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashblock/
 
I just updated my video card drivers, but no help. YouTube still cycles between about 65%-100% usage while a video is running. I don't suppose it helps that there's an unending stream of Flash adverts on the screen either...

Finding the current driver for my card was not easy... My rig is getting creaky.
 
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