New Card Install causing 100% CPU usage

T

tim8604

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Apr 14, 2003
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Hello everyone. I just recently bought a 7900gtx used from a person that works at a local computer store. He has only had the card for 3 months but wanted to buy one of the new dx10 cards. I had a 6600gt agp before so this was a pretty solid upgrade for me. I decided to play it safe and removed the drivers throught the add/remove programs panel, then also by using a driver remover called nasty file remover. After all was said and done and the new drivers were installed I immediately noticed my computer running a little sluggish. It didn't take me long to figure out that any type of stress on my video card in windows was causing my CPU usage to shoot up from 0% to almost 100%. I was able to load up a few different games and play them decently well, but just by having only notepad open and dragging the window around my CPU usage would spike to 90%. I've tried removing the drivers and installing a new set but haven't had any luck. Now I'm trying to figure out if this is a hardware or software issue, and whether or not I should be worried that the guy sold me a defunct card. Help please! Thanks.

Windows XP Professional
Motherboard: http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdetails.asp?model=k8t890-a9
Processor: AMD 64 3500+
Graphics Card: MSI PCI-E 7900GTX 512 MB (tried latest drivers from guru3d and nvidia)
 
Uninstall all drivers once again via add/remove programs; download Driver Cleaner Pro and make sure it is up to date. Reboot computer into Safe Mode, and run Driver Cleaner making sure to select the nvidia graphics driver in the cleaning filters list. Reboot back into normal mode and install the nvidia drivers. This should remove all of the old drivers but I always run Driver Cleaner a couple of times just to make sure as it always ends up deleting more registry keys on the second run.......

EDIT: Oh and by the way, it wouldn't hurt to do the same thing for the Via chipset drivers, as you're moving from XGP (limited compatibility pseudo-AGP, I think it uses old school PCI) to pci-e.....
 
I hate to say it but I followed your steps exactly and they didn't have any effect. I am starting to think that this card is somehow damaged. Anyone else have any other ideas?
 
I have tried this method again and again with no luck. Can anyone else recommend a program or process that may be able to help me? Also just for the record is it possible that the card itself is somehow bad and causing this issue? Thanks.
 
Well, if you have a spare hardrive, pull your existing drive, pop in the spare, and do a fresh install of windows. See if the problem persists. It sounds like some kind of software problem.

Also, when the cpu goes to 100%, what process is it thats consuming all of the CPU? That would be a useful clue in solving this problem. If it is explorer.exe, then a reload of the os is likely needed at this point. If it is something else, tell us what.
 
That is the strangest part of it all. None of the processes are consuming enough for it to make 100% and none of them even seem to jump up at all.
 
I read your post carefully and realized that there doesn't seem to be any problem with your situation at all. You are saying that cpu usage spikes when you try and move windows around, etc. Windows doesn't use the capabilities of the video card to the full extend, it still relies heavily on the cpu when handling the gui graphics. If you are saying that games (i'm assuming recent D3D games) are running fine for you, there shouldn't be any problem with your card. Just in case though, make sure that your 'hardware acceleration' bar is set to full in windows display properties.
 
tim8604 said:
That is the strangest part of it all. None of the processes are consuming enough for it to make 100% and none of them even seem to jump up at all.
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I have seen a few pieces of hardware go bad and send interrupt usage through the roof (so much so that the CPU utilization was at 100% constantly, and a format and clean install of XP was no different. . . two or three times I saw this happen it was all on various model Thinkpads. . .). Download and run Process Explorer. This will give you a more detailed view of whats eating CPU cycles. 90+% CPU utilization while moving a few windows around is *NOT* normal, contrary to what a very people have said. My guess is drivers (either graphics card or chipset), but a faulty graphics card is not completely out of the question (*extremely* unlikely though).
 
Oooska said:
I have seen a few pieces of hardware go bad and send interrupt usage through the roof (so much so that the CPU utilization was at 100% constantly, and a format and clean install of XP was no different. . . two or three times I saw this happen it was all on various model Thinkpads. . .). Download and run Process Explorer. This will give you a more detailed view of whats eating CPU cycles. 90+% CPU utilization while moving a few windows around is *NOT* normal, contrary to what a very people have said. My guess is drivers (either graphics card or chipset), but a faulty graphics card is not completely out of the question (*extremely* unlikely though).
Click to expand...

Alright, then, you seem to have a system fitted for the exercise. Try and drag any window around the screen chaotically and see what your cpu load would be like. I am 95% sure that you WILL get processes of the windows currently visible spiking and giving a total load of ~100%. On all machines I worked on that was the case and I'm sure I've installed all the drivers the 'right' way. Bear in mind that the OP doesn't have any of the 'constant 100% load' symptoms you described.
 
fyi.gif
I just tested that. I opened up My Computer, dragged it around sporatically and it went up to 67%, and I have a dual core, so I'd imagine 90%+ on a 3500+ is extremely possible.
fyi.gif
 
ofDoom said:
Alright, then, you seem to have a system fitted for the exercise. Try and drag any window around the screen chaotically and see what your cpu load would be like. I am 95% sure that you WILL get processes of the windows currently visible spiking and giving a total load of ~100%. On all machines I worked on that was the case and I'm sure I've installed all the drivers the 'right' way. Bear in mind that the OP doesn't have any of the 'constant 100% load' symptoms you described.
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Seems to max out at 25% (so half of a core on an Opty 165) moving my browser around in a "chaotic" manner, 10% if I move it from one point to another without "chaotic" movements. Perhaps I merely misunderstood the OP, but it certainly didn't initially sound like this was the issue.
 
Hmm kinda weird. I tested it out on my system and saw the same jumps.

I run a 4400+ amd dual core, 7900gtx, 4gb ram.

Explorer.exe was about 40% while moving windows explorer around on the screen very fast.

I think it was suspicious to the OP, but isnt related to his sluggish performance.

OP, be more descriptive of your "sluggish" performance. Is it in games?
 
ZacharyS said:
fyi.gif
I just tested that. I opened up My Computer, dragged it around sporatically and it went up to 67%, and I have a dual core, so I'd imagine 90%+ on a 3500+ is extremely possible.
fyi.gif
Click to expand...

wow thats crazy i went from 4% jumped to 47 then to a sable 30 and as i stoped it went back down to 4.
 
when I open my computer it jumps to 16% then moving it around its 5-7% (did it a few times just to get an average)
 
I think this topic has proved one thing:

The numbers you get from dragging windows around mean absolutely nothing.
 
yeah, this happened to me too. When I drag any window across my desktop it'll spike to 90-100% on my processes.

I came down to the conclusion it may be setpoint software causing this problem.

Drivers with my logitech G7 mouse,
if you have any of that -related software, care to uninstall all the drivers.. and see how the moving of windows in desktop feel. It should keep it to a 40%-50%.. not the 90-100% we've experienced.
 
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