Vista Sidebar: CPU Spikes

T

theTIK

Gawd
Joined
Jul 3, 2003
Messages
757
My Vista sidebar every once and a while goes into these continuous cpu spikes, up to 50% and back down again, over and over again. I took some screen shots to show you what I am talking about, if the close the sidebar and open it again it stops doing this. The only gadgets I have open are the ones shown in the screenshot. Any idea why it keeps doing this when I have the sidebar open for a long time or how to stop it from spiking?
sidebar1of3.jpg

sidebar2fr1.jpg
 
calebb said:
fixed :)
Click to expand...

To each their own: I prefer starting with simplicity. :) (If you disable gadget 1, and the problem is solved, is it because gadget 1 is bad, or because gadget 3 doesn't like gadget 1?)

To be thorough - you should test gadget 1, gadget 2, gadget 3. If each works alone, try 1&2, 1&3, 2&3. If each of those combinations work, then you just have to get rid of one :)
 
Actually...if I had to hazard I guess...I'd say the DriveInfo gadget is the problem. I know early versions I had played around with had a bit of a memory leak issue...
 
I agree. Disable the HDInfo one and see if it continues. If not, it may be with the uptime. Don't know why, though. The CPU usage one shouldn't cause a problem (doesn't on mine, but neither does the HDInfo).

But, I have to admit: I really do like the Sidebar on Vista. It's a nice addition. Yes, I used the Desktop Sidebar with XP... Widescreen monitor really helps, too.
 
It's definatly the drive one. It probably updates by constantly polling the drives. Tried it for a few hours but then got rid of it.
 
Just reiterating, it's drive info.

I'm still pretty surprised that [H] recommended it without warning, or at least edit their review accordingly.
 
The driveinfo gadget by kris thompson has known issues with cpu usage and memory leaks. don't use it (even though it very cool looking) right now I am using one by preston hunt at http://prestonhunt.com/
 
Just about anything which polls your system hardware will cause CPU 'spikes'. the important thing isn't that they are there - it's whether or not they have negative impact on your productivity.

Run productivity diagnostics on your system and test. You can't just 'assume' that because you can detect them that they are causing harm. If your usage highlights the importance of producing DVDS, for example, look at the results of video encoding tests with and without the tools enabled. Is the difference of any import? If it's a teensy, tiny one you might as well leave the thing enabled and forget about the 'spikes'. If the performance differential is drastic you'd probably be best to disable the tool and leave it disabled.


etc etc etc, according to your usage requirements.
 
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