Why is one of my cores always at 90%? Vista Ultimate 64

M

Mopower

Gawd
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Feb 13, 2006
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I have Vista Ultimate 64. I've had this install for about 2 months. Starting this week I've noticed my CPU's are either maxed or above 50% and jump between the two. Before I noticed this they used to be at 0% when I wasn't using the PC. Just with the desktop up. I haven't installed any new programs or anything other than Spore. But I just noticed this today. And I installed Spore last night but I don't know what that would have to do with it.

processes.jpg


Here are the processes running. This is right after restarting my PC. My PC has the specs in my sig. I also ran NOD32 and it didn't find anything.

Thanks for the help.
 
It's because Vista hates you...

anyways from that SS I don't see anything wrong. Looks like a normal task manager. You might try killing the iTunesHelper/iPod Service/And that other itunes related background process. I have them set to manual on my system and kill them after I'm done using itunes+ipod. itunes just loves to have extra crap running in the background even when you aren't using it.
 
I see you have uTorrent running too. When it gets hammered, your computer might feel a bit of lag - your network as well.

I don't mean to paint you in a bad light, but I have to ask, did you by any chance get Spore from a torrent site? If so, well.. you never know what you're really getting with downloaded programs.
 
get one of those thread/process monitoring tools (ala the old sysinternals) and see whats actually using the CPU up.
 
Process Explorer is the best task manager for Windows that I've used so far. I highly recommend it to anyone as a task manager replacement.
 
You also should check the box to show tasks for all users. That way, you'll know exactly what process or processes are using up the CPU time.
 
I'll try those suggestions. And no I didn't download Spore. I bought it. I don't download PC games other than from Steam. uTorrent is for TV shows. ;)
 
Found it! I used Process Explorer and the culprit was my PlayOn server. It's a program that allows you to watch Hulu videos on your PS3. I've had to download the newest version the other day and it must have been causing it since. It was using 47% of the CPU at all times. I uninstalled it and now the problem is gone.

Thanks for the help.
 
Guys, do you do realize that Vista comes with it's own tool that shows you what is taking the most cpu processes, right? It also shows you what's using the most ram, and what's causing the most disk activity and network usage.

When you saw the cpu was at 90%, if you would of clicked that 'resource monitor' button, and opened the CPU panel, it would of shown you. About 10 seconds of work could of saved you 6 hours.
 
I had a sidebar gadget that was causing CPU spikes up to 30%. Got rid of it and no more spikes.
 
bigdogchris said:
Guys, do you do realize that Vista comes with it's own tool that shows you what is taking the most cpu processes, right? It also shows you what's using the most ram, and what's causing the most disk activity and network usage.

When you saw the cpu was at 90%, if you would of clicked that 'resource monitor' button, and opened the CPU panel, it would of shown you. About 10 seconds of work could of saved you 6 hours.
Click to expand...

Not everyone is privy to all the in's and out's of Vista. You could've saved us all 6 hours worth of work by posting earlier in the thread. :p

Either way thanks for the tip.
 
bigdogchris said:
Guys, do you do realize that Vista comes with it's own tool that shows you what is taking the most cpu processes, right? It also shows you what's using the most ram, and what's causing the most disk activity and network usage.

When you saw the cpu was at 90%, if you would of clicked that 'resource monitor' button, and opened the CPU panel, it would of shown you. About 10 seconds of work could of saved you 6 hours.
Click to expand...

The built-in Task Manager isn't as granular as Process Explorer, but it can still do the job just as well.
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
The built-in Task Manager isn't as granular as Process Explorer, but it can still do the job just as well.
Click to expand...

He's not talking about task manager; he's talking about resource monitor. You can access it on the performance tab of the task manager or from the reliability and performance monitor shortcut.
 
bigdogchris said:
Guys, do you do realize that Vista comes with it's own tool that shows you what is taking the most cpu processes, right? It also shows you what's using the most ram, and what's causing the most disk activity and network usage.

When you saw the cpu was at 90%, if you would of clicked that 'resource monitor' button, and opened the CPU panel, it would of shown you. About 10 seconds of work could of saved you 6 hours.
Click to expand...



I wasn't working on this problem for 6 hours. I made topic. Went to work. Got home fixed it. It's all good. I saw the spike with my CPU widget not the task manager anyway.
 
tgrimley said:
He's not talking about task manager; he's talking about resource monitor. You can access it on the performance tab of the task manager or from the reliability and performance monitor shortcut.
Click to expand...

I know this. Both apps have sections to observe performance, which is what I'm comparing.
 
bigdogchris said:
Guys, do you do realize that Vista comes with it's own tool that shows you what is taking the most cpu processes, right? It also shows you what's using the most ram, and what's causing the most disk activity and network usage.

When you saw the cpu was at 90%, if you would of clicked that 'resource monitor' button, and opened the CPU panel, it would of shown you. About 10 seconds of work could of saved you 6 hours.
Click to expand...



Problem is, the Windows version does not show hardware interupts..... Process Explorer does.

I had a similar problem, went nuts trying to figure out what it was since windows showed jackshit. Turned out to be a driver for an old NIC I had in there.
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
I know this. Both apps have sections to observe performance, which is what I'm comparing.
Click to expand...

The difference is that the resource monitor in Vista isn't a separate (third-party) application you need to install.. Ctrl+Shift+Esc --> Performance tab --> Resource Monitor.

Very handy indeed.
 
You can do the same with Process Explorer. It doesn't need to be installed since it comes in a zip. You can place it in any folder of your choosing & access it any time.

View -> System Information is the replacement for the Resource Monitor.
Options -> Replace Task Manager is the option to change it to be the default & be called up at any time with Ctrl+Shift+Esc.
 
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