CPU goes through the roof when syncing on iTunes

[paradoximoron]

First, my system info:

Acer Aspire x3200-U3600A, no modifications
AMD Phenom X3 8400 triple core processors
4 GB DDR2
320GB SATA hard disk (partitioned C: and D: drive, OS installed on C: )
Nvidia GeForce 9200 graphics card

My PC came with Vista Home 64-bit installed. My school offered a free upgrade to Windows 7 Professional x64 so I decided to give it a shot.

It's been a nightmare ever since.

When I tried to upgrade, there was a conflict between my old OS and the new old, so I had to do a full install. The install program warned me I'd lose all my files, so I backed them up onto an external drive, but they're still on C:, just with the .old extension added on.

When I try to do something major, like multitask or transfer many files or do a large sync on iTunes (yes, it's the 64 bit version), my CPU jumps from normal up to 90-100% and stays there even after I shut down all applications. It doesn't freeze up my system entirely (mouse/keyboard still work) but it makes everything lag and stutter terribly and effectively makes my PC useless until I restart.

I've been trying everything I could find on this and other forums and nothing has helped.... updated my BIOS, my audio drivers, my wireless USB driver, my graphics card driver, turned off indexing, uninstalled iTunes and AVG... nothing is working.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd be very, very grateful!!

I'm very computer literate but not highly skilled with background processes, so please list detailed instructions.

I have process explorer installed already if that's of any help.

 

[Dark Nova Gamer]

Sounds very odd, before I read this I was going to say blame iTunes, well for obvious reason (Apple hates Microsoft).

Have you tried doing a clean install? Since you already have your stuff backed up, it shouldn't be too much trouble.

After the reinstall, try multitasking again and if it still is doing it, let us know.

 

[paradoximoron]

How would I go about doing that?

 

[Dark Nova Gamer]

How would I go about doing that?

Basically perform another full install.

 

[paradoximoron]

Do I need to reformat or anything like that?

 

[Adrian]

Do I need to reformat or anything like that?

No, you won't need to reformat. But you will lose everything you have on the hard drive.
B4 U do that tho, have you performed any mods?
RU overclocking?
Itunes does use a lot of resources but you say cpu usage is intensive after you synch?
I suggest you go to computer management and see what services are running after you finish synch.

 

[Dark Nova Gamer]

Do I need to reformat or anything like that?

Not quite, even if you did, don't you have everything backed up already?

 

[paradoximoron]

Do I need to reformat or anything like that?

No, you won't need to reformat. But you will lose everything you have on the hard drive.
B4 U do that tho, have you performed any mods?
RU overclocking?
Itunes does use a lot of resources but you say cpu usage is intensive after you synch?
I suggest you go to computer management and see what services are running after you finish synch.

I'm not talented enough to mod. That's why my computer is stock

I can sync for a few minutes, typically, but after a while the cpu goes up to 90-100% and stays there until I restart. I can't finish syncing...it gets so slow that it times out on my iPhone and essentially freezes up iTunes. I just ran process explorer and it says that DPCs and Hardware Interrupts are taking up about 60% and 38% of the CPU usage, respectively.

 

[Adrian]

Do I need to reformat or anything like that?

No, you won't need to reformat. But you will lose everything you have on the hard drive.
B4 U do that tho, have you performed any mods?
RU overclocking?
Itunes does use a lot of resources but you say cpu usage is intensive after you synch?
I suggest you go to computer management and see what services are running after you finish synch.

I'm not talented enough to mod. That's why my computer is stock

I can sync for a few minutes, typically, but after a while the cpu goes up to 90-100% and stays there until I restart. I can't finish syncing...it gets so slow that it times out on my iPhone and essentially freezes up iTunes. I just ran process explorer and it says that DPCs and Hardware Interrupts are taking up about 60% and 38% of the CPU usage, respectively.

Paradox, look at your device manager, I wonder if you have any IRQ conflicts, speculation there, as I was saying. Check your USB driver with your IPhone attached. It should show like the attached screen shot.

 

[mushroomboy]

Have you ever thought about alternatives to Itunes? Personally I've had a lot of problems with Itunes hogging up resources or locking up, I use winamp or gtkpod.

 

[paradoximoron]

No, you won't need to reformat. But you will lose everything you have on the hard drive.
B4 U do that tho, have you performed any mods?
RU overclocking?
Itunes does use a lot of resources but you say cpu usage is intensive after you synch?
I suggest you go to computer management and see what services are running after you finish synch.

I'm not talented enough to mod. That's why my computer is stock

I can sync for a few minutes, typically, but after a while the cpu goes up to 90-100% and stays there until I restart. I can't finish syncing...it gets so slow that it times out on my iPhone and essentially freezes up iTunes. I just ran process explorer and it says that DPCs and Hardware Interrupts are taking up about 60% and 38% of the CPU usage, respectively.

Paradox, look at your device manager, I wonder if you have any IRQ conflicts, speculation there, as I was saying. Check your USB driver with your IPhone attached. It should show like the attached screen shot.

Looks good to me. (screen shot attached)

 

[Adrian]

I'm not talented enough to mod. That's why my computer is stock

I can sync for a few minutes, typically, but after a while the cpu goes up to 90-100% and stays there until I restart. I can't finish syncing...it gets so slow that it times out on my iPhone and essentially freezes up iTunes. I just ran process explorer and it says that DPCs and Hardware Interrupts are taking up about 60% and 38% of the CPU usage, respectively.

Paradox, look at your device manager, I wonder if you have any IRQ conflicts, speculation there, as I was saying. Check your USB driver with your IPhone attached. It should show like the attached screen shot.

Looks good to me. (screen shot attached)

Whoa, what are those to alerts in the middle of your USB drivers?

 

[paradoximoron]

Hmmm... dunno, guess I'll check that out.

BTW, I've reinstalled Win7 and nothing's changed. And I haven't even reinstalled iTunes yet so that's definitely not the culprit.

 

[paradoximoron]

Paradox, look at your device manager, I wonder if you have any IRQ conflicts, speculation there, as I was saying. Check your USB driver with your IPhone attached. It should show like the attached screen shot.

Looks good to me. (screen shot attached)

Whoa, what are those to alerts in the middle of your USB drivers?

Well whatever it was, they're gone now.

 

[Adrian]

Looks good to me. (screen shot attached)

Whoa, what are those to alerts in the middle of your USB drivers?

Well whatever it was, they're gone now.

Thats good news, re-install your itunes for windows 7 and let us know how it went.

 

[paradoximoron]

Whoa, what are those to alerts in the middle of your USB drivers?

Well whatever it was, they're gone now.

Thats good news, re-install your itunes for windows 7 and let us know how it went.

Well, I've reinstalled Win7 and I'm still having the CPU problem... and I haven't even installed iTunes yet. So that's definitely not the problem. As I mentioned way back in my first post, any labor-intensive activities - file transfers, multitasking, syncing - do the trick. And I'd expect that... the problem is, once the CPU usage breaks 90%, it stays there, even at idle, until I restart.

 

[Adrian]

Well whatever it was, they're gone now.

Thats good news, re-install your itunes for windows 7 and let us know how it went.

Well, I've reinstalled Win7 and I'm still having the CPU problem... and I haven't even installed iTunes yet. So that's definitely not the problem. As I mentioned way back in my first post, any labor-intensive activities - file transfers, multitasking, syncing - do the trick. And I'd expect that... the problem is, once the CPU usage breaks 90%, it stays there, even at idle, until I restart.

Parodox, check your device manager for me, last time you had some drivers that did not install properly and then later you said they disapeared!

 

[paradoximoron]

Device Manager

Thats good news, re-install your itunes for windows 7 and let us know how it went.

Well, I've reinstalled Win7 and I'm still having the CPU problem... and I haven't even installed iTunes yet. So that's definitely not the problem. As I mentioned way back in my first post, any labor-intensive activities - file transfers, multitasking, syncing - do the trick. And I'd expect that... the problem is, once the CPU usage breaks 90%, it stays there, even at idle, until I restart.

Parodox, check your device manager for me, last time you had some drivers that did not install properly and then later you said they disapeared!

The USB drivers are all fine...the only thing coming up funky is "Other Devices -> Coprocessor". I tried automatically searching for a driver not nothing was found for it. The info on it says that there is no driver installed. I guess this could be the problem, huh? Although....it says it's not using any resources because it "has a problem", so would that even affect my CPU?

File of screenshot is attached.

 

[Adrian]

Well, I've reinstalled Win7 and I'm still having the CPU problem... and I haven't even installed iTunes yet. So that's definitely not the problem. As I mentioned way back in my first post, any labor-intensive activities - file transfers, multitasking, syncing - do the trick. And I'd expect that... the problem is, once the CPU usage breaks 90%, it stays there, even at idle, until I restart.

Parodox, check your device manager for me, last time you had some drivers that did not install properly and then later you said they disapeared!

The USB drivers are all fine...the only thing coming up funky is "Other Devices -> Coprocessor". I tried automatically searching for a driver not nothing was found for it. The info on it says that there is no driver installed. I guess this could be the problem, huh? Although....it says it's not using any resources because it "has a problem", so would that even affect my CPU?

File of screenshot is attached.

Yep, thats it.

 

[Adrian]

Amd support

Attached is the support page for the AMD Phenom family of processors.
Technical Download Details

Download it to a known location and execute the install as administrator if possible.