Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1100 consumes too much CPU resource

[Damien666]

Hello,

I have been struggling lately with a problem and I hope maybe you can help me: I have recently noticed that my computer's CPU works at 50% even though it's rebooted and no softwares are started (one of the 2 cores is running at full power!).

So I tried to look what consumes all this CPU power and it's the "system" thread.

Not having more details, I ran antispyware and antivirus softwares to check if my PC is infected or not. Good news: not one single suspicious activity.

Then I downloaded "Process Explorer" from sysinternals.com, and got to see what in the system thread occupies the CPU. Apparently, it's:
"HCW713x.sys+0xf752"

I looked into google what this HCW713x.sys is. And apparently it's from my Hauppauge TV card (PCI).

So I uninstalled my Hauppauge TV card. But this HCW713x.sys still runs and consumes 50% of my CPU! After looking at Hauppauge's website, I downloaded the latest software and ran "hcwclear.exe" to fully uninstall all hauppauge related files.

The good news is that by doing so, my Windows 7 runs normally at 1-2% when there's no specific activity. But the bad news is that by reinstalling my TV card, I'm back at 50% CPU usage.

So I phoned Hauppauge's tech support: the guy quickly (!) told me it's an IRQ conflict. Went into Device Manager and saw that there are indeed several lines with IRQ 16, including my TV card (However, no error or conflict messages...). So the tech support told me to move the TV card into another PCI slot. But I can't: I only have one PCI slot...

Then he told me to go into the BIOS, deactivate all non essential services (network, sound, etc.), unplug the TV card and restart the computer. Than shutdown, plug the TV card and hope that it changes IRQ number. Then, reactivate the non essential services in the BIOS. Of course, none of this changed anything with the IRQ and the problem remains.

The tech guy's only other comment was that, in case of failure, format the hard drive and reinstall everything. As you can imagine, I am not too thrilled at spending hours and hours to reinstall everything, without any guaranty that it'd work!


So my question to anyone reading my post: can there still be IRQ conflicts nowadays with Windows7? I thought it was a problem of the past. And any idea/advice on how to resolve this?

Many thanks for any help

Damien

 

[not so gray matter]

Yes there can still be IRQ conflicts. Why did you think there wouldn't be?

Windows 7 IRQ Conflict Not Detected By Windows but still comprimises system! HELP!!!
IRQ Settings, how to view IRQ assignments and resolve IRQ conflicts

 

[Damien666]

I thought IRQ conflicts was a problem of the era of W95/98 and that not a concern with the latest windows OS. Apparently I am mistaken. Maybe because I have not had any IRQ conflicts in the past 10 years...

So what the hauppauge tech support guy told me is actually relevant?

notsograymatter, thanks for both links. I had a look at them and my situation is that I cannot change slot (only 1 PCI slot), cannot remove the tick "Use automatic settings" in windows, and cannot tweak IRQ settings in the BIOS (I don't see anywhere to change IRQ settings).

So I suppose this means I am stuck, in a dead end... And probably the only solution is to get a new TV card (or USB stick), or accept to loose 50% of CPU power.