Help pls

[aqqad300]

Hi all,

im using win7 ultimate version, and facing problem in my computer that cpu usage goes 100%, i think that because my VGa card cant handle os, and also im using satellite tv card on my pc and it uses alot of my cpu specially at time of opening HD channels sometimes it goes u without a reason !!!!!! i never had such problem on XP, no doubt that my pc specification not high--- my questions are:

1. is my problem due win7 consumes more ram from vga card?

2.Do i need to change to VGA card and cpu? win7 rating for vga card is 3 (lowest) and 4.1 for the cpu

3. any recommendation based on my computer's hardware below for VGA card???

computer specifications as follows:

OS win7 32bit ultimate
CPU Intel(R) Pentium (R)4 CPU 3.60 GHz, 3600 Mhz 1 core
Motherboard Gigabyte 945GZM-S2
Memory 2GB kingston
Graphics Card(s) Nvidia Geforce 7300GS 512M
Sound Card REALTEK HD 5.1

 

[zigzag3143]

Hi all,

im using win7 ultimate version, and facing problem in my computer that cpu usage goes 100%, i think that because my VGa card cant handle os, and also im using satellite tv card on my pc and it uses alot of my cpu specially at time of opening HD channels sometimes it goes u without a reason !!!!!! i never had such problem on XP, no doubt that my pc specification not high--- my questions are:

1. is my problem due win7 consumes more ram from vga card?

2.Do i need to change to VGA card and cpu? win7 rating for vga card is 3 (lowest) and 4.1 for the cpu

3. any recommendation based on my computer's hardware below for VGA card???

computer specifications as follows:

OS win7 32bit ultimate
CPU Intel(R) Pentium (R)4 CPU 3.60 GHz, 3600 Mhz 1 core
Motherboard Gigabyte 945GZM-S2
Memory 2GB kingston
Graphics Card(s) Nvidia Geforce 7300GS 512M
Sound Card REALTEK HD 5.1

1-win 7 does not use ram from the video card at all. In fact it can share you main memory with the video card to give it more.

2-you probably would be better off buying a new computer rather than changing the video card and cpu. I dont even think you can change the cpu.

3-I dont believe the video card is causing the high cpu usage, but need much more info to be sure.



Ken

 

[Thorsen]

Windows 7 uses more RAM Than XP, but the main thing here is the CPU. You have a fast Pentium 4, but it is a single core so it is only processing one thing at a time. When you have a process intensive program running, it is going to go up to its max. a dual core CPU could go to max load on one core and still process with the other core.

Are you seeing the RAM being used up to 100% as well? or is it just the CPU?




Also, there are some things you can do to spead up your PC.

1. Disable all of the un-needed programs in msconfig that run at startup

2. Go into Task Scheduler and remove un-needed items or re-schedule needed items to better times to suit your schedule

3. Update your drivers and motherboard BIOS - Important: This is a technical process and if you are unfamiliar with it, get a pro to do this for you or get a pro on seven forums to help walk you through it.
GA-945GZM-S2 (rev. 3.x) - GIGABYTE - Support&Download - Motherboard - BIOS=

Make sure your board is rev. 3.x first I dont want you to use the wrong BIOS.. here is how to check: Get CPU-Z and look at the tab for mainboard this will tell you what your motherboard is, what rev version it is and what BIOS version you are using.
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

 

[Thorsen]

If this is the correct Motherboard GA-945GZM-S2 (rev. 3.x)
GA-945GZM-S2 (rev. 3.x) - GIGABYTE - Product - Motherboard - Overview

Then,
If you wanted to upgrade your computer, your mobo supports Core 2 Duo chips: http://www.gigabyte.us/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=2467&ver=


Highest option for CPU is: $179 Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8500 3.16GHz 1333MHz 6MB LGA775 CPU
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=E8500&src=FR&pid=4ff63023b59b7b2b8b50e94ee342a94e35f835ff9d51863595478e7c7065d93f



Best cost option for CPU is: $120 Core™ 2 Duo E7200(2.53GHz,3MB)
http://www.katerno.com/detail.php?s=144237
Note: This will require a BIOS update probably

For even Cheaper CPU's you could go with a refurbished chip or a used chip, but I would not suggest it. or you could look at one of the lower end celeron dual-core or Pentium dual-core, but these dont perform as well as the Core 2 Duo chips do.


You are already at max for RAM. you cant upgrade to more RAM. If you upgrade your CPU, you might want to or need to upgrade your memory to match the speed of the FSB (front side bus) to get the benefits of it.



Your graphics card cant be upgraded much further the highest supported by mobo is nVidia 8800 GTX
http://www.gigabyte.us/FileList/GraphicsCardSupport/motherboard_agp_ga-945gzm-s2_3.x.pdf
(Which is expensive...you might as well buy a new comp at that point)

Did the card come with the computer... it is a pretty good card for what you said you are using it for.

 

[cokeonice]

Spot on!

I believe Thorsen is spot on with his analysis and that your single core processor is the culprit. Your entire system is a bit dated but should handle Win7 fairly well.

To add to Thorsens conclusion, referencing your statement "and also im using satellite tv card on my pc", I did some research recently on video capture cards (tv card). One of the topics addressed was the need for a higher end CPU to handle the load of the video capture cards and software.

So, besides doing the things Thorsen mentioned to attempt to speed up your PC, try removing the video capture (tv card) and its software and see how Win7 runs after you do that.

 

[whs]

Did you ever identify the processes that eat the CPU power - e.g. with task manager > processes button. Make sure you click "show processes from all users" on the bottom.

 

[aqqad300]

Did you ever identify the processes that eat the CPU power - e.g. with task manager > processes button. Make sure you click "show processes from all users" on the bottom.

Thanx Whs,

yes i did, dvb programs or satellite card that eats my cpu, the problem is biggest than that!! when my pc runs normally during my satellite pc card is on cpu usage will be between 11 to 29 and i agree and accept that but:

1. i cant open any other application i.e. chrome browser
2. it goes over 60 to 90 without any reason sometimes without openning any other application - my ram is running normally - and it continue like that till shutdown my pc and not restart it ... some time i have to wait till next day will be fine normally.........that what drive me crazy !!
3. i removed every application that could make my pc slow and cpu runs normally on startup with 0% to 3% and ram 553

if i bought cpu and vga card could this help -of course my motherboard will support ? and does win7 rating indicates any thing to you? someone suggest to refresh my bios i dint know why but i think its dangerous!!! what u think

 

[aqqad300]

I believe Thorsen is spot on with his analysis and that your single core processor is the culprit. Your entire system is a bit dated but should handle Win7 fairly well.

To add to Thorsens conclusion, referencing your statement "and also im using satellite tv card on my pc", I did some research recently on video capture cards (tv card). One of the topics addressed was the need for a higher end CPU to handle the load of the video capture cards and software.

So, besides doing the things Thorsen mentioned to attempt to speed up your PC, try removing the video capture (tv card) and its software and see how Win7 runs after you do that.

thanx alot cokeonice for reply


i cant live without my satellite card :sarc: , and exactly right satellite cards need good cpu, please read my reply to Whs below and let me have your answers

 

[aqqad300]

If this is the correct Motherboard GA-945GZM-S2 (rev. 3.x)
GA-945GZM-S2 (rev. 3.x) - GIGABYTE - Product - Motherboard - Overview

Then,
If you wanted to upgrade your computer, your mobo supports Core 2 Duo chips: http://www.gigabyte.us/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=2467&ver=


Highest option for CPU is: $179 Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8500 3.16GHz 1333MHz 6MB LGA775 CPU
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=E8500&src=FR&pid=4ff63023b59b7b2b8b50e94ee342a94e35f835ff9d51863595478e7c7065d93f



Best cost option for CPU is: $120 Core™ 2 Duo E7200(2.53GHz,3MB)
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E7200 2.53GHz 1066MHz 3MB LGA775 CPU, OEM - EU80571PH0613M - Katerno.com
Note: This will require a BIOS update probably

For even Cheaper CPU's you could go with a refurbished chip or a used chip, but I would not suggest it. or you could look at one of the lower end celeron dual-core or Pentium dual-core, but these dont perform as well as the Core 2 Duo chips do.


You are already at max for RAM. you cant upgrade to more RAM. If you upgrade your CPU, you might want to or need to upgrade your memory to match the speed of the FSB (front side bus) to get the benefits of it.



Your graphics card cant be upgraded much further the highest supported by mobo is nVidia 8800 GTX
http://www.gigabyte.us/FileList/GraphicsCardSupport/motherboard_agp_ga-945gzm-s2_3.x.pdf
(Which is expensive...you might as well buy a new comp at that point)

Did the card come with the computer... it is a pretty good card for what you said you are using it for.

THORSEN...... thanx u very much for ur reply

please note the following in my pc:

*** my cpu ONLY goes 100% not the ram.

dvb programs or satellite card that eats my cpu, the problem is biggest than that!! when my pc runs normally during my satellite pc card is on cpu usage will be between 11 to 29 and i agree and accept that but:

1. i cant open any other application i.e. chrome browser
2. it goes over 60 to 90 without any reason sometimes without openning any other application - my ram is running normally - and it continue like that till shutdown my pc and not restart it ... some time i have to wait till next day will be fine normally.........that what drive me crazy !!
3. i removed every application that could make my pc slow and cpu runs normally on startup with 0% to 3% and ram 553.....but u cant guess when will go up!!!!

Thorsen, i think

 

[whs]

aqqad, I am not 100% sure whether I understand what you are saying. So please bear with me:

1. I understand that the CPU runs at 11 to 29% when the sattelite card runs by itself. But as soon as you apen an additional application, it flashes up to 60-90%. If that is the case, there is some process conflict.
2. even if you restart your system immediately, the problem does not go away. You have to wait until the next day to be normal again. That is very strange to say the least. Normally all processes would be terminated if you shut your system down.
3. " if i bought cpu and vga card could this help " - I am not sure whether that would do anything. we know too little about the problem at this time.
4. the windows7 rating cannot tell us very much in this context - I think.
5. flashing the BIOS is pretty tricky. If not done right, you can end up with an unworkable system. You might want to look for a friend that has experience with that to help you - but at least read all the literature that is on the web on the subject - and there is a lot.

Btw: cokeonice may have a point. Capture programs take a lot of CPU. However, your problem seems to be that it flashes only when run in combination with another program.

 

[cokeonice]

aqqad, I am not 100% sure whether I understand what you are saying. So please bear with me:

1. I understand that the CPU runs at 11 to 29% when the sattelite card runs by itself. But as soon as you apen an additional application, it flashes up to 60-90%. If that is the case, there is some process conflict.
2. even if you restart your system immediately, the problem does not go away. You have to wait until the next day to be normal again. That is very strange to say the least. Normally all processes would be terminated if you shut your system down.
3. " if i bought cpu and vga card could this help " - I am not sure whether that would do anything. we know too little about the problem at this time.
4. the windows7 rating cannot tell us very much in this context - I think.
5. flashing the BIOS is pretty tricky. If not done right, you can end up with an unworkable system. You might want to look for a friend that has experience with that to help you - but at least read all the literature that is on the web on the subject - and there is a lot.

Btw: cokeonice may have a point. Capture programs take a lot of CPU. However, your problem seems to be that it flashes only when run in combination with another program.

Aqqad, I think we may be onto something here...

Earlier, whs had asked if you ever identified the processes that are running when the problem occurs. Have you done that? Here is how:

1) Right click the taskbar and select "Start Task Manager"

2) When Task Manager starts, select the "Processes" tab and then click the button at the bottom "Show processes from all users".

3) When all of the processes display, click on the "CPU" column once. This will sort the running processes by how much CPU they are using and bring them to the top of the list. Watch the programs that tend to come to the top (meaning they are using CPU). Hopefully, the "culprit" program will remain at the top indicating how much CPU it is eating. Once you see which processes are using CPU, make sure you write them down.

Can you identify the process by its image name so that you know what software it comes from? Perhaps if you took a screenshot and posted it here we could help you figure it out.

So, staying with my theory that it could be your video capture (tv card), and you state that the processor usage maxing out or displaying variable usage at odd times, this could very well be the video capture software.

What software do you use? (i.e., GB-PVR? Windows Media Center? SageTV? etc)

What happens with this software is that it works like a satellite or cable TV guide. It downloads the guide information for you automatically and updates a database. Then, when you want to watch TV, the guide is available and provides information out to several weeks. Do you see how that might take some CPU usage when you start your computer? As soon as the computer starts, the video capture software will go out to the Internet to retrieve the guide information. Keep in mind the video capture software is using a database which can be CPU intensive as it updates the guide.

Also, if you watch TV using this software, have you selected any programs to record? If so, when you are not using the computer to watch TV, it will still record the shows you have selected at the time they are on. This may appear to be a random event to you while you are doing something else on your computer. This will REALLY be CPU intensive as the computer downloads the TV show and re-encodes it to whatever saved format the video capture software uses. From what I understand, the software does not always re-encode and saves the TV show BUT just the fact that it is downloading it and updating the database will eat your CPU (not to mention your bandwidth).

My whole point here is that the video capture software is running the whole time your computer is on (unless you disable it). The idea is that, if you are going to use your computer to watch TV, the software wants to keep the TV guide updated and record the shows you want it to record when they are on.

I know this is a lot of reading but I hope it helps!