Solved Mouse stutter/lag when processes using high cpu.

[pr1970]

Hi All

I had a PC built about 3 months ago for work purposes (3d rendering) and i`m having an annoying problem when one of the rendering processes I use takes up most of the cpu (98-99%) causing the mouse to freeze and stutter. The only way to reduce this problem is to set the process to a lower priority.

Now I`ve used this same program on other pc`s and have not had this problem and yet I`m using the fastest PC yet and its causing this slowdown.

I`ve tried a program called PRIO to save this task priorty to low but because the process is run from a command prompt via a exe it doesnt seem to recognise it and I have to keep resetting the priority manually, its driving me nuts.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Paul

 

[Layback Bear]

Welcome to the Windows 7 Forum. I have never used PRIO but lets start with the basics. Turn off PRIO and lets get into Windows for testing. Looking at you Specs it would take a lot of rendering to slow it down as to make the mouse do what it is doing. Go to msconfig/startup and see what is running at boot in the background. I have very little checked. Security and mouse and keyboard.
Questions.
1. What antivirus do you use?
2. What actually are you doing on your computer when this problem happens?
What programs are you using?
3. Have you tried another mouse?
4. What kind of mouse are you using?

 

[Lemur]

Hi Pr1970. Follow Layback Bear's excellent advice.

Are you using this version of your video driver?
285.62
NVIDIA DRIVERS 285.62 WHQL

What program are you using for rendering?

In your bios, do you have hyper-threading enabled?

Do you have bios version 2103?

It's an Intel mobo, so go here for auto update:

Intel® Driver Update Utility

And please report back on this - and answer to Layback Bear.

 

[pr1970]

Welcome to the Windows 7 Forum. I have never used PRIO but lets start with the basics. Turn off PRIO and lets get into Windows for testing. Looking at you Specs it would take a lot of rendering to slow it down as to make the mouse do what it is doing. Go to msconfig/startup and see what is running at boot in the background. I have very little checked. Security and mouse and keyboard.
Questions.
1. What antivirus do you use?
2. What actually are you doing on your computer when this problem happens?
What programs are you using?
3. Have you tried another mouse?
4. What kind of mouse are you using?

Hi

Thanks, I will try clearing out the msconfig and trying that.

To answer your questions.
1. I`m using Kaspersky internet security 2012
2. 3d Rendering (very processor intensive)
3. Havent tried another mouse but its not just the mouse, keyboard input is also stuttering
4. wired razer death adder

Thanks
Paul

 

[Lemur]

Which 3d rendering program are you using?

Blender? (which I've used)
Autodesk 3ds Max?

 

[pr1970]

Hi

The rendering program you wont have heard of as its for development work but its basically for generating lighting maps for 3d work so uses alot of floating point calcs and is 64bit. runs from a cmd prompt via a script. If I could find out how to automatically lower its priorty that would solve the problem.

Yes latest bios and video drivers as you mentioned.
The intel site seemed to find everything upto date apart from my wire networking adapter Intel(R) 82579V based Network Controller(OEM)

Thanks

Paul

Hi Pr1970. Follow Layback Bear's excellent advice.

Are you using this version of your video driver?
285.62
NVIDIA DRIVERS 285.62 WHQL

What program are you using for rendering?

In your bios, do you have hyper-threading enabled?

Do you have bios version 2103?

It's an Intel mobo, so go here for auto update:

Intel® Driver Update Utility

And please report back on this - and answer to Layback Bear.

 

[Lemur]

If I could find out how to automatically lower its priorty that would solve the problem.

Run your 3D software. Pull up task manager. Highlight process. Right click the 3D software process. Go to "select priority" and choose according to your preference.

 

[Layback Bear]

If I understand you correctly. As far as I know you can not set a priority to mouse and keyboard in Windows 7.

 

[Lemur]

Layback, I think he wanted to lower the priority of this 3D software.

 

[Layback Bear]

Okay I understand now.
Just a thought. Is it possible that the OP's other computers that work with this program are using Intel processors like a i7-960 or higher. As per Intel.
3D Rendering: Intel® Core? i7-990X Processor Extreme Edition
I'm not sure the i7-2600 can do this well using a program with a lot of floating points. Clock speed is not always the answer.

 

[pr1970]

Sorry you misunderstand, the process runs frequently when I need to render, so everytime it runs I have to change the priority manually down to a low priorty.
So i would like to know if I can automatically do this, or if there is a problem with my system thats causing the slowing down of the mouse.

 

[Lemur]

Seems like someone else was having this problem:

Very slow keyboard input when rendering with 3d studio max 2010 - Other-Software - Applications

Not sure if you have a Logitech mouse, but...

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]You may find your mouse moving slowly in some OpenGL enabled applications (including Revit and Inventor) if you are using the Logitech mouse driver. In the current version of this driver (Control panel > Mouse > Motion tab) you can find the "Disable acceleration in games" option. Uncheck this option.
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica] You can also download and run the "Logitech Advanced Settings Utility" for MouseWare 9.76 and above. [/FONT]

 

[pr1970]

No i use a razer deathadder mouse in the usb.

I do also use Maya and when rendering that does also cause the same slowdowns. But using that Prio I can save the priorty to below normal so each time its runs it never uses high cpu.
But because the renderer I use for development is run by script it doesnt save this priorty setting so each time it runs I have to change the priorty down to prevent my system slowing down.

I`m going to go through the bios and check theres nothing obvious.

Thanks

 

[pr1970]

Checked hyperthreading is on in the bios. I also changed the settings to high performance but still no improvements. I`ve also removed quite a few things from msconfig but still getting stuttering. Once it starts it probably takes me 30secs to get to the task manager and reduce the priority its that sluggish causing the mouse to freeze for maybe 5 secs at a time.

Really annoying.

 

[pr1970]

Seems to be a common issue that alot of people have. Usually solved by reducing the task priority. Whats weird is that I`ve not had this problem on other PC`s, so perhaps its down to CPU type. I do have a program that can save task priorities per software but not in this case as the software is run by a script. Just have to live with it i guess.

Thanks

 

[pr1970]

Just as an update. I downloaded a tool called process lasso. It automatically reduces the priorities of certain tasks as you like. It even allows you to change how many cpu`s a task uses. Downside is you have to pay $18 a year.

 

[Layback Bear]

Making thing work with this new program has got to be worth $18.00 until you figure another way of doing it.

 

[pr1970]

As an update, I had other issues this weekend with the pc and decided a fresh windows install. Now I dont have any problems at all with slowdown,I didnt even need to install that process lasso. Perhaps some driver conflict somewhere.

 

[Layback Bear]

Glad you got it fixed. Keep a close eye on msconfig/startup/non Microsoft services. Many programs will activate themselves in there on use or updates.

 

[GuccizBud]

Old post but for the sake of posterity, I'm surprised no one mentioned bumping up "Windows Explorer" process(es) to High Priority in Task Manager; it definitely has an effect on mouse cursor movement. When I'm running something (or a couple of somethings) that I've assigned High Priority to, I also get the lagging, stuttering mouse cursor effect, as if the batteries in the mouse are low, when I know they're not . . . in those instances boosting Windows Explorer process(es) to High Priority does the trick, without having to lower the priority/priorities of the app(s) running in High Priority.

System in question is an i5-4690 on an H97 board, running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit w/8  GB of memory.