Recent Performance Issues

[brotherkennyh]

Recently I have been having performance issues and I am getting a little stuck to what the problem could be.

I have Windows 7 x64 on a dell inspiron 9400.

Some time after using the laptop I start getting performance issues. The time can vary. The CPU starts going running at 40-100% despite nothing running. Task manager itself reports a good chunk of CPU usage even when open and other processes that would normally sit at 0% keep registering 1-10% cpu usage.
The CPU fan also kicks in on full speed and keeps running even when the CPU cools down. The only thing that makes the CPU fan return to normal operation is rebooting the computer.

I first thought it was a problem with recently installed programs so I removed them. It did seem to help, but after a short time using the laptop the issues returned.

I tried system restore to a time when I knew the laptop was ok and got exactly the same results. Initially ok with the problems quickly returning.

Next I formatted the Windows 7 partition and reinstalled the operating system.
Again, this had exactly the same results.

I then ran extensive memory tests which reported no problems. I ran a HD performance test and did not get the results I was expecting. I ran this test while the PC was behaving normally to enure disk access was not affected. Disk transfere speed did not seem consistant and access time wasa up by nearly 50%.
It used to be 12ms, but not returns as 16-18ms. The hard Disk was a WD Scorpio Black edition 320GB.
I assumed there were hard disk issues and that the HD usage was the result of disk errors so ordered a new HD. This time a WD Scorpio Black 500GB. Upon testing the transfere rates are much more consistent, although not quite as expected. Access times are still the same.

As with my other efforts, performance is excellent until the problem sets in and then I am back to high CPU usage with nothing running.

I am stuck now as to what could be wrong and trying other parts is going to get expensive. My system is also setup as dual boot, with Win XP 32 bit. In win XP everything seems to run ok, but I haven't used it enough to be sure if the problem will set in there.

Any ideas what could be wrong? I am getting desperate.

Cheers

Kenny

 

[Golden]

Hi Kenny,

Have you tried RESOURCE MONITOR to track down what is causing high disk usage? You can access it by opening up TASK MANAGER by right-clicking on the Task Bar.

Here is an image showing a couple of things you could look for.

Regards,
Golden

 

[brotherkennyh]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. I have taken a look at Resource monitor, I find it quite useful actually. I didn't see anything specific with either CPU or HD usage.
I do not have my laptop with me at the moment, but when I get home I will take a look and give a more accurate description of what is happening.

Cheers

Kenny

 

[bigmonmulgrew]

Ok firstly did you do a fresh install of windows on the new disc or a hard drive clone? if its not fresh when was it?

What programs did you install recently and when removing them did you use the built in installer or a 3rd party clean uninstaller like revo.

Can you post you hdd benchmark results. from windows 7 and from XP.
I'm guessing your using the same program for both but if your not please do.

Also if your not on a fresh install can you run crap cleaner.
Then run spybot SD and post the results.
Then run hijackthis and post the results.
Can you also post a screen grab of your task manager process list
Can you also get your temperatures and post them, under full load and when idle.
speccy, or speed fan should be able to read them

 

[bigmonmulgrew]

you could also try process explorer, think of it as task manager on steroids

 

[shoerman]

Win7 100% CPU random, even after reboot.

sorry if I post this incorrectly
I have been looking for a win 7 enterprise x64 performance fix, and Kenny's post is very similar to mine, in that all normal processes seem to eat more CPU time then they should.
I have the issue on a stock Dell Latitude E6400 with 4GB, with a nvidia card.
Mcafee virus scan 8.7, EPO managed and fully patched.
Uninstalled Mcafee to rule that out, still had the same issue.
In trying to solve this I have run many virus scanners, malware bytes, combofix, hijack this, MS security essentials ect…..
I have reloaded this system a couple times and over time I seem to keep running into this random 100% CPU.
I have updated the bios and all drivers.
The thing that is really strange about this is that after the CPU spikes to 100%, if I reboot, the machine boots up with CPU doing 100%.
I have checked all the event logs, nothing sticks out, I tried to check the resource monitor when it was doing the 100% CPU, but it did not point to anything, just all the normal processes were inflated. Example if you open notepad.exe it would say notepad was using 40% or task manager was using 70%. I thought it might be a indexing issue so I disabled the windows search, that had no effect.
This system is in a corp environment so it could be any number of things.
It seems to be totally random and can be weeks before the problem happens again, but seems to happen more often but not always, if I work with XPmode or VMware player or I access a new physical drive with lots of files or burn a full DVD with lots of little files.
I have run diagnostics on the system and it comes back clean.
The thing that makes me think it is not hardware is the system can non stop for weeks and then starts to 100% CPU.
It seems if I let it sit for 3 to 4 hours then everything goes back to normal.

if anyone has ideas for Kenny's post or mine, thank you

Recently I have been having performance issues and I am getting a little stuck to what the problem could be.

I have Windows 7 x64 on a dell inspiron 9400.

Some time after using the laptop I start getting performance issues. The time can vary. The CPU starts going running at 40-100% despite nothing running. Task manager itself reports a good chunk of CPU usage even when open and other processes that would normally sit at 0% keep registering 1-10% cpu usage.
The CPU fan also kicks in on full speed and keeps running even when the CPU cools down. The only thing that makes the CPU fan return to normal operation is rebooting the computer.

I first thought it was a problem with recently installed programs so I removed them. It did seem to help, but after a short time using the laptop the issues returned.

I tried system restore to a time when I knew the laptop was ok and got exactly the same results. Initially ok with the problems quickly returning.

Next I formatted the Windows 7 partition and reinstalled the operating system.
Again, this had exactly the same results.

I then ran extensive memory tests which reported no problems. I ran a HD performance test and did not get the results I was expecting. I ran this test while the PC was behaving normally to enure disk access was not affected. Disk transfere speed did not seem consistant and access time wasa up by nearly 50%.
It used to be 12ms, but not returns as 16-18ms. The hard Disk was a WD Scorpio Black edition 320GB.
I assumed there were hard disk issues and that the HD usage was the result of disk errors so ordered a new HD. This time a WD Scorpio Black 500GB. Upon testing the transfere rates are much more consistent, although not quite as expected. Access times are still the same.

As with my other efforts, performance is excellent until the problem sets in and then I am back to high CPU usage with nothing running.

I am stuck now as to what could be wrong and trying other parts is going to get expensive. My system is also setup as dual boot, with Win XP 32 bit. In win XP everything seems to run ok, but I haven't used it enough to be sure if the problem will set in there.

Any ideas what could be wrong? I am getting desperate.

Cheers

Kenny

 

[brotherkennyh]

Still no fix for me.
Does your fan also kick in when the cpu usage kicks in?
I haven't left mine for long enough to notice it go back to normal.
Putting it into standby and bringing it back up seems to revert it back to normal and that doesn't take very long.

I have also noticed that it's only the CPU fan that kicks in on mine, the graphics card fan remains as normal.

I not sure, but I have been wondering if there is a bad connection in the feedback circuit that controls the fan speed according to CPU temperature. I have got the impression from someone that without the correct signal it will go into a kind of safemode. I think this means the fan will run at max and the CPU speed is limited to prevent it from overheating.
I have been monitoring my CPU temperature using speccy and I don't think its really running at 100% because it isn't producing the heat that it would if it really was doing 100%. Could be wrong, but thats what I think.

I am hoping to upgrage the graphics card soon which requires almost a complete strip down so I am going to check over the connections then.

Hopefully someone will see our posts and come to our rescue.

Good Luck

Cheers

Kenny

 

[bigmonmulgrew]

I've had this problem recently but it may not be the same cause.

Recently I had a motherboard with a design flaw. The board was specced to run a 95w CPU and it had a 95w CPU fitted. Unfortunately when running the CPU for a while (sometimes randomly) it would register 100% CPU usage. At first it was only triggered when CPU usage was high for extended periods but after a while it took less and less use to trigger it.
It was becoming unstable operating under a 95w load and this was causing the high CPU usage.
In my case the system was under warranty and I replaced the motherboard with a more robust equivalent.
If this is your problem I dont see as it will be possible to rectify it unless your willing to start swapping the soldered components on the motherboard. In a desktop PC I might suggest a higher grade PSU might alleveate the problem in the short term as the tolerances on the voltages are tighter.
If your willing to risk it I might also try upping the voltage on the CPU by a small amount or decreasing it by a small amount. Again this will be a stopgap solution and will not repair the fault, it will simply allow you to operate normally for the time being.

I'd be tempted to try replacing the capacitors near the CPU, especially if they are already cheap ones

 

[shoerman]

High CPU usage not pointing to any speacal process

Sticking with this thread because of the inflated CPU numbers, might be something in common with the main post. I can't be sure about the fan, it might have been running hard prior to the slowdown. I have since removed IBM client access 64bit, when the problem happens now, it is not as extreme. The problem seems very random, but I think I just narrowed it down to programs that pass video. For example it tends to happen if I have a few RDP sessions open and a WebEx and a dameware session going. The thing that makes it so strange, is if I reboot the machine, then the problem will persist for a while. so I have started shutting the machine down and letting it cool down, to see if it is tempature related. I have already run the intel temp diags and the dell diags, passed all. the problem is so random and pegs the CPU so hard its best to just walk away for 3 hours. in my case I have a sneeky feeling it has to do with the video chip over heating or some conflict in windows 7 64bit with apps that pass desktop screens. but it does not happen every time, man I hate trouble shooting random issues.

 

[OldMX]

brotherkennyh, did you try to flash the laptop to latest bios available? Also, if using a cracked version of windows, the crack adds foreign code to bios causing weird symptoms like the one you describing. dont quote me, those are my 2 cents