CPU is at 100% while doing network transfer...

[Ichinisan]

I'm copying files currently using a 1394 firewire cable. I've noticed the same problem when using a Cat-5 LAN connection also. Whenever Windows is doing anything over-the-network, performance boggs down and becomes extremely slow. The 'Performance' tab under the Task Manager reports that CPU usage is at 100%. The Explorer.exe process is always the offender. I see the same problems on other systems too, even with a fresh installation of Windows XP.

What can I do to improve performance of network transfers? Even with a firewire cable, it's always <12.5% network utilization.

The firewire controller is a PCI card and is using WDM drivers that Windows installed on it's own. Other hardware is using either NVIDIA drivers or drivers from Windows Update.

 

[Jiggz]

Explorer .exe should never take 100% of your cpu resources. What is more intriguing in your case is that after a fresh install explorer.exe is still using 100%! This is not normal. You might want to check for driver and bios updates for your mobo. Disconnect all net connections and see if that explorer.exe will stop using resources. I know you cannot shut it down because it will shut down the OS.

 

[tweeve2002]

last time I had that problem it was my NIC had gone bad. RMA'd the Motherboard and got a new one problem solved.

 

[Ichinisan]

Explorer.exe is not stuck at 100%, it's just consistently using >80% during the network transfer using Windows network shares. Looking at the Performance tab under the Task Manager, the CPU is hitting 100% total usage and staying there as long as the transfer is running. This is true of ALL systems I have ever used for any sort of network transfer using Windows file/folder/print sharing. It seems that Windows has very poor code. I can't imagine that Microsoft expects me to have such poor network bandwidth utilization, so I was wondering if there is a solution for this all-too-common problem.

 

[yuchai]

I have experienced the same thing. On a A64 3000+ @ 2.4Ghz, I hit 80% CPU utilization when doing large file transfers on my home gigabit network. I get about 30Mb/s or about 25% network utilization.

Is this normal? The network card is a PCI based with the Realtek 8169 chipset.

 

[Jiggz]

Originally posted by: Ichinisan
Explorer.exe is not stuck at 100%, it's just consistently using >80% during the network transfer using Windows network shares. Looking at the Performance tab under the Task Manager, the CPU is hitting 100% total usage and staying there as long as the transfer is running. This is true of ALL systems I have ever used for any sort of network transfer using Windows file/folder/print sharing. It seems that Windows has very poor code. I can't imagine that Microsoft expects me to have such poor network bandwidth utilization, so I was wondering if there is a solution for this all-too-common problem.

I searched MS KB and came with the this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/905890/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/842264/en-us

 

[Bozo Galora]

while I am not saying this is answer to all probs here, the behavior is well known with use of things like Mcafee and Norton. They scan both incoming and outgoing data. Best way to find out is to boot and turn off all AV and firewall, and their server services, then monitor CPU usage again.

You should also look at proccesses tab - will show cpu usage for each item listed when cpu hits 100%

Also need to look into cool n quiet use (AMD) or Intels internal throttling CPU, especially heat related, it could be you are using 100% of 50%.(Especially laptops - speedstep). There are 100's software that detects speed throttling.
http://cpu.rightmark.org/products/rmclock.shtml
http://www.majorgeeks.com/ThrottleWatch_d4431.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads14.html

One should also look at memory tied up at time of 100% usage, by using Bysoft freeram.
http://www.bysoft.com/

Or,
Windows has a very bad habit.
Once caught RAM space it will not give back when no longer needed.
With this entry Windows will unload dead RAM
1. Find the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer].
2. Create a new sub-key named 'AlwaysUnloadDLL' and set the default value to equal '1'
to disable Windows caching the DLL in memory.
3. Restart Windows for the change to take effect.

 

[Thor86]

What drives? IDE/SATA? If so, then these controllers use lots of cpu cycles. Just normal, this is why SCSI still exists.

 

[Goi]

Isn't DMA supposed to offload the CPU from IDE/SATA transfers though?

 

[Bozo Galora]

Originally posted by: Goi
Isn't DMA supposed to offload the CPU from IDE/SATA transfers though?

yep, thats why they call it direct memory access