CPU/Memory usage WAY too high, can't find the culprit!

[markjs]

My system: ASUS M4A785-M motherboard, AMD Athlon II X3 440 Rana 3.0GHz, 6GB Kingston Value RAM DDR2 800...

This is a 3GHz triple core with 6GB memory, and with nothing but AVG Free, the Bluetooth dongle and XMarks running, I am using at all times 30-60% of the CPU and 75% of the memory which is SIX FREAKING GIGS?!?

How is this even possible? When I bring up the task manager, there is nothing running that accounts for it. Everything using 0-1%, yet it is taking up that much CPU and memory? This is ridiculous, but I have no idea how to find what the culprit is?!? Any help would be appreciated!

Oh and I am running Windows 7 x64.

 

[mutz]

that's bogus,
can you show an image of you'r task manager processes?

have you checked out with process-hacker?

3. how do you figure you use 60% of you'r CPU and 75% of you'r memory?

 

[Seero]

Get process explorer, it is much better than task manager. Look at what is using the CPU and memory. Google its name and see if it is legit. If not, then you should know what to do.

 

[markjs]

It was task manager that told me mutz, I probably would never have known as this machine is quite fast still, except seeing it in task manager. I have now tried Process Hacker and find everything in order yet it still says at almost all times I am using about 33% of the CPU, and at least half of the memory...

I don't see anything really suspicious. Avira free has been suggested but I like AVG's link scanner though I disable the toolbar always (toolbars are for tools!)

I will try Process Explorer too, but I have some things going now so probably tomorrow...

 

[Schmide]

Clean up your dead links/icons on your desktop dude.

 

[BD231]

Disable automatic updates or try running without the dongle.

 

[mutz]

mark,
you can also try loading HiJackThis and watch the log for anything suspicious, if you can't handle the output you can post it here or at HiJackThis.de, they got an online analyzer for the program, worth checking out, it's very recommended.

 

[markjs]

Well I found the program that was using all the CPU; it was "Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service", whatever that is...?

It's a service and since I doubt I have any need for it I disabled it and now it's running about 2-8% with 4 tabs of Firefox, Xmarks, and AVG all running right now.

 

[markjs]

Found the info (after I already had fixed the problem) here.

 

[mutz]

congrats mark, just where did you find it at the end? was it at the task manager? one of the programs or HiJackThis..?

thanks!

 

[markjs]

Actually it was revealed by Process Hacker, but what was weird is that it wasn't in the list, but you could see it by hovering over the taskbar icon.

Thanks everyone, these are valuable resources I am sure I will use again in the future too!

 

[markjs]

Oh and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

[Schmide]

I was a bit short on my answer but basically windows indexing services pukes on dead links in your indexing area. Which is why I said clean up your desktop links. (maybe other indexed areas?) This happened to my nephew's computer and it took me a couple hrs to find it. You kind of want this service running if you want your files indexed for quick searches and sharing.

 

[taltamir]

Well I found the program that was using all the CPU; it was "Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service", whatever that is...?

It's a service and since I doubt I have any need for it I disabled it and now it's running about 2-8% with 4 tabs of Firefox, Xmarks, and AVG all running right now.

I have that same service running and I idle at about 0% CPU usage (with occasional spikes to 2%.
So that makes me wonder, why is that service eating up so many resources on your computer and not mine?
The most obvious answer I could come up with is that it is doing work, that is, serving media... what kind of network are you on? is there someone on the network that could be watching media off your computer? Are there perhaps networked devices on that are configured to link with it?
For me, I don't use media player and my network consists of my main PC and my NAS only, no xbox or other computers that would interface with "Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service"

 

[Schmide]

I have that same service running and I idle at about 0% CPU usage (with occasional spikes to 2%.
So that makes me wonder, why is that service eating up so many resources on your computer and not mine?
The most obvious answer I could come up with is that it is doing work, that is, serving media... what kind of network are you on? is there someone on the network that could be watching media off your computer? Are there perhaps networked devices on that are configured to link with it?
For me, I don't use media player and my network consists of my main PC and my NAS only, no xbox or other computers that would interface with "Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service"

Once the indexing is done it takes almost no memory or cpu time to serve the media. The CPU can saturate the network with just a few % of the CPU. Trust me it's the building of the indexs on dead links that causes this error. Microsoft should find a way to ignore them at least temporally but they don't.

Edit: I looked in my notes and I surmised it was missing icon images that made it puke. Basically a link to something with a custom icon that couldn't be found.

 

[taltamir]

Once the indexing is done it takes almost no memory or cpu time to serve the media. The CPU can saturate the network with just a few % of the CPU. Trust me it's the building of the indexs on dead links that causes this error. Microsoft should find a way to ignore them at least temporally but they don't.

I misunderstood your previous explanation, now I get it. You are saying that it is the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service indexing dead links that cause it to go into an infinite loop.
I thought you meant that it is not this service consuming the system resources, but that having dead links causes windows explorer to consume all that processing power.