CPU usage spikes

[asuh]

Okay, this is getting really annoying. I have a problem now with my CPU lagging continuously. After I leave the computer on for a while, it all of a sudden, randomly starts to spike the CPU from about 2%-25% a little faster than a second per spike.

P4 2.6GHz
P4P800-Dlx
1GB Corsair PC3500
ATI 9800
Radeon Audigy 1 EX

120GB WD
160GB WD


I am running Windows XP Pro with lots of different software. I have just reformated my drive about a week ago and this was even somewhat of a problem on my last Windows load. This new installation of Windows XP is on a totally different hard drive as well, so I really don't think it's a hardware issue.

When I reboot or go into standby mode then get back into Windows, the spike has stopped. It's only when I leave my computer on for a while that I start getting these spikes at a random time. I even tried to monitor what I'm using and when I load new software, but I do not see any correlation.

Also, some people might have asked if my hard drive is continuously active, but I do not see any lights flashing. I've also tried changing the one PCI device I'm using (my soundcard) from PCI slot 2 to slot 1 and that didn't solve the problem either.

It doesn't seem to be affecting my paging file but my memory and CPU are affected. This is really annoying and I hope I can solve it soon!!

Thanks for ANY advice!

You can go to the link below for a screen shot of what's going on.
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?s...00698&st=0&p=585668670&#entry585668670

 

[skyking]

Did you:
ctrl-alt-delete, task manager, processes.
Watch for the spiking process?

 

[gtd2000]

I had something similar to what you describe and it was actually a windows feature that checks out the resolution of .avi files on the HD.

I was getting 100% CPU use until I googled the problem and did a "regedit" to solve it

The strange part is that I've never encountered this problem before on any other system and I did not knowingly do anything to enable the problem.

 

[MadRat]

McAfee's McShield and Sygate Firewall both do that to a system.

 

[spacelord]

WebRoot Spysweeper does that to my work computer. greedy pig that it is...

 

[asuh]

I added a link to the image of my Windows Task Manager.

 

[asuh]

I still have the same problem but no solutions yet! help!!

 

[MadRat]

Uninstall and reinstall both the firewall and antivirus on your system. Download the latest updates and take the system offline to perform the reinstalls. That way you isolate them from the problem. The last thing to try is a SP2 reinstall.

 

[asuh]

are you saying to totally reload Windows again, after just a few weeks of using it?? I really don't wanna have to do that if I can figure out a better solution.

 

[imported_Hi]

go to the process tab and see what is running

 

[asuh]

unfortunately, nothing out of the usual. It's all looking normal, even when the problem happens. I just don't get it.

 

[GoatMonkey]

On the processes tab sort by the column that says "CPU" by clicking on the column header. You may have to click the column header twice to get the sort order correct. Look at what process is at the top of the list with some number greater than zero. This will be you offending process. My guess is that its antivirus software or something like that.

 

[asuh]

Yeah, I looked at the processes under the CPU column and the antivirus processes never appear up there. I only see normal processes like task manager and explorer and sometimes lsass. I also tried shutting down my antivirus software completely, but that did not seem to make any difference. I am running AVG free.

 

[MadRat]

Reinstalling SP2 is not a total reload. SP2 is service pack 2, about 220MB of security patches and fixes. Its new security manager console sometimes doesn't let the Anti-Virus or Firewall plug in correctly and the system exhibits the very behavior you describe. The hesitations end up being more COM wait related than CPU spikes.

 

[asuh]

Man, I would never have thought about going this route. I installed WinXP from a CD that had a preinstalled SP2 on it. So I was already a few steps ahead when I first installed it.

Should I have included the fact that my Internet connection is through a USB wireless NIC? Since most of the problem is Internet related, it seems that the lagging problem might also be a result of this. I have tried switching the NIC to different USB ports to ensure it wasn't just a bad port connection, but nothing. And my wireless connection is always excellent, meaning the signal is very strong. It just seems that there's a bad software conflict that won't let my Internet stay online all the time, usually lagging it every few minutes.

 

[asuh]

Here's an update on what's going on.

We had a Comcast guy come in to replace our cable modem on Saturday. Our Internet was lagging just as much as my computer was, not really consistant with the spikes though. However, I now wonder if that had something to do with it? I have no idea how it could have been, but I guess it's possible.

The main problems that I have now with my computer is that it will now randomly freeze. My computer hasn't spiked or used up constant CPU usage in a couple of days, though I'm not going to count it out that it might happen again soon. So what'll happen now is after my computer is on from either a few minutes to a few days, it'll freeze for about 5-10 seceonds and repeat this about every 20-30 seconds. I try to reboot, shutting down Windows to the actual shutdown screen, but I can leave it on for minutes upon minutes and it won't do anything. So, if this freezing problem happens, I have to reboot manually but waiting for all the programs to quit then hold down the power button for 5 seconds. If I'm not having this freezing problem, my computer will reboot just fine.

I have monitored the computer using TaskInfo as well as Task Manager, and when the computer freezes, the CPU usage will give a huge spike up to 100% right after it unfreezes. But no other software seems to be causing it a problem from viewing either of those programs. Thus, I'm still not sure why it does that.

I also went to Windows Update and it turns out I had a new driver for my wireless NIC and I installed that. Hopefully that'll solve some problems as well, though I do not know what to expect at this point. Anyway, I thought you might be interested to know what's going on.

 

[gsaldivar]

Are you using any P2P software?

Look in your Event Viewer, under System - look for TCP/IP Warnings saying: "TCP/IP has reached the security limit imposed on the number of concurrent TCP connect attempts".

These errors can cause the recurring momentary lag you are describing. If you are getting these errors, try the registry patch on this page:

http://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=1497

 

[asuh]

huh, interesting that you made me look for that because I did find one of those warnings. and i had a few throughout the day. but, to answer your question, i have not run any P2P software all day. last time I did was on Friday.

I'll check out that link you sent me.

Here is an error that I have been consistantly getting:

The description for Event ID ( 1 ) in Source ( m4301a ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: , Linksys Wireless-B USB Network Adapter v4.0 #3.

This also was before I loaded the new drivers, so if happens again, then the new drivers won't have done anything.

 

[statik213]

try this when your machine starts spiking to figure out what process is actually using the CPU time...

Start the Windows Task Manager, ctrl + alt + delete

1. Change to Process Tab
2. Click View -> Select Columns
3. Check CPU Time
4. Now, click on the CPU Time label to sort all the processes by how much CPU time they've used.

Most processes should use very little time, since your rogue process is using a lot of time it should be near the top of the list (if you sorted descending).....

 

[asuh]

Okay, I've gotten sick of trying to solve this problem so I have a brand new installation of Windows that I've installed on another hard drive. The only other software that I've loaded is my ATI drivers. But, I do not think those drivers are causing any problems.

Upon viewing my Event Viewer, I find that I get two of the same consistant problems that I was getting in my original Windows install. They are the following:

The description for Event ID ( 1 ) in Source ( m4301a ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: , Linksys Wireless-B USB Network Adapter v4.0 #2.

(in reference to atapi drive, or DVD burner) The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort1, did not respond within the timeout period.

I do not understand why this is happening. Is this faulty hardware likely to be causing my problems??

 

[MadRat]

Well it appears that the slave hard drive is failing by that error.

 

[asuh]

you mean my DVD drive?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: asuh

(in reference to atapi drive, or DVD burner) The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort1, did not respond within the timeout period.

I do not understand why this is happening. Is this faulty hardware likely to be causing my problems??

That's a good reason for the pauses/lagging - IDE interface errors/timeouts/hangs will cause the OS to freeze up pretty good, until they clear, or the kernel driver decides to force-reset the IDE port itself, which usually takes a good 30 seconds or so.

Since the OS normally polls IDE (ATAPI, really) optical drives for media-insertion checks about once a second, the timing of the spikes that you were seeing could well have been caused by this.

I would start by double-checking your IDE cables, connections, power, etc., especially if this was all working beforehand. I have, however, had similar issues, with XP constantly running slowly - I mean, really slowly, and the system mouse cursor would constantly change to the one with the picture of a CD disc next to it. I was trying to run XP on an older system, with a 6X Creative IDE CD-ROM drive. Well, as it turned out, that drive was incompatible with XP, at least in DMA mode. XP requires that ATAPI optical drives be ATAPI 1.1 or 1.2-compliant in order to work properly. If you have an older drive or one with non-compliant firmware, you may have issues with it under XP. Those issues may be solved by disabling DMA mode, although I don't recommand that for DVD-ROM drives. (Makes using it to watch movies virtually useless, and makes it too slow to do anything else with either. Then again, nearly all DVD-ROM drives are generally new enough as to not have a standards-compliance problem like that.)

You might also want to try deleting the drive(s) and then the IDE port(s) out of Device Manager entirely, and then rebooting and letting it re-detect them. Sometimes something gets a little messed up in terms of IDE port/device registry settings too.

Indeed, XP, if it encounters read errors on an IDE device (including unreadable blocks on a scratched CD!), will lower that IDE device's transfer-rate on the bus, in the hopes of decreasing / eliminating the errors. So it's possible that the disc-read errors, could cause the OS to automatically ratchet the drive down into PIO mode, which would cause a CPU lag when polling for media-insertion checks. Deleting the drives/ports will clear those settings allowing them to run at full speed in DMA mode again. However, the error that you were getting, generally indicates something more serious than just a bad-block read error, so that's why I suggest checking the cabling, etc.

 

[asuh]

I just went to check my event viewer to see which error I've received the most. It shows that my most frequent error is the Wireless NIC error. 2nd most error is the ATAPI error.

What I don't understand, if the IDE interface is going bad, why is it so random? As in, I boot up Windows. I can run Windows anywhere from a few minutes to a few days before I see this lagging problem. I don't see that this is consistant with what a bad connection from a cable would cause.

I think I should check to make sure the drives themselves aren't bad. Or maybe the motherboard controllers are starting to go. This is really annoying, like I have a million problems all at once!

 

[MadRat]

A poor powersupply will cause ower hungry units like wireless and DVD drives to do just these types of things. This is why I leave my DVD reader unplugged when running the DVD burner.