The Mugen Fighters Guild - Trying to reduce CPU usage on computer

Xenomic

Trying to reduce CPU usage on computer

#1 May 01, 2014, 10:49:29 am

T.G. "Thunder God" Xenomic

So, this is a pressing issue that I need to resolve, as even with ONLY Skype, Task Manager, and Foobar open, there's about 69-72 processes running, and CPU Usage tends to jump from 10% up to 100%, and oftentimes stays around the 70%+ mark. I am trying to figure out what could be causing it, but I'm not sure and require assistance in trying to tackle this problem.

Whenever I record videos, sometimes the computer will stutter a bit, and even then there are times where when I'm just browsing the net or whatever, the computer SOMETIMES stutters a little, as though it's about to lock up. Tonight, while recording just a 6 second clip from MUGEN, the computer locked up and stuttered for about 5 seconds...which it's never done before so yeah...can anyone help a bro out? : S

To my site: http://xenomic.freehostia.com/

XGargoyle

Re: Trying to reduce CPU usage on computer

#2 May 01, 2014, 12:31:25 pm

Hedgehog Whisperer
Red Bull addict

Blackviper's Service Configuations may help you removing lots of useless services in Windows, such as the Smart Card service that is constantly checking if a smart card is in use (and completely useless if you don't have a smart card reader)

http://www.blackviper.com/

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Re: Trying to reduce CPU usage on computer

#3 May 01, 2014, 01:29:41 pm

I stand alone.

Hmm in my opinion besides maybe Indexing Service/Windows Update, I don't think stopping the Windows built in services would reduce CPU usage that much. It'll help, but requires what I would describe as intimate knowledge of your own machine (and if you're just starting out, a lot of reading/research). What XGargoyle said works, but needs effort on your part and will bring about overall a smoother machine.

For example, I can safely say all machines I use on a day to day basis (my laptop at work, my servers, and my home PC) I know intimately, if something is disabled/missing in the task manager I can usually spot it; I know what I can safely disable to tune my machines to the max without affecting day to day use. Likewise, I can easily spot a foreign task/object running in the task manager by only giving it a brief look.

So lets pick your details about.

What's your CPU?
What Windows do you use? (I presume XP, 70~ processes is very low. Vista/7 (not sure about 8, don't own it) runs at 100 on a minimal level)
What virus scanner/protection do you have?
When the CPU jumps to 70%, what can you see in the task manager that's causing it?

Don't PM me.

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Bastard Mami

Re: Trying to reduce CPU usage on computer

#4 May 01, 2014, 05:28:47 pm

also, try to restart skype after sometime, especially if you do calls/share screen, it has bad memory/processor management since microsoft bought it.

Xenomic

Re: Trying to reduce CPU usage on computer

#5 May 01, 2014, 09:45:26 pm

T.G. "Thunder God" Xenomic

「ⒻⓊⒸⓀⓎⒺⒶⒽ」 said, May 01, 2014, 01:29:41 pm

What's your CPU?
What Windows do you use? (I presume XP, 70~ processes is very low. Vista/7 (not sure about 8, don't own it) runs at 100 on a minimal level)
What virus scanner/protection do you have?
When the CPU jumps to 70%, what can you see in the task manager that's causing it?

1) Processor is AMD Athlom 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+ with 2.50 GHz
2) Vista
3) Microsoft Security Essentials
4) That's the thing, I can't tell half the time. Even with Firefox not running, or ANY really heavy stuff running (excluding Skype), nothing really breaks 50,000 in memory.

Would doubling my Virtual Memory help any?

To my site: http://xenomic.freehostia.com/

Xenomic

Re: Trying to reduce CPU usage on computer

#6 May 02, 2014, 02:14:52 am

T.G. "Thunder God" Xenomic

Couple screenshots from Process Explorer, taken about half an hour apart, just to show how widely different it is...

To my site: http://xenomic.freehostia.com/

vicmugen

Re: Trying to reduce CPU usage on computer

#7 May 02, 2014, 02:45:30 am

i doubt if you raise your VM you will gain sign. performance... for me it just make things worst.
if you think your problem is malware try post your problems at bleepingcomputer they helped me one time.

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Re: Trying to reduce CPU usage on computer

#8 May 02, 2014, 12:36:27 pm

I stand alone.

The CPU is from 2005, and you're running Vista on it. Unfortunately, due to these 2 cases (but NOT because Vista is "crap") I highly believe it's not improvable based on experience.

Do you record videos with MUGEN at 640x480 (whatever the jumped up resolution is)? That for your PC is a massive strain by itself and is really not fit for this generation.

The CPU is more suited for powering Windows XP; it can actually be decent once I push it down to 13~ processes.

But for Vista and above, no matter how much I try to tweak/disable services, it never improves performance as much as I could with XP. It would marginally improve it, but is overall superficial/placebo.

Also how much RAM do you have? It looks (feels?) like you got 4gb based on those screenshots.

LogMeIn is no longer free, and unless you paid for a subscription (or perhaps know a technical friend who put it on there for you but didn't tell you -- unless he paid for a sub) I recommend you uninstall that and get rid of the service. That's 1 process out of the way.

Search Indexer is on, if you don't search on your machine that usually is a slowdown, especially on old machines. That periodically molests your hard drive which makes your CPU get excited.

Is the first screenshot on bootup (right after you've turned it on)? Vista has a weird problem that I cannot identify but I've come across is that on bootup Windows Update goes absolutely batshit and uses 50% cpu constantly for about 10 minutes. Then whatever else your machine wants to do it will add CPU on top of that. The best way to "fix" it is to disable Windows Update (Automatic Update) although I personally won't do it if you're not too tech savvy about it all.

Naturally, you've got all sorts running in the background, no surprise of course, but I'll give the generic advice/info based on what I see:

Do you use your digital camera anymore? If not, uninstall the software, it'll take 2 processes off.
What the hell is GyStation? lol. Can't google at the moment
Is your PC a "media centre" PC? (i.e. other devices retrieve media off it), if not, killing that service (Media Centre, I think it's called) will free up 2 more.
Not sure what your PC is trying to do on the first screenshot, though it's not the cause of high CPU it's still a foreign object -- noticde the "taskeng" bit had "UpdateChecker.exe" trying to run; this is from scheduled tasks (Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\System Tools\Task Scheduler) -- see what is scheduled there and kill them if you think it's not needed (a lot of shit ends up there sometimes that constantly runs checking for updates and whatnot)

Also unfortunately the screenshots taken does not identify the high CPU usage at the time. Best to use Task Manager first (make sure to click "show processes from all users") and then from there click "View > Select Columns" and tick "PID". Click on the CPU column to sort it by CPU usage (ignore System Idle Process), find the culprit during a high spike, identify the PID, use Process Explorer to see exactly what it is (if it's svchost, open the culprit and see what's assigned to the svchost, and then we'll further kill things from there depending on what).

Quote

Whenever I record videos, sometimes the computer will stutter a bit, and even then there are times where when I'm just browsing the net or whatever, the computer SOMETIMES stutters a little, as though it's about to lock up. Tonight, while recording just a 6 second clip from MUGEN, the computer locked up and stuttered for about 5 seconds...which it's never done before so yeah...can anyone help a bro out? : S

Forgot to address this, but it's best to check via Resource Monitor (go to Task Manager, click on Performance tab, then click on Resource Monitor) to see what is being written to the hard drive at the time. If something else is molesting it then doing any other activity which involves writing data to the drive would be massively slow.

Don't PM me.

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Xenomic

Re: Trying to reduce CPU usage on computer

#9 May 03, 2014, 12:24:51 am

T.G. "Thunder God" Xenomic

Aye. I record in 640x480 with Bandicam/Dxtory/Camtasia (usually Bandicam though).

3GB RAM is what I got. I know LogMeIn isn't free anymore, but it's like the only thing I know of for getting online with people for netplay and such for things like ZSNES and whatnot.

No, that's after it being on for a while. But yeah, I noticed that whenever I boot comp up, it likes to hover around 80-100% for a few minutes.

Not really, but it's there in the event I need it. Not sure about the media centre thing.

To my site: http://xenomic.freehostia.com/

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Re: Trying to reduce CPU usage on computer

#10 May 03, 2014, 11:59:03 am

I stand alone.

I'm unsure what you mean by using logmein for netplay/ZSNES, it's a bit odd, but nevermind, it's your preference. Lets ignore that.

Still, it's hard to diagnose further without actually touching your PC; you can try to self-diagnose with my notes here or upgrade as soon as possible (even a basic "gaming" build which is sufficient for pretty much anything if you don't do anything serious on your machine should only set you back £500/$750) (unsure of current exchange rate). :|

Don't PM me.

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Xenomic

Trying to reduce CPU usage on computer

XGargoyle

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Re: Trying to reduce CPU usage on computer

Bastard Mami

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Xenomic

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Xenomic

Re: Trying to reduce CPU usage on computer

vicmugen

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「ⒻⓊⒸⓀⓎⒺⒶⒽ」

Re: Trying to reduce CPU usage on computer

Xenomic

Re: Trying to reduce CPU usage on computer

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Re: Trying to reduce CPU usage on computer