Missing one half of CPU power!!!!

After some troubleshooting of a WIN XP 64 bit install, I run into a extremely
frustrating problem. After Windows is up and running, I lose half of my CPU
performance! I can't recall that it did this on the first boot to Windows,
but sooner
or later the same problem occurs. It is random as far as I can tell (once
started). It
and IE 64 bit or 32 bit may be related. I am on IE when it first occurs. But
regardles of what happens after that, it can't be stopped! The mouse becomes
sluggish, as well as Windows. When I Ctrl-Alt-Del to the windows task
manager, under the performance tab 50% of my CPU preformance is being used!
So, I switch to the processes tab to find and hopefully delete the culprit
when it reports 99% CPU performance is in the "System Idle Process". My CPU
runs at 100F or 38 C, so I pretty sure it should not be throttling. On top of
all of this, it is random in occurance: it goes on and off, lasts an hour or
30 seconds. My specs are below:


Here are my specs:

P4 3.73 Ghz 1066Mhz FSB
4GB 533 Mhz RAM
ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE Mobo
2x 10K RPM (Raptors) by WD in RAID 0 of 70 GB each
1 7200 RPM 280 GB by Seagate
Included Realtek HD Audio card (daughter)
HIS Radeon X850 XT PE

My antivirus software is Avast! home edition, which is compatible for 64 bit
edition windows. It has a resident scanner for scanning whatever pages I load
on the internet. Also, I have Microsoft Antspyware Beta, could this be a
problem?


Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
hyperlight

Andre
Fri Nov 25 08:00:15 CST 2005

hmm, do this for me, remove Microsoft AntiSpyware and tell me if your
performance changes? A lot of persons have reported issues with MSAS slowing
down their computer badly and uninstalling it, things were back to normal.
--
Andre
Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com
Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
FAQ for MS AntiSpy http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm

"Hyperlight" <Hyperlight@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:494D72F1-EE0C-4295-BCDF-513BB4074752@microsoft.com...
> After some troubleshooting of a WIN XP 64 bit install, I run into a
> extremely
> frustrating problem. After Windows is up and running, I lose half of my
> CPU
> performance! I can't recall that it did this on the first boot to Windows,
> but sooner
> or later the same problem occurs. It is random as far as I can tell (once
> started). It
> and IE 64 bit or 32 bit may be related. I am on IE when it first occurs.
> But
> regardles of what happens after that, it can't be stopped! The mouse
> becomes
> sluggish, as well as Windows. When I Ctrl-Alt-Del to the windows task
> manager, under the performance tab 50% of my CPU preformance is being
> used!
> So, I switch to the processes tab to find and hopefully delete the culprit
> when it reports 99% CPU performance is in the "System Idle Process". My
> CPU
> runs at 100F or 38 C, so I pretty sure it should not be throttling. On top
> of
> all of this, it is random in occurance: it goes on and off, lasts an hour
> or
> 30 seconds. My specs are below:
>
>
> Here are my specs:
>
> P4 3.73 Ghz 1066Mhz FSB
> 4GB 533 Mhz RAM
> ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE Mobo
> 2x 10K RPM (Raptors) by WD in RAID 0 of 70 GB each
> 1 7200 RPM 280 GB by Seagate
> Included Realtek HD Audio card (daughter)
> HIS Radeon X850 XT PE
>
> My antivirus software is Avast! home edition, which is compatible for 64
> bit
> edition windows. It has a resident scanner for scanning whatever pages I
> load
> on the internet. Also, I have Microsoft Antspyware Beta, could this be a
> problem?
>
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> hyperlight

Charlie
Fri Nov 25 11:36:13 CST 2005

Now see, I'd have suggested Avast! first.

But a better way to proceed -- Open Taskmanager, and look at RAM and CPU
usage by process. Let's try actually troubleshooting a bit first. :)


--
Charlie.
http://msmvps.com/xperts64

Andre Da Costa [Extended64] wrote:
> hmm, do this for me, remove Microsoft AntiSpyware and tell me if your
> performance changes? A lot of persons have reported issues with MSAS
> slowing down their computer badly and uninstalling it, things were back
> to normal.
> "Hyperlight" <Hyperlight@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:494D72F1-EE0C-4295-BCDF-513BB4074752@microsoft.com...
>> After some troubleshooting of a WIN XP 64 bit install, I run into a
>> extremely
>> frustrating problem. After Windows is up and running, I lose half of my
>> CPU
>> performance! I can't recall that it did this on the first boot to
>> Windows, but sooner
>> or later the same problem occurs. It is random as far as I can tell (once
>> started). It
>> and IE 64 bit or 32 bit may be related. I am on IE when it first occurs.
>> But
>> regardles of what happens after that, it can't be stopped! The mouse
>> becomes
>> sluggish, as well as Windows. When I Ctrl-Alt-Del to the windows task
>> manager, under the performance tab 50% of my CPU preformance is being
>> used!
>> So, I switch to the processes tab to find and hopefully delete the
>> culprit when it reports 99% CPU performance is in the "System Idle
>> Process". My CPU
>> runs at 100F or 38 C, so I pretty sure it should not be throttling. On
>> top of
>> all of this, it is random in occurance: it goes on and off, lasts an hour
>> or
>> 30 seconds. My specs are below:
>>
>>
>> Here are my specs:
>>
>> P4 3.73 Ghz 1066Mhz FSB
>> 4GB 533 Mhz RAM
>> ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE Mobo
>> 2x 10K RPM (Raptors) by WD in RAID 0 of 70 GB each
>> 1 7200 RPM 280 GB by Seagate
>> Included Realtek HD Audio card (daughter)
>> HIS Radeon X850 XT PE
>>
>> My antivirus software is Avast! home edition, which is compatible for 64
>> bit
>> edition windows. It has a resident scanner for scanning whatever pages I
>> load
>> on the internet. Also, I have Microsoft Antspyware Beta, could this be a
>> problem?
>>
>>
>> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> hyperlight

Tony
Sat Nov 26 03:55:27 CST 2005

If the 'System Idle Process' is using 99%, the machine is doing nothing.
That means it uses all the time to check if it needs to do anything, this is
quite normal, so no process can be slowing down your machine. What you are
seeing, then, is something else.

Tony. . .


"Hyperlight" <Hyperlight@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:494D72F1-EE0C-4295-BCDF-513BB4074752@microsoft.com...
> After some troubleshooting of a WIN XP 64 bit install, I run into a
> extremely
> frustrating problem. After Windows is up and running, I lose half of my
> CPU
> performance! I can't recall that it did this on the first boot to Windows,
> but sooner
> or later the same problem occurs. It is random as far as I can tell (once
> started). It
> and IE 64 bit or 32 bit may be related. I am on IE when it first occurs.
> But
> regardles of what happens after that, it can't be stopped! The mouse
> becomes
> sluggish, as well as Windows. When I Ctrl-Alt-Del to the windows task
> manager, under the performance tab 50% of my CPU preformance is being
> used!
> So, I switch to the processes tab to find and hopefully delete the culprit
> when it reports 99% CPU performance is in the "System Idle Process". My
> CPU
> runs at 100F or 38 C, so I pretty sure it should not be throttling. On top
> of
> all of this, it is random in occurance: it goes on and off, lasts an hour
> or
> 30 seconds. My specs are below:
>
>
> Here are my specs:
>
> P4 3.73 Ghz 1066Mhz FSB
> 4GB 533 Mhz RAM
> ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE Mobo
> 2x 10K RPM (Raptors) by WD in RAID 0 of 70 GB each
> 1 7200 RPM 280 GB by Seagate
> Included Realtek HD Audio card (daughter)
> HIS Radeon X850 XT PE
>
> My antivirus software is Avast! home edition, which is compatible for 64
> bit
> edition windows. It has a resident scanner for scanning whatever pages I
> load
> on the internet. Also, I have Microsoft Antspyware Beta, could this be a
> problem?
>
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> hyperlight

Hyperlight
Tue Nov 29 19:46:08 CST 2005

To all,

Thanks for the suggestions, I have looked at CPU usage by process when this
occurs, and the idle process is getting 99%, (unless I am trying to do
something else). I didn't look at the RAM usage yet. What should I be looking
for?

Something the idle process is doing is taking half of my CPU power, or the
processes list is lying. I have tried uninstalling avast! before, but not
Microsoft Antispyware. I will let you know if it works. If I remember
correctly, there were a few times I had this problem on the first load(s) of
the OS! But the uninstall of MAS may change things.

Thanks again,

hyperlight

Colin
Tue Nov 29 19:58:57 CST 2005

System Idle Process is more like a place holder. The higher it is the more
responsive your machine should be. A high System Idle Process percentage is
a good thing. Are you sure that you have all the latest drivers installed?

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
"Hyperlight" <Hyperlight@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D8AF31E9-E2E0-4D86-B668-5942BB5DC9D0@microsoft.com...
> To all,
>
> Thanks for the suggestions, I have looked at CPU usage by process when
> this
> occurs, and the idle process is getting 99%, (unless I am trying to do
> something else). I didn't look at the RAM usage yet. What should I be
> looking
> for?
>
> Something the idle process is doing is taking half of my CPU power, or the
> processes list is lying. I have tried uninstalling avast! before, but not
> Microsoft Antispyware. I will let you know if it works. If I remember
> correctly, there were a few times I had this problem on the first load(s)
> of
> the OS! But the uninstall of MAS may change things.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> hyperlight

Hyperlight
Tue Nov 29 20:10:03 CST 2005

To all:

Shortly after uninstalling MAS (Microsoft Antispyware), the bug came back
again. Process numbers (of significance): Idle process (99%), with the
occasional 1-5% from tasmgr.exe, explorer.exe or some other program. The
others I will look up if I have a chance and make sure they are not some
faulty driver or something. Of my total memory, 3407228 K recognized by OS
(physically there is 4 GB, it is a known Mobo glitch), 2980204 K available
and 2239336 K for the "system cache".

Something of note: my task manager allows me to have a separate graph PER
CPU. (View>CPU History>One graph per CPU in task manager). Two graphs are
shown in this mode. One is at 100% while the other is near 0% when the bug
occurs! This averages to 50% on the regular graph. Since it is all in one
"CPU" does it mean anything significant?

Thanks yet again,

hyperlight

Colin
Tue Nov 29 20:23:07 CST 2005

If this is a dual-core, is there a cpu driver you need to install?

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
"Hyperlight" <Hyperlight@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FDD7D762-6C46-41BE-B926-9182388E60FE@microsoft.com...
> To all:
>
> Shortly after uninstalling MAS (Microsoft Antispyware), the bug came back
> again. Process numbers (of significance): Idle process (99%), with the
> occasional 1-5% from tasmgr.exe, explorer.exe or some other program. The
> others I will look up if I have a chance and make sure they are not some
> faulty driver or something. Of my total memory, 3407228 K recognized by OS
> (physically there is 4 GB, it is a known Mobo glitch), 2980204 K available
> and 2239336 K for the "system cache".
>
> Something of note: my task manager allows me to have a separate graph PER
> CPU. (View>CPU History>One graph per CPU in task manager). Two graphs are
> shown in this mode. One is at 100% while the other is near 0% when the bug
> occurs! This averages to 50% on the regular graph. Since it is all in one
> "CPU" does it mean anything significant?
>
> Thanks yet again,
>
> hyperlight

Jud
Wed Nov 30 00:56:57 CST 2005

On Tue, 29 Nov 2005 19:23:07 -0700, "Colin Barnhorst"
<colinbarharst(remove)@msn.com> wrote:

>If this is a dual-core, is there a cpu driver you need to install?

And a motherboard BIOS-upgrade?

jud

Hyperlight
Fri Dec 02 09:04:01 CST 2005

There is no particular CPU driver to my knowledge. According to the Mobo
manufacturer, (ABIT), the Fatal1ty AA8XE should be totally compatible in
version 14 of the BIOS. My specific chip, P4 EE @ 3.73 Ghz is deemed "OK" for
my Mobo. I am around 99% sure I am at version 14 of the BIOS.

There is no driver necessary for my processor, but I think I found an update
for my chipset. I hope that fixes the problem. To my knowledge, all of my
drivers are 64-bit. The only thing out of the ordinary was that I needed a
Microsoft "hotfix" for a "Microsoft UAA bus driver for high definition
audio". After that I installed the 64-bit driver for my realtek HD audio.

Again, thanks,

hyperlight