High CPU when downloading or streaming

Hello again guys, ...

Just cleaned my system, here...

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/276222/google-links-hijacked-ie-stopped-working-false-meassage/

Now have another issue, only since this fix - whenever I'm downloading "anything" my CPU max's-out. Same with streaming, but only until the file is cached, then CPU goes to normal again. Otherwise the system is running great.

Seriously ruining my surfing experience....

I have seen many having the same issue (google), and yet no fix found yet. One forum indicated the new Adobe Flash being the culprit, but I can understand that for my streaming, but should Flash affect my DL's? Others have said that they fixed this issue by reinstalling the OS, but I'm not sure if I have Vista repar function (don't think so) and i really don't want to lose installed programs and files.

I have updated all (I think) my drivers (sound, vid, controller, etc) but maybe I missed one?

Any suggestions are appreciated! Thanks in advance for your time...

Edited by ForeverRogue, 28 December 2009 - 10:56 AM.

hello

have you looked in the task manager while this is going on to see what process is using all the cpu?

good luck

Hi Kenny,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I forgot to mention in this post that I have checked Task Manager while this symptom was occuring and the odd ones are something called "System" referring to the NT Kernel & System (??), and System Idle Process. "System" reads in the mid-teens under "CPU" on the "Processes" tab. Usually runns at '0'.

Also, I have tested this with no Anti-virus, Firewall or Maleware scanners running and still get the same results.

Thank-you very much for your time!

** UPDATE **

Process Explorer shows high DPC's when this issue is occuring.

hi,,,, you say the process "system" runs in the mid teens when doing the downloading,,, so whats using the rest to put it upto 100% please
oh,,,, if its "system idle" then this figure is not how much its using but how much is left that can be used,,,,ie,,, if my pc is idle its showing 100% on system idle,,,,, apologies if you knew this.

Edited by figgis41, 28 December 2009 - 06:30 AM.

Hi Figgis,

Thank-you for your input. Yes, I am aware of "system idle" and am not too concerned with that one. Again, maybe I'm not looking at the right things, but when I say that this "System" process is in the 'mid teens', I am not referring to percentage of CPU usage. In Task Manager, under processes, in the CPU column there is only a 2-digit reference. Most processes show 01 - 04 in this column (which was odd to me because I have only a dual-core). Of course, I am not sure what this number represents, but I can only say that I have never seen a process showing double digits there. That's why I 'thought' this one would be a concern showing sometimes 16-17, only when I am streaming or DL'ing.

Again, when I use Process Explorer, the top CPU users show 'System' and 'DPC'. I have tried to change modes with Proc.Exp. to show what was causing the DPC's, but I can't see anything in there.

Thanks again to all for your time.

hi,,,, these didgets represent how much cpu is being used by that process, not how many cores your processor has,,,, so if one is showing 04, then you will see that system idle is at 96,,, so if a process is showing 16,19 or 34 then this is nothing to worry about as long as your using that process,,,, ie if your downloading and a process for firefox or internet explorer says 16-19 to what ever then all its telling you is that this is running and using x amount of cpu power,,,, where it says user name and then you look at the process and it says system next to it,,,, this means its a system process,,, where it says your name this means its a user process that running,, ie, non system a program you have installed etc,,,,,, if you look where it says image name then this will be the name of the process thats running,,,, this is what you look for and to see how much cpu its using,,,, if as you say its running at 100% then look for the process name and post it back here.
i think maybe you have nothing to worry about and could be reading it wrongly at the moment
for a clearer view of processes running and cpu its using then click on the performance tab in task manager, then click on the resource monitor tab, then click on the little dropdown arrow to the right of CPU bar and a new field will open,,,, in there look at cpu and average cpu. if something is running at 100 in cpu and its average is suppose to be say 1 or less, and it stays at 100 in cpu then you have a problem with that process,,,
btw,, whats process explorer ?????
i hope this helps.

Hi Figgis,

Thanks again for your reply.. and useful information!! Especially the "clearer view" information - this sounds like what I need. Process Explorer is a software that was reccomended to show what exactly is eating up CPU. Seems like a good program - probably would be more useful if I knew how to work it more efficiently. I have a feeling that your information about how to get a 'clearer view' will be more useful to me at this point.

I'm at work at the moment and will give it another go when I'm home this evening and will post my results here.

Thanks again!!

hi,,,, i remember process explorer now, i think i used it once on an xp machine,,, task manager is s usefull tool some times and the processes bit is there to point the way so to speak,,, say i think a pc has contracted an infection and my security has not flagged it i will open t/m and look in processes for something thats ramping up when the pc is idle,,,, say my security is up to 40-50% or windows explorer has ramped up and im not using the pc or a lot of system processes are showing lots of cpu when im not doing anything then this is a good clue,,, something is moving around and is being chased through the system,,,, this is why people will then boot to safe mode to help fight infections as it only loads essential system processes and slows/stops the movement of said infections , not really need now as most scanners are more powerful and are made to scan in normal mode like MBAM (malwarebytes)
also t/m is good for diagnosing program or app issues as you can see which one is gobbling up all the system resources and stop it by clicking on it then click end process,,,, i found this happens with printer software a lot where the print spoolers would run at 100% and crash the machine,,, a quick look in t/m tells you which the culprit is and then you can stop it before the machine crashes,,, the more you use t/m the more you see and the easier it gets
good luck.

Ok....

When streaming... CPU didn't max out, but was higher than normal (50-75%, or more). Sound was choppy at times and mouse was skippy. As soon as the file was cached, CPU dropped considerably. *An interesting note is that the 'disk' graph in Resource Monitor was 'spiking' constantly, with very few dips, if any. Average reading was 8-10 MB/sec.

Tried some DL's.... I set up a few large DL's which was going to take from 1hr to 2 days and again had high CPU usage. I should note here that when this happens, it is typically one core that gets maxed out, or runs high, while the other stays 'relatively' low. In this run, one core averaged between 60-80%, and the other averaged 15-50%. The 'disk' graph only spiked occasionally, but it 'did' spike well beyond the 10 MB/sec. Of course, 'network activity' was rather high during the DL's.

After I stopped a few dl's, CPU averaged 50%, occasionally spiking to 65% and RAM dropped considerably. Yet, 'disk' graph went up and started spiking again!!?!?

The Image Name 'System' was at the top of the list again, but only showed mid-teens rating. However, it 'did' show 108 under the 'Threads' column. I feel this is suspicious, but perhaps you can clarify.

Some may say that if one is doing that many dl's, which are going to take that long, then one should expect high CPU usage, or w/e. However, this is a new issue for me. I used to be able to download even 15-20 files, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME burning a video AND watching one in WMP. As I am writing this, RAM is 71% used, core x is at 80% and core y is at 45%. These are very unusually high numbers compared to my past experience. Something has changed.

Questions...
1 - What do the 'blue' lines on the graphs in RM represent?
2 - What does the 'Threads' column represent?
3 - What is audiodg.exe?

* Update - it seems the longer I leave the dl's going, the higher the CPU climbs. As I finish writing this, one core is now averaging 80%, the other is 40%.

As always, advice, suggestions and comments are muchly appreciated! Thanks in advance for your time.

*UPDATE - during this run I was streaming and dl'ing. When I closed the webpage with the streaming (after the file was already cahed) the core usage 'switched'. The one that was averaging high dropped significantly, and the one that was averaging lower spiked dramatically. Core x is now at 10-20% and core y is now 80-90% and I'm going to have to reboot... with only 2 files dl'ing with an ETA of less than an hour. CPU column in RM shows nothing unusual (highes 1 is 10). However, many 'threads' are being used and the blue line in the 'disk' graph is staying at 10 MB/sec, with very few dips. Network graph is off the charts, so to speak.

Hhhheeelllllp....... please.

hi,,,, first off the info you asked for,,,,,,,,,
threads are,,,,,,,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thread_%28computer_science%29
What is audiodg.exe?
http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/audiodg.exe.html
nothing to worry about,,,,
the blue lines in the RAM window in Resorce monitor represent the hard fault levels,,,, also known as the page file,,, when things are being swapped from hard drive to the ram,,, if your pc is doing a hell of a lot of this then this could indicate that you need more ram as the page file is continuously running out of temporory storage in the ram and is swapping out all the time with the harddrive,,,, at the moment mine has a blue line about a 3rd of the way up from the bottom,,, this represents that of my 3gb of ram only 30% of it is being used,,, the more i use the higher the line moves up,,, but to do this i have to put the pc under serious load,,,
in R/M at the bottom there is a bar named "learn more" expand this and click on the offerings for more info on R/M, you can also learn more on this tool by clicking help tab at the top of the window.

reading the rest of your post,,, this is all normal behaviour for a pc,,, when your streaming the cpu usage will go up as there are a good few processes at work here,,, its a bit more than just downloading a file to the desktop,,, if your running a few tasks then the multi core technology will come into play here and allocate tasks to cores,, so you will sometimes see one core with more usage than another,,, if your doing one task then it will allocate all resources to this and cpu usage will be lower as its spread across cores,,,, unfortunately i dont see the kind of figures your getting as i use a quad and dont run with multi tasks going all the time,,,,
as for the hard disc activity this is all normal aswell,,,, when your doing something there will be lots of activity as the page file is swapping things between the ram and superfetch is also kicking in,,, things your doing are saving to the hdd,,, and even when your finished and the pc is in idle, then the hdd comes out to play again as things are set to run when the pc is idle,,, like indexing,,, i have mine set to index the full C: drive,, then the auto defragger will kick in also, things like avast anti virus will start to check files added etc,,, updates will be looked for on a lot of programs as most of these things are set to update when pc is idle,,,, if your worried about things running that you dont know aout,, or that nasties are in the machine then here are a couple of good tools to play with,,,,,
security wise,,,, download MBAM free version and SAS free versions,,,, update and run once a week,,, i have MBAM full version which is set to update at 6pm every night then run a scan at 8pm nightly,,, this is not needed but if the resources are there and the pc does not slow then why not,,,,,,,,
also i would download a program called win patrol
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
and how to use it
http://www.udel.edu/topics/spyware/malwarebytes.html
and SAS
http://www.superantispyware.com/
and winpatrol, which as you see is very highly rated on cnet
http://download.cnet.com/WinPatrol/3000-8022_4-10129149.html
this is a very useful program,,, i use to use it in the past but only use it now on other peoples pc's to see whats going on and to show them how to use and monitor there pc,,,, hope all this helps,
i will just say this as well ,,, as pc's get older and more used they tend to fill up a bit with clutter and left over crap, and over a matter of years the machine will slow down,,, there are optimisers that promise to speed things up but these are all crap,,, also REG cleaners that will sometimes do more harm than good to the registry,,, when im fixing someone's pc,,, when i know all is fine i always backup the registry to my flashdrive and transfer it to one of my harddrives at home,,, because guaranteed with in a month they have used a registry fixer/cleaner and knackerd the registry,,,
just use what is called good house keeping,,, clear out the browsers from time to time, say once a week, let the auto defragger do its thing,,, use a program like Revo Uninstaller to delete programs from the pc as this will clear up all leftover reg entries aswell,,,
http://download.cnet.com/Revo-Uninstaller/...4-10687648.html
good luck

Wow! Thanks Figgis for the VERY infomative reply. I will be reviewing the links you have supplied regarding the 'threads' and what not. I wonder if I have changed the amount of space on the hdd that the pc uses as RAM (page file??) - I'll take another look at that.

I understand that there is more going on when streaming a video, however, by the end of my previous post I had stopped the streaming and was only dl'ing 2 files - yet one core of my CPU was at 100% and even though the other core was lower I could barely navigate my mouse. AS soon as I pause those dl's, CPU and RAM goes right back down, so I am pretty sure it's not indexing, or defraging, or anything else in the background. I should mention that I am running 3GB of RAM. Also, I am running Avast, MBAM and SAS. I thought they may be causing this issue and actually tested this issue with NO security running, as scary as that can be - same results.

If I do dl's only, I get this issue. If I do streaming only, I get this issue. If I stream AND dl, I get this issue. Otherwise, the system is running great for just surfing or running other progs.

I should also mention, I have access to a friend's pc (on the other side of town however) and he is running Avast (I haven't introduced him to MBAB or SAS yet) and he can still dl multiple files AND burn AND watch a vid with absolutely no problems with CPU usage. Also, as I have mentioned, I used to be able to do the same thing and only since my fix on a previous thread here, am I having this issue. The only thing I changed after cleaning my PC was to uninstall Norton and start using AVAST, MBAM and SAS, but I have already proven that these are not the culprits. As part of that cleanup, nvstor.sys was infected and removed and I had wondered if that file may be causing this issue. Buckeye Sam (provided excellent help here on this forum) didn't think this file was involved in my current issue. What are your thoughts?

Anyway, thanks again for your time and the above information. I will review the links you provided and let you know of any updates in my situation. I'll check back regularily today to see if you or anyone else has any more suggestions.

hi,,,, im beginning to agree with you,,, this should not shoot up to 100% by just downloading,,,, if your streaming then you will see more ram used especially if you dont have a graphics card as the mobo's on board gfx will use some ram,,,, but just downloading a file and it shoots to 100%,,,, ok ,,, what are you downloading,,, how big,, from where and how,,,, which site,,, file size,,, wireless or wired,,, isp download speed,,, which browser is being used,,,, are you using p2p programs at any time,,, the more info the better,,, then we will run some tests,
first of all update sas and run full scans,,, then download mbam free version and update and full scan,,,, then we will flush out the browsers with atf cleaner,,,, first do the scans and post the info asked for with links to the sites your using for downloads etc,,,,,,,,,
good luck.

Thanks Figgy (can I call you Figgy?)....

'Most' of the dl's are torrents (but I DO get this when dl'ing regular files as well), using Vuze (formerly Azureus). I have already tried alternative torrent clients, including DownloadManager and uTorrent, with no change in this issue. Also, my friend continues to use Vuze and has NOT had these issues. We are using the same version of this software.

I've also had this issue when dl'ing Files from 123-free-download.com, cnet.com and e-sword.net. To test you can go to e-sword.net and then click on the 'Downloads' link. I think the biggest ones are found under the 'Graphics' heading.

There's really only two sites I might stream from. Youtube.com - will depend on the file I'm watching. Approximately 50% have no problems - 50% do. The main one is http://www.amazingfacts.org/Television/Cen...76/Default.aspx
There is another weird issue at the amazingfacts site - when I stop the streaming, completely 'close' the player so it's not even cacheing in the background, the CPU is still maxed out until I actually navigate away from the page (??) Note that there is no CPU usage when I first get to the page and read a little, but as soon as I try to stream, CPU goes up and won't come down until I navigate off the page entirely.

Can you suggest another site to test my streaming issue? Is there one that does not use Flash? Still not sure what to do about the dl issue though.

isp: Shaw Cable, Edmonton, Alberta
Modem: Cable (wired)
Test Speed: 5000 kbps
Browser: IE8

I'll go run the scans and come back - may take 1-2 hours. Thanks for your time!!

SAS and MBAM completed - nothing found (SAS removed some tracking cookies).

The torrents are typically 700MB and whether it is one file or 15 - the longer I leave it to dl, the higher the CPU rises until it is maxed out. With the regular dl's (files), same thing.... the longer it will take, the more CPU used.

Thanks!