Abnormally high CPU usage

Jafar13 · Jan 23, 2015

Hello!

Did not really know where the thread should be placed so thought that the Windows section works best because I run win 7.

Since I've started getting random BSODs (made another thread about the BSODs) I have also noticed that the CPU is not working properly. Right now I have Chrome open with five tabs and no clips or music or something in the background that is active and the CPU usage from 5% to 50%, when I watch youtube (480p works OK but I have been able to watch 1080p without any problem sooner), I can barely look at it without lags. My internet is not the problem as it works splendidly on other computers (I have 30/5 mbit).

Playing games is almost impossible, when I'm in example League of Legends I only get about 30 fps, while I got 60 fps (I have v-sync on) stable before, using the same settings.

Another problem that may be linked is that the sound of a video or music stops for a sec when the CPU reaches 100% and all I hear is a static noise. The video also seems to lag. If I turn off all the programs I do not use, etc. and only have one tab open with youtube it works fairly well. I want it to work just like before, when I was at least able to multitask a little before it suddenly became much worse.

I've scanned the computer with Kaspersky, found no viruses. I ran MBAM-scan and found some malwares that I removed, no improvement. I defragmented hard disk, no improvement. I ran memtest, 2 cycles, no errors. The computer was formatted somewhere in the middle of December. Also, I have not installed anything fishy/dodgy (nothing at all as a matter of fact, what I remember anyways) just before the CPU started fiddling.

What to do now?

Thanks for your time!

RaDiKaL_ · Jan 23, 2015

Please post your full PC specs and let us know which BSODs you were getting so we can understand better what is going on, I assume you got the BSOD situation fixed?

Jafar13 · Jan 23, 2015

RaDiKaL_ :

The BSODs problems are NOT fixed, yet... I am still "waiting" for another BSOD to get full dump as I had it set to only make mini dumps. You can read more about the problem in this thread: http://

Specs are: Q6600 @ 2.4 GHz
6 gb DDR2 800 MHz
MS-7360
HD6870
Silver Power Supply (somewhere around 600 W I believe)
500GB HDD
Win 7 64-bit

What uses the cpu varies, when I only use Chrome, it can go up to 70% when I just open a new tab (the Task Manager says chrome.exe takes the most CPU power). When I look in Chrome's task manager it says that "Browser" is using the most CPU. I have tried reinstalling Chrome, tested firefox, no difference.
This applies to all program, if I open Steam it can go up to 50% CPU usage. Even MS Paint uses up to like 10-20% while opening. This is what it looked like with steam open, excuse the sswedish language but You should be able to tell what it's in English

Total Usage is 86%... how it added up to 86% I have no idea .

RaDiKaL_ · Jan 23, 2015

Ok... I've run into a few problems with hamachi + kaspersky myself, ended up switching to Wippien, however I think I had to do a fresh install to get rid of problems even after uninstalling both hamachi and kaspersky, but let's not jump into conclusions, yours could be something different.

Use Procexp to see which applications/services are using your CPU, it should add up to the total usage, also take a look to "DPC" or "Interrupt" cpu usage, those shouldn't be getting over 2%.

Regarding your BSOD issue, try uninstalling hamachi, restart, uninstall kaspersky, restart, and finally run CCleaner to clean the registry, let's see if problem persists (if you haven't tried this already of course).

Next step would be to stress test the CPU with Prime95 while monitoring temps and usage with Coretemp and Procexp, however it would be good to first see which programs are using your CPU while at idle as mentioned above.

RaDiKaL_ · Jan 23, 2015

Edit function not working properly... wanted to add run procexp with admin rights.

Jafar13 · Jan 23, 2015

RaDiKaL_ :

I did uninstall hamachi a few days ago. And I reinstalled kaspersky today. Let's hope the BSOD problems are gone. I also run ccleaner regularly. I am going to post a screenshot of the procexp within a few minutes with the results. Where do I find these "DPC" "interrupt" cpu usages?

Jafar13 · Jan 23, 2015

RaDiKaL_ :

After letting procexp run for around 5-10 I came up with this graph, while idle, except for the parts I highlighted. The first part is where the program was starting, the 2nd one is opening already running chrome to check facebook really quickly (to see how much such a simple activity has on my system)

RaDiKaL_ · Jan 23, 2015

Tom's not being good with me lately, I expand the picture button but no picture appears, could you upload it to say http://image-share.com/ and post the link please?

Jafar13 · Jan 23, 2015

RaDiKaL_ :

Sure thing!

Here You go: http://imageshack.com/a/img537/4439/ijJCTI.png

I could not upload it to image-share, unfortunately.

RaDiKaL_ · Jan 23, 2015

Ok.... the red measure indicates heavy kernel usage, and I see your Interrupts going above 4%, that's not normal at idle, seems you have a DPC latency issue, please download and run this program:

http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

It shouldn't go above 500 microseconds (above the green line), leave it running for around 10min while you use Chrome and such.

If the DPC latency goes above 500 it's possible a hardware issue, we'll see that after getting the test results.

Also just in case, monitor your CPU and GPU temps.

Jafar13 · Jan 24, 2015

RaDiKaL_ :

This does not look good...

So my temps were pretty much like this the entire time, no gaps no nothing.

The results of the program You linked were clearly BAD, this is what it looked like the last 30-40 secs (where I was browsing my local newspaper) of the 10 min test.

It was always like that, from the beginning all the way to the end

This was tested while casually browsing different sites, youtube, reddit and then news.
EDIT: in case you can't see the pics:
TEMPS (temps were fine all the time):
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/421x484q90/540/HLqWG5.png
DPC Latency checker (it was always like this, from the beginning of the test all the way to the end):
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/596x496q90/661/k7Y67l.png

RaDiKaL_ · Jan 24, 2015

Thanks for the links, indeed you have a truly awful DPC issue there, sadly it will be hard to find out which component is culprit, the procedure is that one described in the latency checker, where it says "Some device drivers on this machine..."

So you need to disable one, verify if latency fixes (might need to restart pc to ensure the device got disabled), and then move on to the next component until the gets to stable values.

Start by disabling audio, then Lan and/or WLAN, and check your HDD DMA mode in device manager->Storage Controllers, if it got reverted somehow to a value lower than Ultra DMA2 it will cause the latency you're suffering.

Jafar13 · Jan 24, 2015

RaDiKaL_ :

My Storage Controllers look like this: https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/404x176q90/673/zFdj5c.png

Where as the:
1st ATA Channel 0 didn't even have the DMA option
2nd ATA Channel 0 had DMA Mode 5
3rd ATA Channel 0 had DMA Mode 4
1st ATA Channel 1 didn't even have the DMA option
2st ATA Channel 1 didn't even have the DMA option
3rd ATA Channel 1 didn't even have the DMA option

The rest didn't have the DMA option

I Noticed this under "networks card" :
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/256x50q90/538/6SPf7L.png

is it something I should worry about and/or fix?

I am going to try disabling them one by one. [strike]If I for example disable audo and notice nothing has changed, do I enable it or do I let it being disabled or doesn't it really matter?[/strike]

Jafar13 · Jan 24, 2015

RaDiKaL_ :

I disabled audio, didn't notice any difference, then I disabled my network adapter (card?) and noticed something that MIGHT be a difference (the DPC was lower, around half) I then re-enabled it and this happened: https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/561x485q90/909/BT4Sc3.png

I don't know what to check next, which devices or something completely else ?

RaDiKaL_ · Jan 24, 2015

try reinstalling your NIC drivers, perhaps newer ones and restart pc, lets see how your latency is afterwards.

Jafar13 · Jan 24, 2015

RaDiKaL_ :

Unfortunately, it's the same as before. No difference

RaDiKaL_ · Jan 24, 2015

Could be the CPU....... disable lan and audio, then run prime95 4+ hrs (better during night) lets see if it's still stable. Log temps and voltages ofc during test.

Jafar13 · Jan 24, 2015

RaDiKaL_ :

How do I log temps and voltages ? Is there an option before I run Prime95 ? Is this the program You are talking about : http://www.mersenne.org/download/ ?

When I disabled lan/wlan this is what I disabled: https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/256x55q90/540/LhyNB8.png (the highligted one). Is that the one I should disable?

And when I disabled Audio, I disabled all 3 of these: https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/245x76q90/631/FEK9TD.png

Am I doing anything wrong?

EDIT: Also... do I just launch the program, log in to my GIMPS account and then just let it do its work for 4+ hours ?

RaDiKaL_ · Jan 24, 2015

Yes that's the program.

Yes you have to disable the Gigabit one.

Also fine with audio.

For monitoring you need another software, Coretemp will be enough: http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

Once up and running go to Tools-> logging on.

As for Prime95 no need to log into account, with the "just stress test" is enough, then go to options->torture test, and select Small FFT test.

Jafar13 · Jan 24, 2015

RaDiKaL_ :

Very well...I might let it run during this night, if I don't I will let it run next night. A result will be obtained either tomorrow or the day after.

When I stop the prime95 test, how do I log the results or do I just screenshot my screen at the moment when it's done?

Thanks for Your help so far!

RaDiKaL_ · Jan 25, 2015

Once you stop Prime95 take a look at each instance per core, there shouldn't be any error counts as simple as that.

Jafar13 · Jan 25, 2015

RaDiKaL_ :

I let prime95 run for 12 hrs and 39 mins, here's the results: https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1077x624q90/537/bNUNul.png

For the temps... no core went above 83 Celsius. Anyway, here is the entire log : https://www.sendspace.com/file/v8spvy

With Virustotal scan: https://www.virustotal.com/sv/file/9550cfaa8db8011a537b480f2747192835d2872c3ff23a9d2427ca82dc7bce35/analysis/1422187830/

Does this mean that it's only a driver issue? What's next step? Reinstalling Windows is probably the last thing I want to try, even thought it might be the easiest

EDIT: I am not sure if this is needed but I'll upload it anyway... here's the CoreTemp dump.txt : https://www.sendspace.com/file/vrmrdl

RaDiKaL_ · Jan 25, 2015

Oh my... it started at 60ºC while at midnight! you clearly have an overheating issue, your CPU should idle at around 25-40ºC at most (on a hot day with a stock cooler) and never, never go beyond 70ºC...

It's time to clean all the dust inside the case and most importantly apply new thermal paste, there's a lot of video guides in youtube, high temps will cause the CPU to throttle down resulting in lower performance and instability, so fix that right away.

Jafar13 · Jan 25, 2015

RaDiKaL_ :

The computer was already turned on and had been so for about 12 hours when I started the test ( I restarted the comp right before starting the test though), that explains the high start temp. It has always been like this (high temps)
I cleaned the dust 2 days ago, so that's not the issue, the thermal paste on the other hand... will be a mini project in a few days.

I am 99 % sure that my problem still will persist; because, directly after booting up my comp it's at 30ºC and still as slow as when it's at 80ºC. My computer has always had heating issues, my gpu had that too before I changed it, the gpu is fine now stays at 40-50ºC, tops (radeon hd6870).

So the hunt for the faulting driver (or the error if it's not a driver) continues! :S

Jafar13 · Jan 27, 2015

RaDiKaL_ :

I have now changed the thermal paste and the temps are indeed A LOT better, but my problem is still as bad as before. What to do now? I feel like reinstalling Windows is next step but that's really the very last thing I want to do :S

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