Windows task manager question

[cory1234]

Just a quick question...should my amd 64 3400+ be at 100% cpu usage when i play starcraft??? i havent really checked but all the sudden the system has been going really slow when i booted it up and its almost always at 100% usage for things like IE and msn....like right now i have nothing running but starcraft and it says its using 100... any thoughts?

 

[slvr_phoenix]

any thoughts?

Plenty!

1) Try posting this in the right forum. This is the CPU forum, not the Windows forum.

2) Take your system to a pro shop and have them clean out all of the virii and spyware that you're infected with. Yes, theoretically you could do this yourself, but frankly, I don't have faith in you having enough experience to right now.

3) Run Windows Update. Repeatedly. And then when you're all up to date, turn on the automatic updates feature.

4) Install firewall software, anti-virus software, and schedule some regular anti-virus and anti-spyware checks at like midnight every night or something. There are plenty of free softwares such as Zone Alarm, Grisoft AVG, yada yada.

 

[Morph]

Just a quick question...should my amd 64 3400+ be at 100% cpu usage when i play starcraft????

NO!

I play Starcraft on my Celeron 2 566MHz and it doesn't even use 100%.

You definately have some other software hogging resources.

 

[cory1234]

um posting in the right forum??? its not a software problem cause i have 2 firewalls and 3 different spyware programs running in the background always...and i do believe it at least has something to do with the cpu...so i dont think it was entirely wrong to post it in this forum..

 

[slvr_phoenix]

3 different spyware programs running in the background always...

Yeah, no kidding. That's exactly your problem.

Seriously.

i havent really checked but all the sudden the system has been going really slow when i booted it up and its almost always at 100% usage for things like IE and msn....

An A64 3400+ should not be running at 100% CPU usage while using IE. Everything that you're describing sounds exactly like you've got a virus or spyware going. I bet if you looked at your network usage you'd even see it going mad when you're not doing anything on the network. Someone's probably owned your system and is sending out thousands of spam emails from it right this second. And you're giving me flak because you "believe it at least has something to do with the cpu"?

Well, unless you went and took the heatsink off of your CPU and it's throttling itself like made to keep from frying (do AMD CPUs even do that yet?) then there's no way on Earth that it's a CPU problem.

What version of Windows are you even running? Because if it's something based on an NT kernel (and pretty much everything is unless it's ME or 9x) you could probably right now be using that Task Manager to tell you exactly what process is hogging up all of your resources. (And if it is ME or 9x, well then that just greatly increases the probability that your system is owned.)

 

[SidVicious]

i have 2 firewalls and 3 different spyware programs running in the background always...

Woah ! You're definetly going overboard with such a paranoid level of security, at this point, you'd rather just unplug your network cable !

All those apps and services running in the "background" are very likely to compete with each others for processing time, leaving very little to foreground tasks.

Download and try Sysinternals Process Explorer, it is superior to the obselescent Microsoft Task Manager by featuring a much more configurable GUI.

Just launch Process Explorer and minimise it, then just go about your usual routine of launching all of your "security" bloatware then start your game.

Play for a few minutes then go check on Process Explorer (or Windows Task Manager), have the CPU time, % CPU load and CPU history columns displayed, you'll see how the processing time is being hogged.

 

[cory1234]

What version of Windows are you even running?
Xp sp2

I ran mcafee virus scan and microsoft antispyware last night. they didnt find anything...

right now i have msn , itunes and 2 IEs running and its hovering around 5-13% ...i think it just may have crashed yesterday..is that acceptable percentages for my cpu?

 

[slvr_phoenix]

The question is how much of the CPU is being used when you're not running anything? (Well, anything other than Task Manager.) That should be 0-2%.

 

[cory1234]

with most everything shut down except antispyware and the task manager open it stays around 0-2% but if i click or move the task manager it jump to 12-15%

 

[ecosoft]

Dude, you are quite likely to be infected. Unless you are calculating moon-launch trajectories, or whatever, you should never see continuoous 100% CPU usage. Open TaskMgr, click application tab and see which prog is racking up the usage counter ... that's the pig to poke with Delete, but first copy the name of the prog so you can find where it "lives" in your system using Windows Search utility. Once you find the prog, check it's Properties ... you may discover who wrote the thing. Then, delete the program. Also, Run command line Regedit and determine if your Registry contains entries from the deleted prog. You really need a good AV swe that is continuously updated like Symantec, etc. Also, a hardware firewall is invaluable in keeping out the creeps who plant zombies in your system. It seems that the forces of Good continually battle the forces of Evil, both in the games we all play, and in real life.

Good luck :!:

 

[_Cosmin_]

Play with DEP protection.
Disable it for those programs and should work just fine!

Right click on my computer - properties - advanced - peformance settings - turn on dep for all programs except those I select - after reboot add there your starkraft executable.



PS: I also get this 100% usage for Skype and Yahoo Messenger - and that fix them!

 

[cory1234]

Im going to try that DEP protection thing...the only thing that i can think of that i have changed as of late is that i put a trail on my mouse because my G5 mouse has been disappearing and it doesnt when there is a trail... (think its dying)

 

[apache_lives]

if you want to TOTALLY disable DEP:

Start->Run->(type in):
C:Boot.ini

look for (in Boot.ini):
/noexecute=optin

change it to:

/noexecute=alwaysoff

I hate that dam DEP is screws up a few apps and makes life hell.

As for gettin rid of more crap on your computer: http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan.htm
Do that scan online and see if that picks up anything - its saved my ass twice now where as the others (or atleast at the time) didnt pick anything up.

Ur havin trouble with your G5 mouse? I bought a G7 and it died a week later, then i got it replaced and the right scroll made the mouse stop for a second and now im on my third and it seems to work fine now - i must have had the worse luck with em!

 

[Vile]

I use Nod32 Antivirus, it's by far the best AV I've ever used 8O

 

[parlee]

i dont even have a firewall/antispyware/spybot and ive never had a virus.. routers do the job just fine if ur concerned about ur cpu usage, unplug ur ethernet cable, close all ur virus stuff run starcraft and check cpu usage, keep in mind it WILL go up right after alt tabbing from a game (even starcraft) probably not to 100% with nothing else running... usually when a game is minimized its out of memory meaning that it should have any affect on ur task manager numbers... the %'s are comming from background things, at most 10% is from starcraft...

 

[apache_lives]

i thought all (or most) games packed the cpu to near max to get as many FPS out at once and load cpus up to max?

old games do that atleast?

 

[parlee]

maybe thats whats happening to him , but im playing music and typing this post at 2% cpu usage, so theres obviously somthing weird if hes at 15% while sitting listening to music... thats prob the work of ur virus scanner and such...

 

[apache_lives]

if hes using fat ass media player with all that colorful crap it would be that high vs winamp and others that dont 'flash' as much

never fear - my dads celeron 2400 can hit 100% cpu load waving around a usb mouse! the onboard intel extreme graphics (i865g) was so crap we replaced it with an old TNT2 M64 32mb agp card lieing round and that kicked the siht' out of onboard intel graphics, systems still slow tho.

 

[parlee]

well of course its still crap, its a celeron, but i guess your right, if hes running a huge media player then it could run up to 15% my friend runs winamp with the library thing open on a p4 2.8 and he has the same kinda thing, its runs at about 10% just sitting there... mine doesnt do that though, maybe its a p4 problem

 

[apache_lives]

my system sits on 0% lookin at this windows, it aint a P4 problem

 

[parlee]

well then i guess he has integrated video or what some1 posted earlier that older games max out cpu to get most fps

 

[apache_lives]

some1 posted earlier that older games max out cpu to get most fps

Yeah that was me - i play a bit of liero at tafe and that will get a prescott 2800 hot enought to spin the fan to max meaning cpu load = high.

 

[parlee]

i guess it makes sense, but there might be a setting where u can change that because it seems like a waste to have 500fps....