CPU Usage Spikes

[Sandman669]

Hi all, first off I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Tyler from Ontario, Canada and I joined this site hoping to get some help with my dilemma!

Here are my specs:

CPU - AMD Athlon X2 6400+ 3.2 GHz
Mobo - ASUS M3A78-EMH-HDMI
RAM - 4 GB
Hard Drive - 640 GB
Video Card - NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT


All the time when I'm playing simple games like Runescape, or even flash games my CPU usage spikes to 100% for a few seconds, causing my computer to lag, then settling back down. This shouldn't happen considering my specs. I'd imagine this computer would have no problems whatsoever playing simple games.

I've tried closing unused processes, scanning my computer for viruses, and the likes.

Also, it's not my connection because even offline games lag too.


I'd love some help on this issue please, thanks in advance!


Tyler

 

[Blckhaze]

Do you run itunes or limewire or HWmonitor?
I had an odd accurance the otherday aswell, every 7 seconds or so the CPU usage would spike for half a second, non-stop. The time it started happpening was during the start and close of those 3 programs, somewhere in there. I just rebooted though and it stopped. None of those programs are in startup. I also had plugged in an iphone during the window. Checked all running programs, couldn't spot the cause.

If you have any of those programs running at startup, or anything big running on startup, please share! Maybe it's a bug in windows 7.

 

[Sandman669]

I run iTunes, yes. It's also running on startup. I'll try disabling it from startup and closing it when playing games and see if that makes a difference.

 

[Sandman669]

I still encounter CPU usage spikes after disabling iTunes from startup, closing it, and restarting the computer.

Could it be my heat sink or a bottleneck?

 

[Sandman669]

I hate to triple post but could I please have some more suggestions?

 

[Blckhaze]

It's one of the programs making the computer work on intervels like that, is my guess

 

[NITROGEnarcosis]

Flash and java VMs ( don't remeber which runescape uses ) can often have odd cpu usage patterns. Make sure you have the most up to date versions of flash and java. If that does not fix it try seeing if you have any other background stuff running.

EDIT:
Also make sure you have the most up to date graphics drivers don't remember if adobe has released their gpu accelerated flash yet but that could also be causing trouble.

 

[Sandman669]

Runescape uses Java.

I'm 100% I have the most up to date drivers so that could not be the issue.

 

[eaadz30]

Hi Tyler,

Try Partitioning your HDD, install Ccleaner to clean up registry (http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner) its the basic but hope it'll work..
Have Great Day...!!

eaadz

 

[maziar321]

Does it spike as soon as you start the game or sometimes in the middle of when your playing? I could be totally wrong about this but if it happens at the beginning, then your fine. The processor is assuming the game is high intensive and spikes, only to realize that the game doesn't require as much resources. Again, I could be totally wrong. In fact, I just ran a test running a flash game. My computer spike for about a second on start. I think that its normal.