CPU spikes every 30 seconds.

fobose · 2 Oct 2008 at 22:18

Ever since I can remember now I have got CPU spikes about every 30-31 seconds on my Vista business x64 install. I have had my computer about a year but dont remember seeing these spikes on an older install. Here is a pic of task manager:

I have tried lots of things such as removing all USB devices, closing all applications possible, rebooting etc. This is really starting to annoy me now and I was wondering if some one can shed some light? I would rather not have to reinstall (which might not even fix it anyway).

In addition to my spec in sig I also have a PCI-E sata controller with a sata drive attached, I have "safely removed" this drive to see if that changed anything but it didn't.

Help!

fobose · 2 Oct 2008 at 22:47

Just checked safemode and that doesn't spike. I have the Wi-Fi disabled in bios! Also I think (on this install) I did test the wifi, but I did not install any software, just the base driver and used windows to search for networks etc. Actually on this install wifi has been disabled and never installed.

With only IE open, the spikes atm are less, about 60% rather than 90% odd.

In msconfig I see a service called "##Id_String1.6844F930_1628_4223_B5CC_5BB94B879762##" by Apple computer, inc. A bit of googling and it relates to that "bonjour" thing that photoshop installs. What is it and is it safe to remove it?

fobose · 2 Oct 2008 at 23:00

Defcon5 said:
Youre constantly using 3gb of ram? Is that normal?

It happens when comp has been on for a long period of time. 1.25GB now after reboot. Its just caching everything

snowdog said:
Can't you just open the process list if you sure it happens, wait, be patient, and then catch a glimpse what process is causing the cpu usage ?

I tried this, its svchost.exe so that doesn't help at all unfortunatly

fobose · 3 Oct 2008 at 07:06

Using what tetras posted, it seems to relate to "Dcomlaunch", description of "plug and play" and "Dcom server process launcher". Whats that mean? Thanks for your help so far guys.

fobose · 3 Oct 2008 at 23:06

Just an update, a friend of mine remote desktop'd to my PC and did some a' twiddling and a' fiddling and said it was a mass storage device on USB port blah blah. Which turned out (once he disabled it) to be my card reader which connects to my internal USB ports (something I didn't try to remove).

This has my readyboost drive connected to it aswell, but even when that is disabled/removed there is still the spike, only when the card reader itself is disabled the spikes stop.

However, having removed the card reader completly, when I have my flash voyager GT usb stick (not the readyboost drive) plugged in to one of the rear usb ports, I get small spikes every 30 seconds again (about 25% CPU). This is with having all my apps open as before with the large spikes.

I've also just tried plugging the card reader in to my old PC and thats idling fine at 0-1% cpu without any spikes at all. Atleast I know the spikes are USB related. Not sure how to fix it though!

fobose · 4 Oct 2008 at 10:36

It doesn't really help, I can't pinpoint the resource that was making the spike with it. Perhaps I was doing something wrong but I found process explorer more usuful

fobose · 4 Oct 2008 at 11:23

Thanks for the replies guys. I have installed the latest P35 chipset driver but its still giving me the 25% CPU spike

I have plugged in 2 more USB sticks and the spike has increased to 45%, so it would appear that I just wasted a load of time plugging my card reader in to my old PC and making all the wires nice and tidy to leave it in there as I thought that was the main problem.

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