bizrarre high cpu usgae

  • Thread starter Thread starter Phil Thompson
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Phil Thompson

hello everyone

I've recently replaced my HDD with a new Maxtor DiamondMax 9 (120Gb).

The HDD works fine, it boots up normally, no problems whatsoever as I can
see but, ever since installing it my CPU has been acting strangely and
causing quite sluggish performance.

I'm running at a CPU usage of around 10-20%, on average, depending on what
programs are open. But, whenever I open a new program the usage shoots up to
100% and the program opens quite slow. I am also listening to iTunes most of
the time and when I open a new program the CPU usage goes sky high the song
playing in iTunes drags and goes v e r y s l o w l y. Songs in iTunes
all drag after around 10 seconds of play and that lasts for about 10-15
seconds and returns to normal. I guess this is while iTunes is writing
something to a file in My Music (35 Gb of mp3 files).

This is a fresh install of XP Pro with F-Secure and Spybot and Microsoft
AntiSpyware Beta running i.e. there is definitely no viruses/spyware causing
this. The only thing that has changed recently is the HDD so it must be that
right?


Any clues? Do you think this is a hardware issue or is it a software issue?
Would moving my large music folder onto a new partition make any
improvements?

my system:
ASUS Pundit-R ID2 Socket 478 ATI RS300 - VGA LAN USB2.0 800FSB
Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz 533FSB SKT478 512Kb Cache
1Gb RAM
Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 120Gb 7200rpm 8mb Cache ATA133


Phil
 
Go into device manager and enable DMA.
Click to expand...

I am running a WD Caviar HD. How do I determine that I am running
Ultra-DMA from within Device Mamager?


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"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
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Mike Walsh said:
The disk is running in PIO mode. Go into device manager and enable DMA.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike,

you were right; it was running in PIO mode. thanks for the straightforward
response, much appreciated.

Here's how I changed it:

went into Start > Control Panel > System > Device Manager

then double clicked on the Primary IDE channel under IDE ATA/ATAPI
controllers. I looked under advanced settings and it was set to run to DMA
if available but PIO was running. I checked the maxtor website and their
advice was to uninsatll the primary IDE channel (right -click and uninstall
in device manager) and the restart the PC. On restart Windows reinstalled my
HDD and DVDRW then wanted to be restarted again. On the 2nd restart
everything was rosy again.
 
went into Start > Control Panel > System > Device Manager
Click to expand...
then double clicked on the Primary IDE channel under IDE ATA/ATAPI
controllers. I looked under advanced settings and it was set to run to DMA
if available but PIO was running.
Click to expand...

On my machine under that is "Current Transfer Mode: Ultra DMA Mode".

That would seem to say that I am running UDMA.

What did yours say?


--

Map of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/vrwc.html

"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and
denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the
country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
--Hermann Goering
 
Phil said:
Thanks Mike,

you were right; it was running in PIO mode. thanks for the straightforward
response, much appreciated.

Here's how I changed it:

went into Start > Control Panel > System > Device Manager
Click to expand...

Glad you found it. I don't run WinXP on this PC and forgot that it is in Control Panel.
then double clicked on the Primary IDE channel under IDE ATA/ATAPI
controllers. I looked under advanced settings and it was set to run to DMA
if available but PIO was running. I checked the maxtor website and their
advice was to uninsatll the primary IDE channel (right -click and uninstall
in device manager) and the restart the PC. On restart Windows reinstalled my
HDD and DVDRW then wanted to be restarted again. On the 2nd restart
everything was rosy again.
Click to expand...

It is good to know that Maxtor could solve your problem. A lot of web site support is useless.
 
Bob said:
On my machine under that is "Current Transfer Mode: Ultra DMA Mode".

That would seem to say that I am running UDMA.

What did yours say?
Click to expand...

mine said PIO mode but after I uninstalled it, and rebooted twice it said
UDMA.
 
mine said PIO mode but after I uninstalled it, and rebooted twice it said
UDMA.
Click to expand...

The free,"Nero Info Tool",
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/diag.html
Is a wonderful small program that runs on any window's system and can
even be run from within it's," .zip" file.It's configuration Tab will
tell users the DMA state of ALL drives.It's a must have in my PC
diagnostic kit.It also tells users about their ASPI state if they are
having,"Burning" problems with CDR/DVDs etc.
It's one of the 1st programs I run on any system I'm called to fix
as correct DMA mode on PCs is imperative.

HTH :)



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http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm
 
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