Does 100% CPU Usage mean something wrong?

Trogan

Hi, my task manager is showing CPU Usage at 100%. Its been showing that for several days and it's affecting my internet. Its usually at 0-5% like most PC's but for some reason its at 100%.

What should I do?

Thanks

MediaMan

Press CTL-ALT-DEL to bring up the task manager. Look for what is running at +90% in the task manager and report it back to us. Also see our SVT security forum. Download HIJACK THIS and run it. You appear to have something unwanted in your system that is causing this.

gibbonsl

what program is taking the CPU cycles?

ctrl alt del then Processes

t1rhino

Are you Folding?

gibbonsl

his sig says he is

it should not effect the internet tho

that is what taking 90+ % of CPU on that system

csimon

post your client.cfg ...the client should be set to idle. If it is set to low priority it may cause slow downs of certain processes.

Trogan

Thanks to everyones quick reply.

I've already been to to the SVT Forum and SpywareShooter removed 2 entries - nothing major. I made sure that I had all startup programs running to get a proper HJT Log.

Yes I am folding

There is nothing in the Process Tab in Task Manager which is above 90+% accpet the Folding Core which shouldn't cause any problems, I hope!

Any other things which could affect this.

Thanks

Trogan

Hi again

Heres my client.cfg

[settings]
username=Trogan_1000
team=93
asknet=no
bigpackets=no
machineid=1
local=1

[http]
active=no
host=localhost
port=8080
usereg=no

gibbonsl

folding is what is doing the 100% CPU Usage

that is not a problem, becouse folding is set to low piority

thus allowing any other program to use what ever it needs

mine showes 53% usage becouse folding takes up 50% of the cycles

clear as mud now

Trogan

I can see your point but my internet is running slow, I'm not certain but I think my internet ping is high and I think its because of the 100% CPU Usage, not F@H.

floppybootstomp

Turn off the Folding program temporarily then see what CPU usage there is, then see how your Internet speed is.

Trogan

floppybootstomp wrote:

Turn off the Folding program temporarily then see what CPU usage there is, then see how your Internet speed is.

I would but I don't know how to turn it off .

Do I...

Turning Off: End the process in Task Manager?
Turning On: Go to my F@H folder and Double-click Fah502-console.exe file?

is that right? if not could someone tell me how, please?

Thanks

Donut

From my limited experience, I would look more toward your connections or the internet load in your area. With my cable connection I find certain times of the day the internet is slower than others. I thought originally it was folding causing the slowdowns, (when I first started), but when I paused f@h nothing changed.

Not exactly scientific, I know, but thats just what I found.



Damn, do I type slow!

Trogan

Donut wrote:

From my limited experience, I would look more toward your connections or the internet load in your area. With my cable connection I find certain times of the day the internet is slower than others. I thought originally it was folding causing the slowdowns, (when I first started), but when I paused f@h nothing changed.

Not exactly scientific, I know, but thats just what I found.

Well on my computer there are 4 user accounts and 1 is my brothers. I asked him if he found the Internet slow and he said its fine, nothing wrong! So, it could just be my account or something

Donut

Could be,

Maybe ISP probs? I don't know for sure, my comps only have 1 user each. But, like I mentioned earlier, I don't notice any slowdown from folding, just from outside sources.

TBonZ

Trogan_1000 wrote:

I would but I don't know how to turn it off .

Do I...

Turning Off: End the process in Task Manager?
Turning On: Go to my F@H folder and Double-click Fah502-console.exe file?

is that right? if not could someone tell me how, please?

Thanks

I take it you installed folding as a service? Otherwise, open the folding dos box and hit "ctrl-c".

Trogan

Yep TBonZ, I installed folding as a service.

Thanks Donut

TBonZ

Although, I have never installed it as a service, it must be able to be shut down like any other service.

Ctrl Panel--->Administrative Tools--->Services. Find the folding and stop it manually. See if you notice a change in your internet.

t1rhino

Also, from a command prompt;
net stop SEVRVICENAME

Trogan

Thanks TBonZ for showing me how to stop the Folding thing.

I stopped it and the internet still seems slow but that could be due to the fact it's almost 8:30pm here in london so i'm going to try again tomorrow in the afetrnoon.

btw, the CPU Usage keeps on changing but I guess thats ok.

Thanks

floppybootstomp

Trogan, you sure maybe your brother ain't downloading oodles of stuff from a p2p service or something? Or somebody else on one of those user accounts?

I know that when my daughter makes full use of WinMX on my little Network here, my Call Of Duty ping rates go sky high.

Just a thought

Trogan

You make a an excellent point. My brother has just downloaded a whole load of INCOMPLETE vidoes from kazaa lite and they are still on my comp but not for long coz' i'm deleting them now.

btw, i've uninstalled all P2P applications.

Thanks Floppy

Straight_Man

My Windows console client, in XP (SP1a and SP2) was also stoppable this way:

Open Task manager, with CTRL-ALT-Delete all at once and tapped once (hold down CTRL and ALT keys, tap Delete key, release all three). On the Processes tab, select the Folding client (click once). Right click on the selected client. Choose End Process Tree. XP will actually send the same signal it sends to a Windows process, then enforce with a kill if needed, and folding responds to a nomral end request and AFIAK has never been killed such that any work was lost. Almost NEVER had data loss doing this with the version 5.02 or version 5.01 clients. Old version 4 clients occassionally lost some work IF the computer was REAL busy.

Note, if you do a service kill, you also get to restart Windows later to restart it, or use Task Manager's new process function or a service ... START command to restart.

Trogan

Hi Straight_Man, this may sound dumb to you but are you asking me to test something?

If I End the Process Tree of the folding core in Task Manager, what would that do?

sorry if there dumb Q's, your way advanced for me

Thanks

spazz

I was reading the posts in this thread and had a couple of questions maybe someone could answer. I would have thought that heavy cpu loads mean something is wrong and can affect internet usage as well as other programs. I know if my cpu reaches 100% for some reason, say a program is loading, I am searching the registry, running antivirus check etc., my pc slows dramatically, and sometimes it will not respond until the load has decreased significantly. I would also think that a cpu's life cycle is greatly shortened by repeatedly being used at near capacity due to heat. I have a temp monitor and when cpu usage reaches and stays at 100% I see a rise of 10 degrees. Second to power surge, heat is the #1 'enemy' of electronics.

On another note, until today I never knew what folding@home meant. I only remember that a few months back my pc slowed dramatically and after investigation I found that something called folding had been installed without my knowledge, probably through a peer-to-peer download. My mistake I guess.

After reading about folding@home I see it is a very worthy cause, but obviously I'm skeptical about increased cpu usage and it's affect on performance and longevity. I do have two older pc's I'm not using, but I tried to network them a few weeks back without success. Maybe I'll give that another try.