CPU usage at 100% when downloading a game

PartyCat Jan 10, 2013 @ 1:37am

thats whats weird, everything looks normal, my chrome taking up the most, but this only happens when im downloading a steam game.

#1

[☥] - CJ - Jan 10, 2013 @ 2:36am

any BIOS updates available for your motherboard?

May have nothing to do with it but its always good to see what changes BIOS updates offer.

#2

banzaigtv Jan 10, 2013 @ 3:52am

I never had any problems with high CPU usage while downloading a game, but I did notice my RAM usage continuously creeping up during a long download session. Weird.

#3

PartyCat Jan 10, 2013 @ 4:53pm

No I did not =\

#4

[☥] - CJ - Jan 10, 2013 @ 5:20pm

Anti Virus scanner with real time scanning perhaps? downloading a game would slow you down if the scanner is checking all the files as they download.

Last edited by [☥] - CJ -; Jan 10, 2013 @ 5:21pm

#5

bloodraven43 Jan 10, 2013 @ 5:28pm

ive red on the net that you probably have a virus like malware in your pc

heres mine...
processess 89-94 idle writing this with steam open and task manager plus dload
cpu usage 0-2 % idle
physical memory 14 percent

downloading my usage goes between 14-15 percent

check in your windows task manager to see whats app is using so much of your cpus power

#6

Ledow Jan 11, 2013 @ 4:47am

I'd guess AV as the most likely culprit, but yes you need to look into task manager and sort by cpu usage to find the problem. If CPU usage is high, that should tell you why and who's using it. If it's not high CPU in task manager, then you're mistaking general slowness for CPU use (e.g. your hard drive may be slow when writing to disk, and that makes things run slow, and makes you think you're using up CPU)

#7

Mc Intire Jan 12, 2013 @ 2:39am

I have the same problem, Steam takes up 2% CPU normally but starting a dl makes it rise to 50% and lags my system to the point where I cannot even listen to music in the background. The taskmanager claims my processes use 5 to 10% CPU altogether, but the CPU infopanel shows that one CPU is clogged and the others act erratic to compensate.

I have noticed this is not a problem unique to steam though. utorrent does the same to my computer. I have not tried downloading with firefox or iexplorer yet, but I guess it'll give the same results.

I have also noticed that stopping an active steam download now takes ages and sometimes crashes steam. This is not the case for the torrent, it seems to handle the situation better.

System is Win7 x64 last updated three days ago to the most recent updates. Specs:
Intel i5 2,67GHz
nVidia Geforce 46 GTX
4GB Ram DDR2

Notable autostarting programs:
Avast
hamachi
nVidia control center

Recent updates:
firefox 18.0 (~12 hrs ago)
Steam (~2 hrs ago)
Avast (definition update ~2 hrs ago)

Those problems started today when I started my PC, so these changes are the only causes I could imagine, otherwise I did not change anything on my system since yesterday (when verything still ran smoothly).

Edit: running a scan with avast now, just to make sure.

Last edited by Mc Intire; Jan 12, 2013 @ 2:40am

#8

Mc Intire Jan 12, 2013 @ 4:12am

Update: After some extensive testing, I can say this problem only persists with Steam dls. utorrent just seems to have hiccups with Steam running in the background, even when no Steam dl is running. Avast found no virusus, IE and FF download normally and do not cause high CPU usage in any case. Stress test with 150 tabs opening simultaneusly and a video running in the background did not cause any noticable CPU lag. I guess this reduces the possible causes to either Steam or the Red Orchestra 2 dl that always lags up.

Edit: funny, the CPU usage seems to be proportional to the dl speed

Last edited by Mc Intire; Jan 12, 2013 @ 4:14am

#9

Mc Intire Jan 12, 2013 @ 4:31am

Avast antivir (free edition), as you can see in my former post. There is not much else running in the background either.

Edit: of course the realtime protection is running. I'll try to deactivate it and post the results.

Last edited by Mc Intire; Jan 12, 2013 @ 4:32am

#10

Mc Intire Jan 12, 2013 @ 4:42am

Okay, realtime protection is deactivated, still the same. One CPU is at 100%, the others are trying to compensate. Checking the processes tab tells me that 99 to 93% of my CPU capcity is idling, which obviously isn't true (I'm at 25 to 30% usage in the CPU tab).

I fired up Torchlight just to check whether my HDD might be the cause. Game loads fine, no weirdly long loading times, normal CPU usage of 30%, no lags, listening to music in the background is possible (no matter which HDD the music file is on).

Last edited by Mc Intire; Jan 12, 2013 @ 4:43am

#11

Mc Intire Jan 12, 2013 @ 4:47am

Download speed just went up from 500Kbyte to 1,5MB, instantly the CPU usage spiked up to 80%. scary.

#12

bloodraven43 Jan 12, 2013 @ 5:00am

Avast antivir (free edition), as you can see in my former post. There is not much else running in the background either.

Edit: of course the realtime protection is running. I'll try to deactivate it and post the results.

avast isnt that reliable of a program btw.you could have gotten a malware virus and not even know it and when you start downloading with utorrent...btw ahoy matey...lol...the virus attaches to your server and starts downloading too...these virus s are smart

#13

Mc Intire Jan 12, 2013 @ 6:10am

Wouldn't such a virus affect torrent when steam is not running, not to mention browser downloads? As I said, downloads from other programs are fine... Unless it's a very selective virus.

#14

bloodraven43 Jan 12, 2013 @ 6:20am

yeah maybe targeting paid accounts rather then free ones...lol...id really invest in a descent antivirus rather then a free one...you might have better results...also steam while downloading,if you have the net speed it will eat it up...my steam downloads at 8mbs where as utorrent will only max 1 mbs.this is why your pc gets locked up

#15

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