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Half of CPU goes into overdrive when using YouTube

8K views 79 replies 7 participants last post by  Macboatmaster 
#1 ·
Has been an occasional problem in the past but has now come back again and happened the last two times I have been on YouTube.

It only happens when using YouTube.

Half of the dual core CPU becomes exceptionally busy and goes into over drive slowing the computer down. The only way to fix the problem is to do a complete Restart.

I have an image of problem captured on Task Manager below:

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#2 ·
see my screenshot please
Your screenshot of task manager shows 17799 handles on 57 processes
on task manager you can see the Resource Monitor button

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open resource monitor with YouTube open
check first the list of processes
select each in turn by clicking to check the box on the left
the selected item will the appear in handles
so with the cpu tab selected in resource monitor
when you select the process scroll to handles
open that box and examine the situation there

On an examination of your screenshot I would try watching YouTube with IE if you are using Chrome or Firefox
and I would also examine what Norton is running whilst on YouTube
 
#3 ·
see my screenshot please
Your screenshot of task manager shows 17799 handles on 57 processes
on task manager you can see the Resource Monitor button

View attachment 248750

open resource monitor with YouTube open
check first the list of processes
select each in turn by clicking to check the box on the left
the selected item will the appear in handles
so with the cpu tab selected in resource monitor
when you select the process scroll to handles
open that box and examine the situation there

On an examination of your screenshot I would try watching YouTube with IE if you are using Chrome or Firefox
and I would also examine what Norton is running whilst on YouTube
Norton 360 probably wasn't doing anything at the time. I only had it open to remind me to run a utility on it that was due.

On Windows Vista there are no check boxes beside the list of processes in Task Manager.

On the list of processes visible on the screen under Processes at the time (and not all 57 were visible), none showed any significant CPU usage. By far the largest was Task Manager itself which showed 05 which isn't really that high either.
 
#4 ·
1. Please type reply in box that appears when you open the topic
not by clicking reply on my post, that as you can see automatically quotes back what I have said

2. Please read my post again
on task manager you can see the Resource Monitor button


open resource monitor with YouTube open
check first the list of processes
select each in turn by clicking to check the box on the left
the selected item will the appear in handles
so with the cpu tab selected in resource monitor
when you select the process scroll to handles
open that box and examine the situation there
 
#9 ·
Please read my post again
I have now managed to open the Resource Monitor within Task Manager and the window that appears has a very different format to the screenshot you provided.

Looking at the list of processes open under CPU, clicking on the processes does not seem to change anything at all that I can see on screen.

What should I do next?
 
#6 · (Edited)
2GB of memory probably doesn't help either. Which browser are you using?
Well spotted - I missed that
It must be like watching grass grow - trying to use YouTube with 2GB of ram on Vista - one of the most inefficient of the Windows OS
However if it is same computer as on previous topics its max ram is 2GB
 
#11 ·
I've just changed my browser to Firefox from Chrome and hope this may make some difference. I found Chrome a little slow sometimes and as you say heavy on resources.

However I noticed that searches on Firefox seem to come back with Google results. Does this make any difference?
 
#12 ·
Looks like within FF you Google set as the default search engine.

Each search engine may find different hits.

I do NOT use FF, so some one else should be able to tell how to change the default search engine.
 
#15 ·
I reported a problem previously about how half of my dual core CPU can suddenly go into overdrive while using YouTube causing my computer to slow. The only way to get rid of the problem is by doing a Restart.

I was advised to check the problem out using the Resource Monitor next time I saw the phenomena.

The problem apparently is being caused by svchost.exe (netsvcs) which is described as a Host Process for Windows Services.

Here is a screenshot of RM:

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#18 ·
The problem is different this time as doing a Restart does not appear to solve the issue.

According to Wikipedia high usage of svchost.exe can sometimes be a problem. Here's the quote:

"Because svchost.exe is used as a common system process, some malware often uses a process name of "svchost.exe" to disguise itself. The original system file svchost.exe is located in C:\Windows\System32 folder. Any file named "svchost.exe" located in any other folder can be considered as malware.[11] Determining the image path of a process, and its invoking command line, can help identify software masquerading in this way, and help locate the actual program file which is running under the assumed process name of "svchost.exe" (Windows allows multiple processes to all display the same name). Some malware inject a .dll file into the authentic svchost process, for example Win32/Conficker worm, [12] and the Five Eyes attributed malware SNOWGLOBE."

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svchost.exe
 
#19 ·
1) Your computer cannot run without using the CPU.

2) If one of your svchost.exe files is some type of malware, getting it cleaned up should reduce the amount of CPU it was using.
 
#22 · (Edited by Moderator)
Correction.

After booting up first thing this morning the 50% CPU usage is now continual. Again svchost.exe (netsvcs) is the cause of the problem.

According to this poster on the Microsoft community website this very same problem is caused by Rootkits which are used by hackers:

I fixed my problem another way, apparently somehow a rootkit was causing the problem?

It started out as a problem with all regular google sites, ads and services not being able to be displayed on my browser.

I searched the web for answers and found that someone else had the exact same problem and used a combination of Rkill and TDSKill executable programs to stop malware processes and remove rootkits. I never thought of this before because i had no idea what a rootkit was.

After rebooting google worked fine and i found that the particular service host.exe file that had been causing me so much trouble was gone and not running, also my computer runs smoother than ever!
From : https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...d/eb38d25d-6bb2-47cd-80f2-5389c62337be?auth=1
 
#23 · (Edited)
The thread you linked to shows the involvement of the svchost.exe process under the "winrscmde" group which is different from yours which is under the "netsvcs" group. While an infection is still a possibility there are also several other possible causes since there are many services that run under the svchost.exe process in the "netsvcs" group.

I would recommend checking your Event Viewer for any errors to start with. Please look under Application and System and copy/paste any errors in a reply here.

Windows Udates is another possibilty. You could try turning Windows Updates off as a test so it doesn't check for updates and see if that stops the spike in CPU under svchost.exe.

If some simple troubleshooting doesn't help then perhaps a cleaning in the Virus & Other Malware Removal forum be in order. It certainly can't hurt.
 
#26 ·
Ah, I see it now. Thanks Cookiegal.

--

James321, if you are indeed infected, recommend visiting the "Virus & Other Malware Removal" forum and following the instructions there. They will guide you through a few preparations, as well as instruction for posting your logs in that forum.

If you are still having the same issue after being given a clean bill of health from one of the malware experts, then please return to THIS thread and we will pursue other options to help solve the problem.
 
#29 ·
I see you edited your post so now it reads differently than before. Previously, you made no mention of exploring other possible causes other than malware.

I guess James will have to decide which he wants to explore first. It doesn't matter what sequence things are tried so a cleanup can be done first but I wanted to mention that it's not a given that malware is the cause because the link James posted was to a specific infection that would not involve "netsvcs".
 
#30 ·
Actually, the two parts of my post above were written and posted at the same time. I was simply using the "--" to separate the two separate responses within the post, one to you and the other to James.

I agree with needing to do a cleanup first. Otherwise he/we would simply be wasting our time.
 
#31 ·
The thread you linked to shows the involvement of the svchost.exe process under the "winrscmde" group which is different from yours which is under the "netsvcs" group. While an infection is still a possibility there are also several other possible causes since there are many services that run under the svchost.exe process in the "netsvcs" group.

I would recommend checking your Event Viewer for any errors to start with. Please look under Application and System and copy/paste any errors in a reply here.

Windows Udates is another possibilty. You could try turning Windows Updates off as a test so it doesn't check for updates and see if that stops the spike in CPU under svchost.exe.

If some simple troubleshooting doesn't help then perhaps a cleaning in the Virus & Other Malware Removal forum be in order. It certainly can't hurt.
I have further evidence the problem could be due to malware.

The problem got worse and now uses 80% of CPU resource continually in the background. I selected End Process in Task Manager for svchost.exe (netsvcs) which removed one problem but has now revelaed a second problem........

The System Idle Process is now using 80% of CPU resource.

I had a problem copying and pasting the error logs from the Event Viewer (there are 48,000 of them) and in the end the EV crashed and stopped responding.
 
#32 · (Edited)
I selected End Process in Task Manager for svchost.exe (netsvcs) which removed one problem
What specific problem did this solve?

The System Idle Process is now using 80% of CPU resource.
This is normal and will go even higher when you're not doing anything on the computer. It's not actually using 80% of the ressources, it's indicating 80% of the time it's idle.

Please explain what problems you had copying/pasting errors from the Event Viewer. We only need to see ones that are occuring on the current day or two. I can't imagine there would be 48,000. Some are just information or warning events, so we only need to see errors.

A clogged Event Viewer can be the cause of higher CPU spikes as well. It might be a good idea to clear the event viewer completely and then start fresh and post any new errors that occur in the next 24 hours.
 
#35 ·
Is this really the correct CPU profile of a computer which is completely idle? I took this screenshot in Task Manager when the computer had been idle for a significant period of time. If this in fact the correct profile of an idle CPU then the information shown is completely useless.

It's like displaying an empty hard disc as being completely full! What good is that?

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#36 ·
Whatever attempts are made to try and discover if there is a problem and indeed to solve the problem are - unless it is a virus/malware issue - all a little pointless.
With respect as I pointed out and indeed my colleague Couriant, before me, at the start of the topic, you simply cannot expect to run Windows Vista 64 bit with 2GB ram, with any degree of smoothness and efficiency.
I appreciate the minimum is according to Microsoft 1GB but that is as always, not reality, that is simply what VISTA itself requires.

What I do recommend is a chkdsk /r.

Additionally Norton IMHO is, whatever its qualities of protection is one of the more hungry system resource users.
 
#37 ·
Try this:
  1. Click the "Resource Monitor" button on that "Windows Task Manager > Performance" page.
  2. Then click the "CPU" tab.
  3. Next click the "CPU" column header a time or two until the largest CPU usage is at the top.
  4. Now post a screenshot of this page.
 
#38 ·
You're never going to get everything to add up to 100% in the Task Manager. System Idle Process is a measurement of time that the processor is idle.

Here's an article that explains why it's good that this number be high:

https://askleo.com/what_is_the_system_idle_process_and_why_is_it_using_most_of_the_cpu/

Are you saing that despite having 80% showing for the System Idle Processor there is a lot of activity and the CPU usage is spiking very high at that same moment?
 
#40 ·
Here's an article that explains why it's good that this number be high:

https://askleo.com/what_is_the_system_idle_process_and_why_is_it_using_most_of_the_cpu/

Are you saying that despite having 80% showing for the System Idle Processor there is a lot of activity and the CPU usage is spiking very high at that same moment?
You still have not answered my question Cookiegal which is why I have never seen this 80% Idle System Process CPU usage before in all the numerous times I have looked in Task Manager?

The previous occasions I have looked in TM the CPU usage can be in the 1 to 4% when idle but no more.

Again it's like having an Idle Hard Disc Process that shows that your hard disc is almost full when in fact it's almost empty.

The article you quote fails to give a convincing explanation of Idle System Process. It explains peaks during idle times of 99% CPU usage as a 'virtual twiddling of the thumbs'. At 1.6 GHz max that's alot of thumb twiddling.

Thumb twiddling is more like 1 to 4 % CPU usage which is what I used to see previously.
 
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