WMP11 - CPU hog even when idle

I'm on 11.0.5721.5145 and I'm experiencing major issues with CPU usage.
Typically it goes like this (P4 1.5GHz, 1GB RAM):
Idle: 25-30% CPU (!!)
MP3, no visualisations: 40-50% CPU
MP3, visualisations: 50-70% CPU depending on choice.

This is ridiculous. I do have other things to do with my machine! In
particular, what the hell is it doing that takes 25% CPU when it's just
sitting there? I can't believe that folder monitoring takes that much effort
- and if it does then there needs to be a way to turn it OFF.

One thing I have noticed is that WMP listens to and processes mouse actions
even when WMP is not the active program.

Try this: Open and maximize WMP 11. Open any other program and size the
window for that program to less than full screen size. Position the window
so that you can still see the lists in WMP 11. As you move your mouse within
your other program, you'll see WMP moving the highlight in its own lists as
you move the mouse. This is an absolute waste of processing and it robs you
and your PC of available processor power.

Seen on the WMP product team's wall:

All of your CPU Cycles are belong to us.
All of your Memory are belong to us.
All of your Internet Bandwidth are belong to us.
All of your Disk Space are belong to us.
All of your Media are belong to us.
All of your Album Art are belong to us.

--
Dale Preston
MCAD C#
MCSE, MCDBA


"scarletmanuka" wrote:

> I'm on 11.0.5721.5145 and I'm experiencing major issues with CPU usage.
> Typically it goes like this (P4 1.5GHz, 1GB RAM):
> Idle: 25-30% CPU (!!)
> MP3, no visualisations: 40-50% CPU
> MP3, visualisations: 50-70% CPU depending on choice.
>
> This is ridiculous. I do have other things to do with my machine! In
> particular, what the hell is it doing that takes 25% CPU when it's just
> sitting there? I can't believe that folder monitoring takes that much effort
> - and if it does then there needs to be a way to turn it OFF.

I tried this - I saw occasional flickers of the highlight in WMP, but
generally nothing happened.

"Dale" wrote:

> One thing I have noticed is that WMP listens to and processes mouse actions
> even when WMP is not the active program.
>
> Try this: Open and maximize WMP 11. Open any other program and size the
> window for that program to less than full screen size. Position the window
> so that you can still see the lists in WMP 11. As you move your mouse within
> your other program, you'll see WMP moving the highlight in its own lists as
> you move the mouse. This is an absolute waste of processing and it robs you
> and your PC of available processor power.
>
> Seen on the WMP product team's wall:
>
> All of your CPU Cycles are belong to us.
> All of your Memory are belong to us.
> All of your Internet Bandwidth are belong to us.
> All of your Disk Space are belong to us.
> All of your Media are belong to us.
> All of your Album Art are belong to us.
>
> --
> Dale Preston
> MCAD C#
> MCSE, MCDBA
>
>
> "scarletmanuka" wrote:
>
> > I'm on 11.0.5721.5145 and I'm experiencing major issues with CPU usage.
> > Typically it goes like this (P4 1.5GHz, 1GB RAM):
> > Idle: 25-30% CPU (!!)
> > MP3, no visualisations: 40-50% CPU
> > MP3, visualisations: 50-70% CPU depending on choice.
> >
> > This is ridiculous. I do have other things to do with my machine! In
> > particular, what the hell is it doing that takes 25% CPU when it's just
> > sitting there? I can't believe that folder monitoring takes that much effort
> > - and if it does then there needs to be a way to turn it OFF.

How cute

"Dale" <dale0973@nospam.nospam> wrote in message
news:80161FB1-069F-430B-8526-519190B87877@microsoft.com...
> One thing I have noticed is that WMP listens to and processes mouse
> actions
> even when WMP is not the active program.
>
> Try this: Open and maximize WMP 11. Open any other program and size the
> window for that program to less than full screen size. Position the
> window
> so that you can still see the lists in WMP 11. As you move your mouse
> within
> your other program, you'll see WMP moving the highlight in its own lists
> as
> you move the mouse. This is an absolute waste of processing and it robs
> you
> and your PC of available processor power.
>
> Seen on the WMP product team's wall:
>
> All of your CPU Cycles are belong to us.
> All of your Memory are belong to us.
> All of your Internet Bandwidth are belong to us.
> All of your Disk Space are belong to us.
> All of your Media are belong to us.
> All of your Album Art are belong to us.
>
> --
> Dale Preston
> MCAD C#
> MCSE, MCDBA
>
>
> "scarletmanuka" wrote:
>
>> I'm on 11.0.5721.5145 and I'm experiencing major issues with CPU usage.
>> Typically it goes like this (P4 1.5GHz, 1GB RAM):
>> Idle: 25-30% CPU (!!)
>> MP3, no visualisations: 40-50% CPU
>> MP3, visualisations: 50-70% CPU depending on choice.
>>
>> This is ridiculous. I do have other things to do with my machine! In
>> particular, what the hell is it doing that takes 25% CPU when it's just
>> sitting there? I can't believe that folder monitoring takes that much
>> effort
>> - and if it does then there needs to be a way to turn it OFF.

You can turn folders monitored to Ignore in WMP's Tools:Options:Libraries...
this should also go away once the initial monitor is done, which you can
explicitly force to happen via doing an explicit F3 (Search for Media Files)
and then using the Tools:Apply Media Information changes to complete all
queued actions. If you have everything Ignore'd - and potentially redirect
My Music to some lame random non-used location - then there'd be no scanning
going on if you want to avoid that.

Heavy CPU usage should not realllly be possible from visualizations unless
your video card driver is problematic, as the player actually tends to limit
the perf hit of vizzes.

--
Speaking for myself only.
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--

"scarletmanuka" <scarletmanuka@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:81C63E9C-59FA-4C04-A4AF-3A9CB384E2E5@microsoft.com...
> I'm on 11.0.5721.5145 and I'm experiencing major issues with CPU usage.
> Typically it goes like this (P4 1.5GHz, 1GB RAM):
> Idle: 25-30% CPU (!!)
> MP3, no visualisations: 40-50% CPU
> MP3, visualisations: 50-70% CPU depending on choice.
>
> This is ridiculous. I do have other things to do with my machine! In
> particular, what the hell is it doing that takes 25% CPU when it's just
> sitting there? I can't believe that folder monitoring takes that much
> effort
> - and if it does then there needs to be a way to turn it OFF.

I had similar issue. I soon realized I spiked only when I was browsing in the "Library". Once I returned to the "Now Playing", my usage went back down. I also removed the visualization and the cpu usage is now dow to 2-3%. Much better than the 99%.

EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
http://www.eggheadcafe.com

Thank you! This worked for me also. It's a pity, because I like the Library
view better - but not enough to devote 25% of my CPU time to it.

"Scott" wrote:

> I had similar issue. I soon realized I spiked only when I was browsing in the "Library". Once I returned to the "Now Playing", my usage went back down.

I wonder if that has to do with the fact that WMP has either hooked all
mouse messages, even to other programs, or it is polling for mouse
movements. You can see this by moving the mouse in a smaller window over
the library view and watch the highlight move up and down on the library
listing.

Dale

"scarletmanuka" <scarletmanuka@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:8FA01736-BA54-416C-9C36-BAB018FFEEED@microsoft.com...
> Thank you! This worked for me also. It's a pity, because I like the
> Library
> view better - but not enough to devote 25% of my CPU time to it.
>
> "Scott" wrote:
>
>> I had similar issue. I soon realized I spiked only when I was browsing
>> in the "Library". Once I returned to the "Now Playing", my usage went
>> back down.

I take this back. I just tested it again and this is not occurring. It
must have been a Vista issue that was passing those messages to WMP even
though WMP was not the active application. Anyway, it has gone away since
rebooting.

Dale

"Dale" <nospam@nospam.ever> wrote in message
news:%23RlXBVzQHHA.2256@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>I wonder if that has to do with the fact that WMP has either hooked all
>mouse messages, even to other programs, or it is polling for mouse
>movements. You can see this by moving the mouse in a smaller window over
>the library view and watch the highlight move up and down on the library
>listing.
>
> Dale
>
> "scarletmanuka" <scarletmanuka@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:8FA01736-BA54-416C-9C36-BAB018FFEEED@microsoft.com...
>> Thank you! This worked for me also. It's a pity, because I like the
>> Library
>> view better - but not enough to devote 25% of my CPU time to it.
>>
>> "Scott" wrote:
>>
>>> I had similar issue. I soon realized I spiked only when I was browsing
>>> in the "Library". Once I returned to the "Now Playing", my usage went
>>> back down.
>

Something else I found. I completey deleted all of the files out of my library (not off my PC) and started to repopulate the library. WMP11 "stalls" on different folders and some songs don't get recognized and are not added to the library. I have about 13,000 songs and am going through folder by folder and getting results like this.

I wonder if there's something in the MP3 file (maybe corrupt?) that WMP doesn't like or recognize and so it won't read the file correctly.

Before all this started on my PC I went through with a different program (audiofiler) to do mass-changes to the ID3 information. I wonder if that may be part of the problem, at least in my case.

All of the mp3's play without issue in WMP11, they just cause issues with the library and it trying to populate/monitor.

EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
http://www.eggheadcafe.com

[gmann001]

Something I just found. It may be a completely different issue, but here it is.

I completey deleted all of the files out of my library (not off my PC) and started to repopulate the library. WMP11 "stalls" on different folders and some songs don't get recognized and are not added to the library. I have about 13,000 songs and am going through folder by folder and getting results like this.

I wonder if there's something in the MP3 file (maybe corrupt?) that WMP doesn't like or recognize and so it won't read the file correctly.

Before all this started on my PC I went through with a different program (audiofiler) to do mass-changes to the ID3 information. I wonder if that may be part of the problem, at least in my case.

All of the mp3's play without issue in WMP11, they just cause issues with the library and it trying to populate/monitor.

Check this out.

http://dalepreston.com/Blog/2007/01/...-id3-tags.html

Dale

"gmann001" <gmann001.2la0rd@DoNotSpam.com> wrote in message
news:gmann001.2la0rd@DoNotSpam.com...
>
> Something I just found. It may be a completely different issue, but here
> it is.
>
> I completey deleted all of the files out of my library (not off my PC)
> and started to repopulate the library. WMP11 "stalls" on different
> folders and some songs don't get recognized and are not added to the
> library. I have about 13,000 songs and am going through folder by
> folder and getting results like this.
>
> I wonder if there's something in the MP3 file (maybe corrupt?) that WMP
> doesn't like or recognize and so it won't read the file correctly.
>
> Before all this started on my PC I went through with a different
> program (audiofiler) to do mass-changes to the ID3 information. I
> wonder if that may be part of the problem, at least in my case.
>
> All of the mp3's play without issue in WMP11, they just cause issues
> with the library and it trying to populate/monitor.
>
>
> --
> gmann001
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> gmann001's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/members/21483.htm
> View this thread: WMP11 - CPU hog even when idle
>
> http://forums.techarena.in
>

I think I've found another issue with my library. For some reason, some of my MP3's (ok, alot) somehow now have malformed ID3 tags. When the library monitoring hits this, it stalls and then CPU usage skyrockets.

I've found a tool at http://dalepreston.com/Blog/2007/01/...-id3-tags.html that strips all of the ID3 information.

After running this and taking out all of the ID3 tags, my mediaplayer is now running good once again. Now I need to go back and get the ID3 info added back. Ugh!

EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
http://www.eggheadcafe.com

Scott,

Would you mind sending me a few (no more than 3 or 4) of the ID3 backup
files created from my backup program? I'm always looking for information on
how ID3 files are broken so I can improve how my ID3 tools deal with broken
tags.

Email them to me at dales123ngaddy456 but strip out all of the numbers,
then add the at symbol and then hotmail and then dotcom.

Thanks,

Dale

"Scott" wrote in message news:200721171920sgerstenberger@midamerican.com...
>I think I've found another issue with my library. For some reason, some of
>my MP3's (ok, alot) somehow now have malformed ID3 tags. When the library
>monitoring hits this, it stalls and then CPU usage skyrockets.
>
> I've found a tool at
> http://dalepreston.com/Blog/2007/01/...-id3-tags.html that strips all
> of the ID3 information.
>
> After running this and taking out all of the ID3 tags, my mediaplayer is
> now running good once again. Now I need to go back and get the ID3 info
> added back. Ugh!
>
> EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
> http://www.eggheadcafe.com

Also, would you include details about what other applications you have
edited those tags with or opened your media with?

Thanks,

Dale

"Dale" <nospam@nospam.ever> wrote in message
news:uQObshmRHHA.1200@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Scott,
>
> Would you mind sending me a few (no more than 3 or 4) of the ID3 backup
> files created from my backup program? I'm always looking for information
> on how ID3 files are broken so I can improve how my ID3 tools deal with
> broken tags.
>
> Email them to me at dales123ngaddy456 but strip out all of the numbers,
> then add the at symbol and then hotmail and then dotcom.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dale
>
> "Scott" wrote in message
> news:200721171920sgerstenberger@midamerican.com...
>>I think I've found another issue with my library. For some reason, some
>>of my MP3's (ok, alot) somehow now have malformed ID3 tags. When the
>>library monitoring hits this, it stalls and then CPU usage skyrockets.
>>
>> I've found a tool at
>> http://dalepreston.com/Blog/2007/01/...-id3-tags.html that strips
>> all of the ID3 information.
>>
>> After running this and taking out all of the ID3 tags, my mediaplayer is
>> now running good once again. Now I need to go back and get the ID3 info
>> added back. Ugh!
>>
>> EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
>> http://www.eggheadcafe.com
>