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Thread: Find out which application is causing High CPU Usage

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Posts
    1,611

    Find out which application is causing High CPU Usage

    The system performance mostly depends on the CPU performance. In OS like Windows, you can see a series of services running in Task Manager > Processes. The Task Manager in only source to find what applicable utilizes what amount of RAM and CPU. So if any of those freezes your system you can end task that immediately. But that doesn't optimize the performance. For better output you have to check which application consumes what amount of RAM. The best example is an Antivirus. Popular Security Suite like Norton offers a good amount of security tools, but on the same hand a prescribed amount of CPU/RAM is preserved. This is continously utilized and on low hardware system, it can be freezing. The following article will explain you number of ways to locate the applications which consumes maximum cpu. Somehow there are tools to generate a log showing up the amount of processes running and resources consume by them. Even if you own a high end cpu with 4GB or higher ram to some extent the system freezes and fail to respond. New operating systems have better RAM and CPU optimization features. Another important thing, do not believe of tools that promise to tune up your system. There are ample of popups on web that appear and promize to optimize the system under every cost. In return they encourage a user to pay prescribed amount for Pro License. We have some simple tools that are free and easy to use.

    A CPU act as the processing memory of a computer while the RAM act as temporary or physical memory. When you launch a game or run any backup tool, the CPU is used to perform number of action. RAM act as a support to CPU to handle other temporary operations. Like having the visuals on your screen. Under both circumtances, either a CPU is used or RAM is used, the system will crash or freeze. We have option in Windows to stop unwanted software from msconfig. Somehow I had always face a slow issue on Windows. This is the only operating system that can be screwed easily. Malware, virus, worms, etc are available in bulk. Now going for a long article on Memory & CPU management is not worth here. I will list some of the quickest way to find which app is eating maximum cpu and then exit the same. If you are using, you have to compromise your work. I did a small test in Windows 7 and Linux Mint. I have installed the lastest version of Firefox. In around 8 to 10 tabs I had open different website in which one is a Youtube Window. In Windows Task Manager, Firefox showed up high ram and cpu usage along with its additional services (plugin container). Windows started freezing within few mintues. While compared to that in Linux Mint, the same thing happened. Firefox showed using around 500MB of my physical ram and quiet high cpu utilization. But it did not freeze. I can view desktop, change wallpapers and copy paste content between partition. This shows that in Windows all services are depended on each other. If one stucks or freezes it affects the performance of other also. While in Linux Mint, each service is independent. If something happen Firefox will only crash while other things work well.

    Lets checkout some steps to locate the highest cpu consume ram :

    Task Manager : This is the default feature of Windows. I do not want to ignore this. For novice this is the only best option. Press Ctrl + Alt + Del or simply right click on the below Task Bar > Task Manager or type taskmanager.exe in Run box. In that you have to click on Processes tab. In that you can end task the app that consumes more processor. That can give you a temporary relief. If you find a unknown application in that, then there are chances that it can be a essential antivirus service, a virus, or any additional software which collects update. So to some extent it is necessary to find what what process is associated to which application. If you are not aware about the same then just type the name of process in Google. You find the detail on the same.

    CPU Monitor / CPU Checker : This is another easiest option we have. A CPU Monitor or CPU Checker is a dedicated analysis tool that is designed to give you performance logs and temperature. There are ample of software you can go for. One of the best tool under this category is CPU Cycle. This software provides you the CPU Usage on application basis. You can check how much pressure does Firefox puts on CPU at the time of usage. It is not at all complicated to use and configure. It works in smoother way and is easy to install also. Another software is Hijackthis. This is not a cpu monitor, but an application that check each and every running software in your system and gives you a log file. In this way you can find which application is running from which folder. It is easier to figure out the service association with different softwares.

    Windows Performance Analysis Tools :
    This is another powerful tool that can help you to find out the cpu usage. This tools gives you service specific scanning. This is not a basic tool. It is designed to check a performance analysis of different hardware and software issue. This tool is made usually for advance users offering you detail on resource usage. You can download this for free and install it in your system. It has number of services like xperf.exe, xperfview.exe and xbootmgr.exe. Now to check which app is making your system slow then open cmd and type - xperf -on latency -stackwalk profile. You can see the information of high cpu usage process. To stop this you have to type following in cmd - xperf -d latency.etl.This will generate a small file. Double click on the same to open it. In the Viewer window click on Trace > Configure Symbol Paths and add this following - srv*C:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols. This will enable the Viewer to collect debugging symbol from Microsoft Symbol Server. You can then view the usage by clicking graph.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Posts
    234

    Re: Find out which application is causing High CPU Usage

    Windows Performance Analysis tool is recommended for Advance users. It is for developers who test number things on Windows platform. I am using the same and it gives quiet intact information. But if you are not aware about the elf files or do not know anything about DPC Latency then you must avoid using the same. It would be far more complicated to understand based on the log stuff.

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