Windows Media Player

[Fozzy Fozborne]

Alright, 2 days ago, my system was working fine. Then my genius brother insisted on installing AIM (always screws up all three of our computers for some reason). After the installation, all games went unbelievably slowly, even after I completely shut it down. Then I uninstalled AIM, now it's back to normal, except for Windows Media Player (version 11 Final, I think) takes up 70% of the CPU when just sitting at the library page, and 100% when playing a song. It uses so much CPU that when I switch to another web page, the sound skips and stutters (the music itself is fine, it's the player).

 

Also, I'm not using a visualization, if it matters.

 

I "rolled back" to version 9 then installing 11, still slow. I tried uninstalling "Windows Media Player 11 runtime", still slow. I even tried rolling back to before AIM was installed, still slow.

 

I also updated all the drivers.

 

I've run out of ideas, any suggestions?

 

Computer specs:

AMD 4200 X2+ (AM2)

2GB Corsair DDR2-800 RAM

eVGA 79000GT

300 gig Samsung Hard Drive

Asus M2N-SLi Deluxe

 

Also, the instant I turn off WMP, my CPU usage goes back to 2-ish percent.

Edited November 27, 2006 by Fozzy Fozborne

[Brutuz]

Try using Winamo or Musicmatch and if they don't work somethings up with a driver.

[Forfit]

Weird, i just installed WMP 11 and haven't had a problem with it. I use Winamp more often though so that's another option if you mainly listen to music and not watch too much video. Anyways i just had a go on Microsoft's Support page and didn't find anything about why it uses a buttload of CPU usage. Your computer specs clearly isn't the issue. I will post here again if i find a fix for you somewhere...

[Kaj.]

Virus/adware/spyware scan?

[*gta star*]

^Exactly.

 

It's very unusual for a Media Player program, Windows for that matter to slow your system down.

[Fozzy Fozborne]

Virus/adware/spyware scan?

I scanned with Freedom (Spyware and Virus), AVG Free, SpyBot S&D, and Adaware. All of them came back with nothing (I keep a very clean PC, I haven't had anything more than a tracking cookie turn up in months.)

 

I already have Winamp, it runs like it should with no CPU usage.

MusicMatch works as it should as well, with about 4% CPU usage.

 

Any other ideas?

[matthew1g]

WMP 11 takes up a lot on CPU resources. I got a 1.7Ghz P4 it's takes up around 80% of CPU resources. it could be a leak from microsoft's side. Turn off visualisations those drop CPU usage drastically:

 

With visualisation on ( and other applications):

 

 

 

 

without fancy stuff running:

 

 

 

Barely noticable

[Fozzy Fozborne]

As previously stated, there was/is no visualization running.

 

Also, my computer could handle WMP 11 with a visualization running, a couple of websites up, and Counter Strike Source up no problem at all before.

[Brutuz]

I'm not sure here, There is one definite though, a Reinstall of windows would fix it, but that is going a bit too far.

[RMT]

I have the same problem if WMP has been running too long. WMP has always been known as being a heavy hog on resources, but this time it must be a bug. You can either wait for an update or try WinAMP for Music and VLC for videos.

 

Brutuz, too extreme

[Fozzy Fozborne]

Oh My Gosh Extreme Embarrassment.

 

I found a fix, couldn't be any simpler. I rescanned my library (which did take about an hour and a half due to the fact that WMP was using 100% of the CPU) and now it works fine.

 

Too bad I didn't find that fix 3 days ago.

 

If anyone has trouble with excruciatingly slow WMP performance, re-scan your library, that should fix it.

 

Thanks for the help, anyway guys!

[Brutuz]

Brutuz, too extreme

I said that

but that is going a bit too far.

see?

 

@Fozzy: Great work, I would of thought you had already done that, meh Its working now so who cares