# Choppy Sound & High CPU Usage



## KyMama (Jun 15, 2011)

A few days ago my audio started being really choppy. It's kinda like it's in slow motion. The simple windows dings are echoing. I got to looking around and realized that my CPU Usage is staying between 90-100%. I'm not seeing anything obvious in my processes that's using a large amount of memory. I've ran Malwarebytes and removed everything that it found. Also, and this may not have anything to do with the problem, but it's running very hot. Normally I can keep the laptop in my lap for a while before it gets too hot, but there is no way I could do that now. I mean it's hot to the touch right now. Help? 

I'm not sure what info you need so here is the basics:
Windows Vista Home 32-bit, SP 2
2.16 GHz Intel Processor
2 GB RAM

ETA: This morning while searching for answers to my audio problems I came across a post on the hp forum that said turning off my wifi would make the sound work. And lo and behold it actually worked. Of course, this is not a solution, but I thought maybe it would help someone here help me.  I'm gonna try and find the driver for my wifi and see if it needs to be updated.


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## WhyNot (Jun 21, 2011)

If you restart and go into safe mode, does it do the same thing?

Is there anything that you can think of that you downloaded, played, logged into, added...anything...before this happened? 

In case you don't know how to get into safe mode:
Restart the computer, when it is coming back up, press the F8 key about once every three seconds. If you get a black screen with choices on it, select Safe Mode using the arrow key and press enter. 

Sometimes it can take a while to get into safe mode and you might see a bunch of stuff going across the screen. If the computer locks up and you never get into safe mode, if there is something on the screen as it just sits there, please make a note of what it says on the last line. It could be helpful in understanding what your laptop is having an issue with.

At this point it could be software related such as any gaming programs, or device driver software or it could be a hardware issue.

If you do not have an issue with cpu usage and sound sputtering in safe mode, then likely you have a driver malfunction or some program is running that is having an issue. This happens a lot on gaming machines...but I guess I don't consider most laptops a gaming machine lol.

Anyway, that's the good news. Hopefully after you try this and maybe a few more questions it will still be good news. The alternative is device failures and I really dislike giving out bad news


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## Haven (Aug 16, 2010)

Check your fans.


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## KyMama (Jun 15, 2011)

Restarted in safe mode and my usage is down around 4-5%, but my sound is disabled. There was a drop down menu that showed it was disabled but it was grayed out so I couldn't enable it. 

The only things I download are games from gamehouse.com, and I haven't had any problems from them before. I don't remember downloaded anything right before this started happening though. My laptop is definitely not a gaming machine. LOL 

I don't know if this will help or not, but I opened the task manager and turned off my wifi. My usage instantly dropped to between 4-10%. 

Thanks


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Haven said:


> Check your fans.


I agree. I suspect a heat problem.


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## KyMama (Jun 15, 2011)

I may have narrowed down this problem for you. I've turned off the HP Assistant and installed a wireless usb adapter and my usage is down to 20%. My sound is back to normal too. So, I'm guessing it is either something with my wireless card or the HP assistant. Right? Not that I know how to fix either one. I can keep using the usb adapter if it would be easier than trying to diagnose and fix the problem. Or I can tell my DH that it's hopeless and I need a new laptop. 

Thanks again.


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## Vance71975 (May 24, 2012)

KyMama said:


> A few days ago my audio started being really choppy. It's kinda like it's in slow motion. The simple windows dings are echoing. I got to looking around and realized that my CPU Usage is staying between 90-100%. I'm not seeing anything obvious in my processes that's using a large amount of memory. I've ran Malwarebytes and removed everything that it found. Also, and this may not have anything to do with the problem, but it's running very hot. Normally I can keep the laptop in my lap for a while before it gets too hot, but there is no way I could do that now. I mean it's hot to the touch right now. Help?
> 
> I'm not sure what info you need so here is the basics:
> Windows Vista Home 32-bit, SP 2
> ...


Ok i see a couple Issues here, One only 2GB ram and running vista is a huge problem, vista is a memory sucking black hole, i would not run vista on any machine that has less than 6gb of ram. Two your clock speed seems low unless it is a multi core processor. I personally am an AMD Guy myself, i run a system that would make most computer nerds get very very excited to say the least.

Windows 7 64bit Pro
12Gb Ram
1TB Hard drive
2x 1gb video card
AMD Phenom x4 processor Clocked at 3Ghz that is basically a 12ghz processor (4 cores x 3Ghz each=12Ghz.)
Asus M4A89GTD Pro Motherboard

I highly highly doubt heat has anything at all to do with this problem, as a matter a fact i am fairly positive it is NOT a heat issue(that would not cause the processor usage your seeing) Just random shut downs and glitches. Also you said you downloaded from Greathouse games, that can be an issue, they sometimes build in adware to those downloads.

My advice run a good Adware,virus,and spyware program. If that doesn't fix the problem re-install the Operating system. If you can get more ram ASAP.

I was a network Admin Major in college and worked in a computer shop building and repairing systems.


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## KyMama (Jun 15, 2011)

In a perfect world I would have a better laptop, but this one has worked fine for what I do for several years now. I'm mainly just surfing the net or using office so I don't need a great computer. We have a better desktop that I use if I need more oomph. LOL Since I started using the usb adapter I haven't had any problems so I'll probably just stick to it.


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## wogglebug (May 22, 2004)

Have you got security enabled on your wireless card? Change the password and make it a good one. And never trust any PC software from HP.


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## WhyNot (Jun 21, 2011)

KyMama said:


> So, I'm guessing it is either something with my wireless card or the HP assistant. Right?


Possibly. It could be that you have too many things on startup...certainly that doesn't really help cpu cycles. But really it sounds like your issue is device drivers. I'm assuming you were using built in wifi. When you turned that off, things got better but not great. When you installed a different wifi card, things got much better. At least, that is what I understand from your posts. It may be that your motherboard is having a hardware device issue/failure...as it doesn't seem to be allocating resources properly. This happens when there are IRQ conflicts or IDE controller conflicts and general device vs. device driver issues. It may be that your on board wifi will never work correctly again. In that case turning it off/disabling it and installing an external wifi card is the least expensive way to go. 




KyMama said:


> Not that I know how to fix either one.


To stop programs from starting when you start the computer (usually lots of them you don't even know are running)


click on start
type msconfig in the search box and press enter (or double click on the msconfig program that appears in search results)
Vista might or should ask for permission to continue and may ask for the admin username and password..enter those if necessary and click ok. If you are already logged in as administrator it will just ask for permission to continue, select ok.

Once the system comfiguration dialog is open, you will see tabs across the top. General, Boot, Services, Startup and Tools

Select Startup

Here you will see a list of startup items that are programs that are automatically loaded when you turn your computer on. Some are necessary and some are a waste of cpu cycles....such as loading Adobe pdf updates on startup...such as HP assistant.

MOST of the essential programs are loaded through windows services, leaving the ones in this startup tab as optional and able to be "safely" turned off. HOWEVER...a general rule of thumb is disable ONLY those programs that you recognize and don't need to have running all of the time...such as "yahoo messenger". When it doubt...leave it on, until you can figure out what it is.

When you find one or more programs that you RECOGNIZE and KNOW that you do NOT need to run, uncheck the box next to it, select OK. You will get a dialog box that says you must restart the computer before the changes will take place, click on restart and it will do so.

If you choose exit without restart, your changes will not take place until the computer is restarted.

Here is a very helpful list of over 25000 startup items you may find in the startup tab which will help you know which items are absolutely necessary, which are optional and which items you should definitely stop from running. http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_search.php

Remember...just because you don't know what it is, doesn't mean you should stop it from running. Often security programs have more than one thing going on in there....so again...if you don't easily recognize it, find out what it is first.

Also, if you do uncheck something and you are worried that you may need to have it start again later on startup...you WILL be able to go back in there and set it to start when the computer starts again. If you are unchecking things like adobe reader update service or msn messenger,etc...you are JUST stopping them from starting when the computer comes on...they WILL work later when you click on them to use them like you usually do.


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## eyore (Jan 7, 2011)

Are you using Norton Antivirus? I have Norton Antivirus on my PC and it sometimes causes the high CPU usage and gets extremely slow and hangs up. I found if I shut down and start up again that helps. But I may be looking at replacing Norton soon.


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