35% CPU usage moving my mouse!?!?!

[theyarecomingforyou]

Erm... I'm having some performance issues to say the least. I can't figure this one out so I need some help. After a format and changing partitions I have now got some very strange performance issues - formatting and starting again is not an option this time. Here are my specs:

XP 2400 / 256 PC2100 / TNT2 (I know!) / Audigy 2 / NForce motherboard / WinXP SP1 / 15GB Maxtor 7200RPM (Windows is on the 2nd partition on this drive) + 120GB Seagate 7200RPM

Anyway, when I move my mouse rapidly my CPU usage will shoot up to 35% and even upto 50%. WinAMP (and other players) have trouble running MP3's when ANYTHING is done as well, such as running IE. Setting it's priority to Realtime improves it's performance, but doesn't stop it skipping and making a strange short high pitched squeak. Scrolling down in IE (with mouse or arrow keys) causes CPU usage to rocket as well.

Onboard sound is disabled, onboard graphics are disabled (it's got GeForce2MX onboard, but I've disabled it because it WON'T run in resolutions 1152x864, or 1280x960 - the best resolutions for my 19"... :().

PS - For some reason I have Windows on my E: drive... all temp files for Windows are set to my 120GB but I've checked this and this is not the issue...

Help would be appreciated... I'm crying alone in my room here...

[AndyD]

I didn't read the post but it's normal activity.

Hmm. wait, it interferes with the other programs performance's? Hmm not sure why it would. It's normal for your cpu usage to increase when moving your mouse around

[John Veteran]

:huh: very odd... what process is using ~35% cpu? hit ctr + alt + delete to open task manager, and look on the processes tab. move your mouse around a lot and watch the processes. also turn off winamp and everything else to make sure you're just seeing the effect of the mouse (Y)

and no, it's not normal activity... i've never seen/heard of that :unsure:

[theyarecomingforyou]

OK... this is strange... when I have nothing open the CPU usage will go up to 15-20% with the application CSRSS.exe, but if I have IEXPLORE.exe (IE) open too then the CPU usage will total 20-30%... it seems quite illogical to me. I've checked a few times recently and CSRSS.EXE is always suspiciously high... it's got to be some sort of performance setting or driver I would assume, but this is really strange because I've not had this before and it seems to be getting worse. No viruses were detected...

[Spyder Veteran]

k.. csrss.exe uses 0 cpu on my end.

heres what i found..

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintas...slibrary/csrss/

  Quote

WinTasks Process Library

csrss - csrss.exe - Process Information

Process File: csrss or csrss.exe

Process Name: Client/Server Runtime Server Subsystem

Description: The Windows Client Server Runtime Subsystem handles Windows and Graphics Functions for all Subsystems

Common Errors: N/A

System Process: Yes

so maybe try updating your video card drivers?

also, i know you said no viruses, but have a gander at this..

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data...albug.worm.html

[theyarecomingforyou]

The files and registry entries are definitely not there, so definitely not _that_ virus and none others have been found.

I am currently using the same drivers I have used for a long time (without hitch)... 29.42. Basically, if I use any drivers later than this on my TNT2 then there will be roughly a 1 second pause everytime I enter a folder... If I could get my onboard GF2MX to work then I could use later drivers, but it won't work (as I said) in 1152x864 or 1280x960... I have tried using Powerstrip to fix this but it has no effect. Oh how I cry :(.

PS - I currently have all graphical effect turned off... eg shadows under menus, visual styles, etc

Thnx for trying to help to the people so far...

[John Veteran]

  Quote

Csrss.exe - You cannot end this process from Task Manager.

• This is the user-mode portion of the Win32 subsystem (with Win32.sys being the kernel-mode portion). Csrss stands for client/server run-time subsystem and is an essential subsystem that must be running at all times. Csrss is responsible for console windows, creating and/or deleting threads, and some parts of the 16-bit virtual MS-DOS environment.
  

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263201

[theyarecomingforyou]

I'm now using my onboard GeForce2 MX because NVRTool allowed me to add 1152x864 and 1280x960 to the list of resolution... will this have any effect on the card though? It's running fine, but they were disabled by default... I'm kinda worried...

NEway, I'm using the latest official Nvidia drivers and CSRSS.exe usage is not registering as it was, but IExplore.exe still uses upwards of 10% when I move the mouse and my system feels and acts hoggishly slow. Running any program will make MP3's skip so I am heading towards the conclusion that either Windows is being a poo or that the onboard sound is somehow conflicting with my Audigy 2, but I have no way to check this. The Creative speaker icon that is usually there when I install my drivers is not currently there, leading me to think that somewhere along the lines my soundcard has been bummed up the ass by my sputnik of an on-board sound chip. How do I check if it is truly disabled? Nothing shows in device manager...

I'm not in the best of moods seeing that earlier this week XP decided when I was installing to decide what was a partition or not on my 120GIG HD and I lost everything... kinda annoying - I tried an advanced file recoverer, but I guess it was too fragmented to actually recover anything. :(

PS - I'll ask here for now because I don't want to do a separate post at the moment, but how do you format and reinstall Windows XP without using the Win98 disk? I'm so old hat that I FDISK with Win98 to remove the Windows partition (just Windows and programs, no data), re-add it, format with Win98 to FAT32, then loads SmartDrv from the Win98 disk and install with XP, converting it to NTFS. If it is left blank then XP says it has nothing to copy onto and won't do anything, and XP doesn't seem to have FDISK, or SmartDrive????

Sorry... I'm bad at writing and worse at talking... imagine the poor people that have to talk to me face-to-face - bah...