100% CPU Usage after new video card install


Recommended Posts

I just bought a new eVGA 8600GTS to replace my old and dead ATI X800 XL

i took out the old card and use a can of compressed air to clean out all of the dust and what not. I installed the new card (PCIE x16) and connected the power to the card just like it said. When I turned the computer on, it took almost 10 minutes and my resolution was all wrong, plus, my CPU usage was at 100% the entire time and obviously my performance was awful. I used the CD to install the drivers and the directX figuring that was the problem. When I rebooted the computer, the resolution was fine, but the performance was still terrible.

The CPU usage was at a constant 100% and I couldn't really do anything. I tried to look at the device manager but the computer completely froze and I had to restart. I then booted into safe mode with networking and downloaded drivers from nvidia's website and installed it on safe mode. I would also like to note that performance was still bad even in safe mode. When I booted my computer again, i went into the BIOS to see if there was anything there, and even in the BIOS screen the controls seems slow to me.

When my speakers are on, I can hear the sound when you boot up windows, and it stutters and takes alot longer to finish the sound effect than normal.

When I open up the task manager, the tasks just keep switching around, but no one task is taking up more than 20% at one time, and it changes constantly.

My Mobo is P5AD2E-Premium and supports PCI-E 16x.

It is a crap shoot to even get my computer to turn on, because i just tried to turn it on and it has everything has frozen (except for the mouse) right after I logged on.

Any Advice?

EDIT:: I just realized that when I boot up the computer, the BIOS screen will display, it will then do an IDE scan and then a screen that has SIL (it does not say SLI) will pop up and then the BIOS screen will pop up again, and then it will boot up.

In my limited knowledge I could only think of the drivers which has already been stated.

This may be a silly question but is there a chance the motherboard switched to onboard video after the old card was removed and it needs to be disabled again? That would definitely put more stress on the CPU.

I only suggest that because when I took out my card and put in my new one, my motherboard didn't change over in the Bios and recognize it right away. Then again...That was going from AGP to PCI-E...So...Maybe I'm completely wrong here haha.

well I reseated my video card and RAM and looked to make sure that (at least I think) the CPU fan is in the correct place. All of my power cables were firmly connected and my SATA cables are firmly connected. I tried just for the heck of it putting my old ATI card in to no avail.

The CPU usage is still always above 50%, and the the strange part is that the process that takes up all of the CPU is the system Idle Process. Which doesn't make sense to me, because the system idle process is at around 88%, but the CPU usage is always at least 50% and usually higher. How can that be?

I was getting pretty annoyed last night, and instead of trying to get these ATI drivers out, I just reinstalled windows and formatted my whole hard drive. I am still having the same problem where the CPU usage never falls below 50.

I also just realized that the screw driver that I used to unscrew the video card from the case, is slightly magnetized. It never came anywhere near the RAM or HDD or even the MOBO really, just the video card and only briefly when I have to get the tiny screw in and out of the case. Could that be the reason my Hardware has all of a sudden gone to crap?

I am at my wits end here....please help :-(

EDIT:: I just looked at the performance tab on the task manager, and it looks like one "core" (i only have a P4 with HT) is always at 100% while the other is just idling always near the bottom.

I dont think the magnetized screwdriver would have caused this.. I mean it could have but low chance. (I used magneized many times)

what do you mean by "putting my old ATI card in to no avail." ??

Also, try DISABLING card from device manager and see, also make sure all the wiring is done correctly (if u touched other things on ur mobo)

1. go to msconfig (Start->Run->"msconfig" [ENTER]) and selected the Diagnostic Startup option

also try

2. process explorer to see more possible information:

http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/a...24/3126858.aspx

3. Look under Device Manager for suspicious entries, like an excessive number of copies of any one device.

I looked around the net extensively and found out some ppl had a similar problem and they fixed it by enabling some 'disabled' devices in task manager, such as ATI HDMI Audio devices etc

The problem i think is hardware conflicts with other drivers and hardware.

Try enabling/disablign some things and see what works! good luck

what I mean when I say, put my ATI card in to no avail, I wanted to see if the Nvidia card was causing the problem, so I put in my old ATI video card and booted up the computer, but it was still unusable due to the high CPU usage.

After disabling the card, the only thin that changed was my resolution decreased, but the one "core" of my CPU is still maxed out.

The only thing I touched on the MOBO was the video card, and as I said, I re seated the video card and the RAM.

This is the part that really throws me for a loop.

If it is hardware conflicts, then the hardware that caused the conflict is the Nvidia card. Since I couldn't seem to get rid of all of the ATI drivers, I did a full reinstall of the OS to just make it "easier" on myself.

Now that all of the ATI drivers are gone, so should the hardware conflict. Since my machine worked wonderfully before my old video card died on me, I know that none of that hardware has a conflict. Which leaves me to believe that I must have hit something or moved something when installing the new video card.

I tried installing process explorer, but the only process that had any significant cpu usage was system idle process. I also tried going into the device manager and enabling any disabled devices, but everything was disabled. I also went through to look for duplicates, but don't want to just start disabling random things in the hope that my computer starts to work again, when in fact I am just causing more damage.

I guess I will just take apart the whole computer and put it back together again to see if that solves the problem....any other advice is always appreciated.

Thanks

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • I guess companies have numbers that don't necessarily match your assessment.
    • I agree that all capabilities of the card should be reviewed, but there is a very important difference between reviewing what multiframe generation is and does for you, and simply claiming a card has 200+ FPS just because MFG is on. You are probably well aware that frame generation is getting a lot of hate, which I feel like is partly unfair to it. However, Nvidia has used frame generation to tell outright lies about their products, most notably claiming that a 5070 is as powerful as a 4090. Its easy to hate something when it is being used to make dishonest statements like that. I'm not a big fan of the popular term "fake frames" just because I feel like it is overly negative, but I do think it is important to make some kind of distinction between game engine frames and filler frames.
    • What is the replacement or successor to it right now?
    • iPhone 17 Pro Max could have the biggest battery ever on an iPhone by Devesh Beri Leaks around how the iPhone 17 Pro lineup is going to look may have left fans hesitant about what Apple is planning for its next flagship, but not every rumor paints a gloomy picture. In fact, one area where the iPhone 17 Pro Max could truly stand out is its battery; rumors say it is to have the biggest battery ever seen in an iPhone. Let's be honest, battery life has long been a weak point for iPhones. No matter how efficient Apple's A-series chipsets are said to be, users often find their devices running out of juice quicker than expected. Much of the blame could be put on the relatively small battery sizes Apple has chosen over the years, especially when compared to the competition. Many rival brands now give their large-screen devices, those with displays bigger than 6.5 inches, batteries of at least 5000mAh. In contrast, Apple's largest iPhones have lagged behind in this department, with the iPhone 16 Pro Max coming in at 4676mAh. It seems like it is set to change with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, as a prominent leaker, Instant Digital, revealed that the battery of the iPhone 17 Pro Max will finally reach the 5000mAh mark. How big a change would it be? To put it in perspective, the iPhone 17 Pro Max's battery would be about 6.9% bigger than the iPhone 16 Pro Max, 13.1% more than the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and 15.7% more than the iPhone 14 Pro Max. If these rumors are accurate, the iPhone 17 Pro Max may finally address one of the most common complaints about Apple's flagship devices, but then again, Apple would still be lagging as most of the brands, specially the Chinese ones have already moved to the battery limits of 6000mAh and some have even touched 7000mAh. This rumor comes after the observation that Apple's struggles with AI may prompt it to transition Siri to either OpenAI or Anthropic's AI capabilities. Image source: Digit.in
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      Devesh Beri earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      956400 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • First Post
      loose_observer earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      BeeJay_Balu earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      filminutz earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      465
    2. 2
      ATLien_0
      159
    3. 3
      +FloatingFatMan
      149
    4. 4
      Nick H.
      66
    5. 5
      +thexfile
      62
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!