Hi all,

After I hit play on iTunes, for about 30 seconds (and sometimes way more) it will take almost all the CPU. The bizarre thing is it's not the iTunes.exe process that's taking the resources but the "System"process (not "System Idle"!). It is really annoying as it will do this about every 5 minutes which obviously slows my PC down and makes getting things done (while listening to music) a nightmare.

Check out this image to see what I mean - iTunes is open and playing, CPU is maxed out in Task Manager and Process Explorer shows "System" taking 85% of CPU.
41south.homeip.net/image...unes_problem.png

I use iTunes 6.0.3.5 on an AMD64 3200 (Socket 754) on an Abit KV8-Max3 board with 1GB of very good PC3200 LL Corsair RAM and 4x76GB Raptors - so it's not a slow system. I don't have a sound card as I just use the onboard sound chip of the mobo.

I've updated the sound chip driver and BIOS to the latest versions but it still does it - anyone got any ideas how I can find out what's actually going on (or even better, how to resolve it!)? Should I go out and buy a sound card or could it be something else? It only started doing this since i installed iTunes 6.0.1 but I need iTunes 6 as I have a video iPod.

TIA for any help - I don't want to give up iTunes so any other constructive suggestions would be welcomed.

Mike

nzmike writes...

I don't want to give up iTunes

Even though you don't wish to give up iTunes, I was just wondering if this happened in any other music player like Windows Media Player?

If so your best bet would be a re-format to see if that fixes anything or go out and buy a sound card and disable the onboard via the CMOS Setup (BIOS).

Yeah, I was thinking maybe the only way to really sort this out is to buy a sound card... just need something simple that has good quality - maybe an Audigy or something I guess.

Good point about WMP - pretty sure it doesn't max the CPU out but I only ever play video through that (and only if I have to!) so will try some Mp3s and see what happens.

Mike

Could be similar to the following....

CPU 100% 20 seconds into every song

Ok ... with some more investigation and a few more restarts and reinstalls I've worked out that my problem was being caused by Itunes interaction with Avast antivirus.

Edit: How it was solved....

Tell the scanning software not to scan the entire iTunes folder. iTunes makes temp XML files every time you play a song. It does this to keep track of times & last date played.

Hey dworld, you might have something there... this may have started when I installed NOD32 2.5 as was around the same time as iTunes 6 came out - will give it a go and see what happens.... just need to work out how to tell NOD not to scan the MP3 folder buit I'm sure that's possible.

Cheers - hope this is it cos it's driving me around the bend!

Mike

nzmike writes...

just need to work out how to tell NOD not to scan the MP3 folder buit I'm sure that's possible.

Go into Nod 32 control centre, then click on AMON, then setup, then exclusions, then add, then folder and then select your mp 3 folder. try that and see if it helps.
K.

Just use WINAMP :P :P :P

yes I found nod32 uses 100% cpu when changing mp3s and closing down itunes, pitty i cant stop it from scanning the mp3 drive as mine is networked, i just disable nod32 most of the time when running itunes which is very rare

I tried the NOD32 thing but no difference - guess I'll have to try putting a graphics card and see how that goes... thanks for the suggestions folks.

Mike

Well, over a month down the line and I'm still getting this problem.... I tried installing a Soundblaster Live! Value card I had in an old PC and using that but get the same result. I have another PC with similiar specs (a S939 A64 3200+ with 1GB of RAM on an Abit M/b) and the problem doesn't happen on that PC so it's got to be something on mine - just wish I could work out what it is. I've also searched high and low and can't see anything that helps... it doesn't do it in WMP or in WinAmp, only iTunes. I've tried it with no virus software running and no difference. I've tried with no other apps running and all un-necessary toolbar apps shutdown - same result.

Anyone got any other useful suggestions I might try?

You could run filemon (www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Filemon.html) and see what files are being accessed when only iTunes is running. Might give you some hints.

Disable your onboard sound card, use the SBLive and see how you go.

Andrew, thanks for the suggestion - I'll give that a go in the next day or two (I'm off camping for Easter).

Hellman, I've already tried that and it makes no difference whatsoever what is playing the files... same result.

Mike

Well, I think I've found out that it has something to do with my hard drive - when I play a song directly from my video iPod (via iTunes) it doesn't spike the CPU at all... when I switch back to my library (which is on a 200GB Seagate 7200.8 SATA drive) it starts doing it again.

But this is where I'm still puzzled - Diskeeper shows it to be totally unfragmented, CHKDSK tells me there are no bad sectors and the drive does not seem to be making any strange noises or anything. I've removed the MS indexing service from running on that drive thinking it might be that but still no luck. It seems like iTunes just doesn't like that drive - as I mentioned earlier WinAmp and WMP don't have any problem... the only thing I can see is that the HDD is about 80% full but I can't see why this would have anything to do with it. I guess I'll have to try making a smaller MP3 library on another physical drive, pointing iTunes to it and seeing if it still does it.

Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Mike

Hi Mike,

A while ago I was using iTunes to upload images from my secondary 200gb onto my Video ipod (60gb). Itunes would crash (Illegal operation, I think, I haven't tried in ages), repeatedly, a little bit through the caching process.

I couldn't ever resolve this.

One day I redirected the photo directory to a folder on my 2x120GB Raid setup (primary HDD partition), and what do you know, it worked fine.

I hunted for ages trying to find out why this was so, but could never get a proper answer.

In the end I bought a copy of Anapod and used that (it integrates into windows shell). Interestingly, I have a similar problem with WMP 10 at the moment where when minimised to a tray "icon bar" it will occasionally jam the system with 100% CPU.

So in summary, not much help, but perhaps the two things are inter-related RE usage of a secondary HDD?

What if your files are on your primary partition?

Just some more comments. Hope you find a solution!

when it's happening, use process explorer (from sysinternals), and display the properties of the SYSTEM task, then switch to the threads tab and examine which driver is generating most of the CPU activity and C-SWITCH DELTA activity. This might highlight a hardware driver being stressed, which then might lead you to close examine or even temporarily remove that hardware or software component.

SOLVED!!!!!

MRIS - you're da man!!

I already had ProcessExplorer and had looked at that while iTunes had the problem but didn't know about the threads dialog in Poroperties... as soon as I monitored I saw that it was the NOD32 file monitor (amon.sys) that was causing the problem - shutting it down makes the problem go away. Strange thing is that on both my laptop and my HTPC I have the NOD32 file monitor running and it has no problem with AMON.SYS and iTunes. Anyway, now I know what it is I'll have to do some googling and see what else I can find out... or maybe switch to a better AV package (suggestions anyone?)

Thanks again - this was driving me completely bananas so you've saved me from an early admission to the nuthouse.

Mike

I have iTunes playing music and CPU Usage averages about 10% which isn't bad ofcourse i have a heap of other crap open aswell.

nzmike writes...

it will take almost all the CPU.

AHAHA

The curse of the bloated app!

HJB1000 writes...

The curse of the bloated app!

If you read the thread, you would have realised that the OP's antivirus software was the problem, NOT iTunes.

nzmike writes...

MRIS - you're da man!!

:)