ALL media players maxing out CPU usage.

[Vulon]

For whatever reason, every single media player I currently have installed - VLC media player, QuickTime, and Windows Media Player - have ALL been bringing my CPU usage up to 100% in the last couple days. I've confirmed, to the best of my ability, that it is indeed the fault of the media players and not an issue with other programs or processes running. I've had problems with WMP maxing out CPU in the past, but from what I can tell, this is a fairly common issue. In any case, I typically avoid using WMP. 

 

I thought perhaps with VLC, it was simply a matter of updating the software, since I never bothered to update since initially downloading it. But downloading the newest version didn't change anything: my CPU usage would still inexplicably skyrocket to 100% immediately. 

 

I don't understand what could be causing this. I have a pretty old PC at this point (2 cores, 4gb of memory, etc), but this is the only big performance issue that's cropped up in a long time, and it seems so oddly specific. 

 

In terms of my audio setup, if it's of any relevance, I recently upgraded from standard computer speakers with a realtek soundcard/drivers to studio monitors, which I have connected via TSR cables to my new USB audio interface. I highly doubt this has anything to do with my media player issues, but I figured it was worth mentioning. I have no issues running my DAW(s) (Cubase, Reaper, and Reason); I want to clarify that my CPU usage ONLY ever seems to go nuts after opening any of the media players. I can do everything else I typically do without a hitch. Gaming, composing, recording, etcetera - everything's fully functional aside from this. 

 

I ran ccleaner to minimize the amount of processes I had running in the background at start-up, since I figured that might have something to do with it, and I ran some malware scans which didn't reveal anything aside from a few false positives. Nothing's helped. I kept task manager open and ran a few other programs while browsing, and my CPU would fluctuate between 10-50% on average. I then exited out of all unnecessary programs and waited until my CPU usage was around 3-10%, at which point I played a song in VLC media player. My CPU usage almost immediately shot up to 100%, and persisted AFTER closing VLC. I tried the same with WMP and Quicktime - same exact results. I'm at a loss.

[gregathit]

Had the same problem.  I uninstalled VLC player (had the 32 bit version) and reinstalled the 64 bit version (didn't realize they had one).  This solved my movie and clips issues.

 

Then I installed Foobar2000.  Uses next to nothing on memory and cpu for playing songs.  http://www.foobar2000.org/

 

[gaggedgirl123]

Had the same problem.  I uninstalled VLC player (had the 32 bit version) and reinstalled the 64 bit version (didn't realize they had one).  This solved my movie and clips issues.

 

Then I installed Foobar2000.  Uses next to nothing on memory and cpu for playing songs.  http://www.foobar2000.org/

 

Seconded on foobar2000. I sometimes forget it running when I play on mute, and even Skyrim doesn'T drop FPS when it's running... all the other players make the performnce drop

[blabba]

Hmm dunno about vlc media player (don't really use it) but I do know for a fact that if you don't have the right codecs installed you use up WAY more cpu and memory than you need as well as overall lower quality audio and video.

[Vulon]

The codecs should all be handled internally through my USB audio interface, as far as I know, and I have the 64 bit version of VLC installed, as well. I'm not currently at home, but I'll install Foobar2000 later on today and report back here.

[Vulon]

foobar seems to have done the trick! Thanks, guys. 

[Rayblue]

Haven't heard of any mention of Media Player Classic, which is part of the CCCP kit, and in my cause VLC is only a secondary option, as I use MPC mainly for watching movies.

[drttoldman]

Hello

I just want to add something on this topic .. I had the same or at least a similar problem of the CPU use going off the rails.. First thing I want to add is I'm running winXp Sorry I like the interface better than win7 and I got a ton of 5year old software that works just fine..

 

Anyway I used to leave the task manager running often and I still do to monitor what's going on I never found out what was the bottom cause but I think it's partially the cache being full.. But I found doing the normal stuff virus scan then scan disc which I hate to do on big hard drives (takes all afternoon ugh) but the problem was the task manager itself by restarting the computer and testing it you turned off the task manager (by the way the task manager would sometimes go up to 30%+) the cpu peaking use would go away.. I never really found what caused this but it may have been a cpu driver update that fixed it.. By the way my quick machine specs Cpu amd 1100phenom x6 at 3.9gz 8gigs mem ati 5570 video 128bit 1gigmem midrange card... If you like to monitor cpu and other functions use a lot you might want to try Systernals Process Explorer it doesn't use as much resources for long term use. Also there is another monitor device I'm using now to monitor my hardware use called Everest SystemInfoTool... It can give more information than I even know how to describe but it has a real nice fully configurable interface that will put icons in your tray area to monitor what ever you want... I personally monitor cpu temp, cpu fan speed (just so I know it's running) hdd temp, Mobo temp (I think that means) northbridge cpu volts cpu hz cpu load% and hypertransport clock. It allows you to see what all of this is doing in a tiny area and at very low cpu load on my machine around .5 to 3% . Depends on refresh fate of course.. All I really watch is the temps unless performance falls off and then to cpu & memory utilization if things get funny..

 

As far as media players go for music I still use winamp classic it is still one of the most economical on resource players and I like the way the playlist system works. VLC is still very good and it plays everything and it will go online to find new codecs if you allow it to. And it is open source always a big plus. the old win Media player 6.4 is still good for low resource use. I use the hacked version of that player called media player classic it comes with the K-Lite Codec Pack just say no to all the tool bars and accessories of coarse.... I try to avoid the win media players 9 and up unless nothing else works for streaming. I hate the way those products and internet

explorer hijack your whole system for streaming.. As much as possible I use FireFox with the quickbar addon (a multibutton switch to turnoff whatever like java) for streaming it's safer and there are more controls available for security..... While I'm at it this is a modders site so I think people are more aware of stuff than average computer users but one of the worse problems is ransomware... and Liar ware.. I see this a lot at the webhosting sites where people upload mods for free download.... Everytime I go there a popup jumps out and says my puter is running slow and they want to give me something to fixit those are some of the worse things you can get and they are more or less legal one of the best things for stuff like that iv'e found is web of trust.. It's a terrible name and I always wonder if pat robertson or someone is going to scan me for pron but it's pretty good cause it just monitors the number of people who say a site is bad for whatever reason.. check it out.... Incidently they point out this site is for adults but has an excellent reputaion othewise.. oldman