Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

shrakner · Mar 10, 2007, 04:42 PM

I just recently got the C2D MPB and installed XP SP2 so I could run Descent 3 and Form-Z (I know there's a mac version of Form-Z, but I don't want to pay for that yet.) When I first installed it, I had a bear of a time because every minute or so, XP would lock up for a few seconds, unfreeze, lock again briefly, and then continue on for another minute or two before repeating the process. I opened Task Manager, and every minute or so a double spike would appear in the first core, with proceessor usage going up to 100%. Once I downloaded the XP multicore support, the problem disappeared.

About a week later, after installing Form-Z 5.5, Acrobat Reader, and Quicktime, the problem surfaced again. I had also installed Parallels Desktop. It should be noted that under Parallels, the problem does not occurr. I wonder if the problem might somehow be linked to the video card, since Parallels doesn't access it, and every time Windows starts up (in Boot Camp) an ATI window pops up saying that TV display is enabled, when the control panel says it isn't.

Has anyone else suffered this issue? Any help would be much appreciated.

mduell · Mar 10, 2007, 05:06 PM

You neglected to mention which app is causing the spike in CPU usage.

shrakner · 08:56 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

You neglected to mention which app is causing the spike in CPU usage.

That's the problem- it's no application, at least not that I could see. Because of the lockup, the Task Manager won't show the spike when it happens, only afterwards, so I can't see what caused it. Most of the time when the spike ocurred, the only thing I had open was system windows.

mduell · Mar 10, 2007, 10:34 PM

Try something more advanced, like Process Monitor or Process Explorer.

shrakner · Mar 10, 2007, 11:47 PM

I don't think those will help, unless one of them has a delayed view feature (like graphs for each process). A realtime display doesn't help, since the spike is never seen until after it corrects itself.

Tomchu · Mar 11, 2007, 12:19 AM

"I don't think those will help, ..." -- Well you clearly know more about the solution than the forum does. ;-)

Get Process Explorer. See what's causing the spike. You'll be surprised to see what PE can get out of your system.

shrakner · Mar 11, 2007, 12:39 AM

Installed Process Explorer...

Ooh. Gotcha. It DOES show what process was the highest when the machine is screwing up.

My apologies.

I'll restart in Windows tomorrow (I installed it in Parallels) and will let you know what I find.

Thanks.

seanc · Mar 11, 2007, 06:12 AM

Try disabling the wireless connection, it could be trying to connect to a WAP or trying to get IP info from a DHCP server.

shrakner · Mar 13, 2007, 02:04 PM

Originally Posted by seanc

it could be trying to connect to a WAP...

seanc, you might be right. The last two times I rebooted in XP, the spikes/hiccups didn't appear. The only notable difference between that time and the previous times I had used it was that I had finally set up the correct wireless connection (I'm in a dorm room, and it's detecting at least 3 networks). I had also installed a few more windows updates, but I had installed all the "critical" ones before (except the WGA update) and the problem had gone away for the next few reboots.

Sigh... this is why I use OS X.

shrakner · Mar 31, 2007, 03:07 PM

Recently I restarted in XP and found that the hiccups were back, and worse than ever- there were now 3 spikes with an in-between space of less than a minute. seanc, you were right. The minute I deactivated WiFi, the spikes stopped completely.

Maybe this has been fixed with BC 1.2- I haven't updated the drivers yet to check.

Thanks all!

seanc · Mar 31, 2007, 04:15 PM

No problem, glad I could help. Give the 1.2 drivers a try.