Speedtest.net / CPU

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by philby, Dec 2, 2009.

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  1. philby

    philby Registered Member

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    Hello

    On 2 (Vista HP + XP Pro) out of 4 machines, I'm getting an initial CPU spike (65% on both cores of a 2 duo 2.33 GHz) when I open speedtest.net in IE8.

    Even if I don't run the test, after the initial spike, the CPU wanders around between 15% and 60% until I either minimise IE or toggle to any other tab.

    Capture.JPG

    I've read around and only found the view that 'this happens with high-end Flash'.

    Could there be some other explanation - it's strange that minimising the page kills the CPU load.

    Graphics cards, Flash, Java all up to date on both machines.

    The only factor common to both machines is ESS 4.0.424.0, though I can replicate the problem with all modules off.

    Thanks in advance.

    philby
     
  2. virtumonde

    virtumonde Registered Member

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    I'm getting about the same usage with firefox and IE 8.
    TBH this happens on a lot of sites..i never got concerned regarding this...
    Is speedtest.net the only place you see this?
    Maybe the next version of flash player will be more system friendly
     
  3. philby

    philby Registered Member

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    Yes, it's only speedtest.net - it's not the end of the world, but I'd really like to understand why this happens.

    I've just un/re installed Flash but there's no difference.

    On my Toshiba notebook with Win 7 on board, the CPU doesn't get remotely aroused by the site - same browser / Flash versions.

    Beats me...especially the page-minimise 'fix' :(

    philby
     
  4. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    Well, I performed the above test with IE8 and Firefox 3.5.5, but for me the cpu load remains normal. I am assuming you just load the speedtest.net page and see the cpu consumption, right?
     
  5. philby

    philby Registered Member

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    Yes, that's right - it quickly ratchets up to 60% and then follows no particular pattern between 15% and 60%, without my doing anything at all other than sitting there watching it!

    philby
     
  6. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    I redid the test but after the initial spike of 32%, when IE8 is loading the page, the cpu goes down to 2-5% which is what it normally does for me.

    You do not have any kind of add-blocking filter, or phishing filter, or parental control filter installed in IE? Sometime that tends to cause cpu load with a particular page.
     
  7. philby

    philby Registered Member

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    No - nothing at all other than Shockwave/Flash/Java.

    Maybe it's ESS, but surely it can't be if I can replicate with all modules deactivated?

    Also, if it was ESS, why would minimsing the browser relieve the CPU?

    Weird.

    philby
     
  8. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    Yes, this is strange indeed!

    How would flash/java/filters know you have minimized the page. Unless, IE8 has this ability built-in, it detects the window is minimized, so temporarily frees the cpu load belonging to that particular window.

    But even as I write these lines they do not make any sense to me.

    Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me can help you out.
     
  9. philby

    philby Registered Member

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    Thanks for your responses :)

    OK, I've disabled/re-enabled the add ons (one by one, to check etc.) and now I'm consistently getting the following on restarting the browser and going to speedtest.net:

    No spike when page opens and is left alone
    No spike when test is run
    Continuous 30% spike after test result is displayed that only drops when new tab is toggled or IE is minimised

    Quite different now but just as weird as the original problem.

    In the grand scheme, I know this is trivial, but it would be good to know what this is about.

    philby
     
  10. philby

    philby Registered Member

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    I was wrong about my other machines - it happens on all of them.

    The highest peak I get if I leave the page open after a test is 79% !!!

    Won't be going there again...

    Can anyone explain why this happens - why a site is able to suck up resources like this?

    philby
     
  11. philby

    philby Registered Member

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    OK, back with same issue, more or less, but seem to have narrowed this down a little better.

    On many sites (eg when activating Pacman on Google's current opener), IE8 is going to c.50% CPU and staying there the whole time this tab is the active one.

    PE shows that iertutil.dll is causing this:

    Capture.JPG

    I've Googled the dll, of course, but come up with nothing at all.

    The problem is exactly replicated (with the Pacman Google thing anyway) even if I run IE without add-ons.

    This is on fully patched Vista HP with only Returnil + Prevx (neither of which affects the issue).

    If anyone can shed light, I'd be very grateful.

    philby
     
  12. CloneRanger

    CloneRanger Registered Member

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  13. philby

    philby Registered Member

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    CloneRanger - thanks for replying.

    Sorry - I meant I hadn't been able to find obvious solutions rather than references. A lot of people seem to have had this dll missing whereas I seem to have too much of it, so to speak.

    I've reset IE, jumped through the sfc hoop etc. but I'm just not getting anywhere.

    I've had a look at the relevant stack in PE, but it doesn't really mean anything to me...

    philby
     
    Last edited: May 22, 2010
  14. CloneRanger

    CloneRanger Registered Member

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    That's ok, i like it when peeps do to me :)
    Ahh, thought it was strange you didn't see anything ;)

    Wish i could suggest something else, apart from use a different browser, but i can't :( Hope somebody else can jump in with advice that gets you sorted quickly :thumb:
     
  15. philby

    philby Registered Member

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    Maybe I should go back to Seamonkey or Opera...

    It's funny that, after 'browsering' myself almost to death for ages and tweaking the hell out of FF et al, I finally came full circle and reverted back to IE.

    Shame, because it's Olympically fast on this box, but this CPU thing is hugely annoying.

    I don't have this problem on 3 notebooks either - IE8 is fine on those.

    I'm sure I must be missing something (obvious).

    EDIT: Just noticed that if I leave only this thread open and watch the dll's properties in PE , it's nice and quiet at 0% CPU. As soon as I scroll up and down this page, the dll fluctuates between 10 and 20% and if I keep doing it, the box's fan gets hyperactive.

    (Re. the fan: I took the side of the box off a couple of weeeks ago and cleaned out what little dust there was)

    philby
     
    Last edited: May 22, 2010
  16. CloneRanger

    CloneRanger Registered Member

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    .

    That could be a clue ?

    Possibly but what, how frustrating !

    Tried that myself, and surprise surprise FF v3 goes up to 47% at some times :eek: So i think you can rest assured it's probably not just that. My fan doesn't make a squeak though doing that. But i've noticed recently, that watching some online videos it does whirr up and down in sympathy with the load. Maybe our fans are on the way out ? They are cheap enough to replace, so it won't do any harm in trying, then you can eliminate that.

    Also for sure try another browser in the interim and compare ;)
     
  17. Noob

    Noob Registered Member

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    Too much effects/eye candy things i suppose :D
     
  18. NGRhodes

    NGRhodes Registered Member

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    Happens to myself in Ubuntu with Firefox.
    Can be down to poor programming. Maybe doing a lot of processing during initialisation.
     
  19. CloneRanger

    CloneRanger Registered Member

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    @philby

    Did you get it sorted ?
     
  20. philby

    philby Registered Member

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    Hi CloneRanger

    I've been away, so haven't investigated further yet - when I get a chance I'll stick Opera on the machine and see what happens to CPU on speedtest.net and when scrolling this page.

    philby
     
  21. bonedriven

    bonedriven Registered Member

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    Watching videos on sites like youtube causes my browser to use 20-30% of CPU,both with FF and IE. I don't know if it's normal but I remember it didn't use that much before. :doubt:
     
  22. ABee

    ABee Registered Member

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    That's quite normal.

    Watching videos online is a relatively CPU-intensive activity.
     
  23. philby

    philby Registered Member

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    Below is the stack for iertutil.dll!Ordinal405+0x1e - it's always this one (405) that's making the CPU go nuts with the other iertutil.dll threads (ordinals 430 and 536) being CPU-inactive.

    I'm clueless looking at this...

    ntkrnlpa.exe!KeWaitForMultipleObjects+0xadc
    ntkrnlpa.exe!KeWaitForSingleObject+0x492
    ntkrnlpa.exe!ZwQueryLicenseValue+0xbd6
    ntdll.dll!KiFastSystemCallRet
    IEFRAME.dll!Ordinal170+0x46fb
    iertutil.dll!Ordinal405+0x2c
    kernel32.dll!BaseThreadInitThunk+0x12
    ntdll.dll!RtlInitializeExceptionChain+0x63
    ntdll.dll!RtlInitializeExceptionChain+0x36

    philby
     
    Last edited: Jun 6, 2010
  24. CloneRanger

    CloneRanger Registered Member

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    @philby

    Hi, that's ok, just wondered if you managed to resolve it. Obviously not by the sound of it :(

    Installing Opera might be a good idea to compare, and at least you'll know one way or the other.

    Sorry i can't help with the Stack stuff, but hope someone can.
     
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