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What is causing my cpu usage to spike in 6 second intervals?

JayliN

New Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2009
Messages
71 (0.01/day)
Location
NYC
System Name Unnamed
Processor Intel Core i7 860 @ 2266 (.895vcore in bios, LLC off)
Motherboard MSI P55-GD65
Cooling Xigmatek S1283 /w Bolt Thru Kit and Antec Tri-Cool
Memory 2x2GB G.Skill Eco DDR3 @ 1.175v
Video Card(s) ATI 5850 /w Accelero S1
Storage WD 640GB, 2x WD GP 1TB
Display(s) Dell 2407WFP Rev. A04
Case Antec P182 /w Front Intake Antec Tri-Cool
Audio Device(s) Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic /w OPAmp Mod -> Audio Technica ATH-A900
Power Supply Antec NeoHE 500 Watt Modular
Software Windows 7 x64 Professional
I noticed today that my cpu usage was spiking to 13-16% load about every 6 seconds. What can be causing this? The status bar in task manager shows the load but none of the processes show any cpu usage to account for that load. The CPU monitor gadget in the screenshot I've attached shows the cpu usage pattern I'm talking about. I've set everything at stock or default to make sure its not my overclock.

NOTE: In the screenshot, the cpu monitor gadget says zero but its just not in sync with task manager. Its a split second behind to update but it does show the 13-16% load right afterwards. I'm also aware I have several monitoring apps running but these cpu spikes happen even when I have everything closed.
 

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  • cpuspikes.jpg
    cpuspikes.jpg
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click on show process for all users...
 
click on show process for all users...

wow that was easy :laugh: I cant believe I missed that.

Turns out the vm player I installed today created a process named "vmware-authd.exe" that is causing these spikes.

Now I have to figure out if its worth using if its going to be such a resource hog. Thanks for your help!
 
is it effecting performance?
 
I haven't really tested to see if it does, but I don't like how my power usage keeps jumping up and down 15 watts just because of one program. Its too bad because the reason I installed vmplayer is to fold for techpowerup too... :(
 
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