High CPU usage in "standby" (2 Viewers)

[tha_jackson]

Hi @all!
I've shortly installed Mediaportal 1.0 RC3 rev 20432. I am using a Kontron Mobo 886LCD with a 1.8 GHz Pentium M.
I am not using any Tuner Cards.

Now I recognized, even when not doing anything ("standby") and just seeing the home menu, the CPU usage is at 50-70% !!!!???? How could that happen?? Are there running any background threads while I am not doing anything with the software?

Has anyone a good hint how to fix this - or some similar problems?

Thank you
Tha_Jackson

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Tha_Jackson

What graphics capability has your htpc got, MP itself is very directx orientated, so if there is any weakness graphics wise, it may try to pass that on to the cpu, mine on idle in Home screen, runs at 1-3%cpu.

 

[tha_jackson]

Hi Paranoid Delusion!

Thank you for your fast reply! In deed my graphics card is just an on-board chipset graphic. So you think that this is the point!?

Thanx again!

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

In deed my graphics card is just an on-board chipset graphic

More info about motherboard would help, so even if you do not have the graphics details, then i can look up the board specs myself.

If nothing else try changing in BIOS, Video memory usage from Auto to 128mb or more if you can spare it.

 

[tha_jackson]

Hi!
I already put an old Geforce 2MX card in and there you go: CPU usage is down to 3%
But the catch is now, that as soon as I play a movie I get a flickering screen - it seems it always switches back and forth from the player and the GUI!?
I already downloaded the last driver version but no success though.... Could this be due to the aged graphics adaptor? I have to look if it does support directX 9...
So I found out that the card does NOT support DX9 :-( So I guess I have to get a new one if that is causing the problem.


Found the "exclusive mode" fix here in the forum... That did the trick!
Now everything is just fine!!
Thank you and keep up the great work!

 

[krraqk]

Hi

I have exactly the same problem with RC3.

While idle in the home window or browsing my video or music files I have a high cpu hit. Also the ui gets very slow and sluggish very unresponsive.

The strange thing is that it dont happens every time. Normally the first time I launch MP1 RC3 (after start the pc) I dont have that problem. But if I close MP and reopen it then there is that problem.

With RC2 I dont have this problem (although I have many others so I tried to update).

My video card is integrated in the mother board: Gigabyte
73PVM-S2H GeForce 7100 DVI/HDMI Socket 775

My tv card is Kworld PlusTV Dual DVB-T tuner
Im using XP sp3 with all the soft and drivers needed installed.

Any help would be very appreciated.

Thanks

 

[tha_jackson]

Like I wrote in my earlier post, I did have to use a graphics card. With my onboard graphics I had this high CPU usage too! And also the MP software did not stutter in the beginning but after a while running...

Try using a separate graphics card. I am using a very old Geforce 2MX now and it works just fine.

The reason for this seems to be the way the MP is programmed. The user interface was programmed using directx. If your onboard graphics card does not support these instructions by hardware, your CPU has to "render" all those commands.

Hope that helps...

Cheers

 

[krraqk]

tha_jackson:

thanks for your reply. You had that problem in the previous versions?

I mean, that direct x interface programming was not present with the RC2 and previous releases? has it changed in the RC3?

I choose an integrated graphics card in order to keep reduced the electricity bill.

I even think that this integrated graphics card has support for direct x 9, what direct x 9 capabilities are really needed?

tha_jackson is your stutter and flickering problems also solved with the dedicated graphics card?

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

krraqk

There are lots of DX bits not supported in the 6100\7100 series of cards, higher gpu's 6150 above seem to work a lot better , but i think the best low spec is a 7300gt\8500gt or equivalent for full hardware acceleration decoding support.

Make sure onboard video memory is set to a value of 128 or 256mb rather than auto, this can fix things for some people.

 

[tha_jackson]

krraqk:
I did not have the previous versions installed on my system. So I can't tell you anything about that. But I don't think that the developing guys did change the whole concept from one RC to another... The only reason for your problems that I can think of, that appeared by upgrading to RC3 is that you maybe are using a newer skin like the blue 3 or so... I think there are much more animations and other stuff done than in the older skin versions...
I am not too deep into details about the programming of the mp... I think Paranoid Delusion is the more competent person for details about implementation...

Right now I don't have any problems with slow graphics or flickering anymore. So the low end mx2 graphics card did the trick for me...