Windows Media Player 11 a resource hog?

I have a P4 2.8GHz with 2.0 GB or RAM, and I can hardly run anything else while Windows Media Player is running. While playing a file, my CPU usage hovers between 60 and 100%, sometimes maxing at 100% for as long as 45 seconds, the RAM usage is also around 800MB. Also whenever I'm nearing the end of a song, about 30 seconds left, the playback hiccups for a second or so.



I really hope this isn't normal, as music is one of the main reasons I have my computer.



I'm on Vista Beta 2, build 5381, and everything is updated.



BTW, I use napster, so most of my tracks have DRM, if that helps any, but tracks I've ripped from CD do this too

 

It is certainly NOT normal - my CPU usage hovers at max 2% on 1 of my cores. This could simply be its idle usage. Perhaps your sound card drivers need to be updated. What is your sound card / on board sound?

 

It's very strange. I've attached a screenshot of my task manager, and a copy of my Dxdiag if they provide any info. This is obviously a hardware issue somewhere, I'm glad it's aproblem with my machine though, it would really suck if Vista used that much resources, lol

 

Just as a comparison, here's the same machine running on windows XP, in both screenshots, I had just booted and had nothing running, at all, and I have the same things running on startup on both OSs, very strange

 

Have you checked your antivirus isn't running? When did the problem start? Go into task manager and go into processes and see what is taking the CPU up. The only CPU usage should be from the sidebar.exe and perhaps dwm.exe (sidebar hovers at 01 and dwm fluxtuates between 00 and 01).

 

My antivirus is running, I should disable it, but I doubt that's it. The weirdest thing is, the CPU and RAM usage in the task manager don't add up, the only thing that's using CPU in the task manager is DWM.exe and system idle process, and those both hover around 1%. I've also added up the RAM usage, and it's somewhere around 300MB, nowhere near the 700 that's being used. God, could I have a virus already?

 

Post up a picture off all the currently running process and we can see if anything is abnormal. It sounds like a program is hoggin it up or a video related issue which is causing wmp to run real slow visually. Have you tried the latest video drivers for your video card? Any recently installed programs besides the default vista ones?

 

Well, here's all the processes running after boot. Yes my Antivirus is running, but it's the same one (AVG Free) that I'm running on windows with no problem.



I haven't really installed anything else, other than Firefox and Napster, plus all the requisite drivers and stuff. The ATi Catalyst Control center is running, but that's supposed to be for Vista.



This seems to have been happening since I first installed Vista, which leads me to believe it's a hardware issue. But I'm really at a loss

 

try ending wmpnscnfg, not sure what it is but its something related to wmp which may be hanging it.

 

There's something running that doesn't show up in the processes list, there's no way I should be using almost 700 MB of RAM doing nothing. I guess a Vista reinstall is in order.



Would you recommend formatting the hard drive, or just installing over my current install?

 

can't even use mp 11

not a legit windows xp

 

I think you should disable your anitvirus, it might not be compatible with vista and maybe causing a problem with wmp. Also is there any viruses for vista? If there was the chances of you getting it are so small its not worth bothering installing one at the minute - anyway when rc1 or the real vista comes out any damaging effects casued by viruses won't continue on new installs of vista. There is no point wasting your CPU usage and hard drive space on an antivirus for vista.

 

I'll try that, sorry I haven't been around, I was out of town on vacation.



News to follow