Lotherius

Join Date 09/2003

hefty cpu usage on 5??

4.9 RC3 was fine

I upgraded my WB from 4.9 RC3 to the final release today (delayed because the upgrade wouldn't take, and I had to uninstall 4.9 manually before installing 5)..

After rebooting, I noticed my mouse was noticibly "jerky".. thinking it must be low batteries, I replaced them... No improvement. I checked CPU usage, and it turns out that a program that was updating its GUI every 500ms was sucking 50-75% CPU. I found that odd, because the particular program is well regarded for its low CPU usage. Also, I hadn't upgraded the program in a few weeks at least, and the problem just showed up.

After a little more experimentation, I realized that GUI updates in ANY program are having a severe CPU penalty now. If I select a blind that doesn't do transparency, blending, etc, the penalty is not so severe but it does still seem to be there. I did NOT have this problem with the betas either - only after upgrading to the final release did this CPU usage problem crop up...

I have an Athlon64 3500+ and a Radeon 9800 XT... there should be none of this kind of slowdown!

Here is what diagnostics on WB reports:

WindowBlinds 5.0 System Information Report:

STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

You have one monitor in total.

(SONY CPD-G520) 1 is attached to RADEON 9800 XT

Wblind.dll 2005/11/28 13:57:10
Wbsrv.dll 2005/11/28 15:52:00
Wbconfig.exe 2005/11/28 16:19:00
Wbload.exe 2005/11/25 19:30:58
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:00
Wbui.dll 2005/11/20 12:23:40
Tray.dll 2005/11/02 13:28:26

(Edit - got some examples)
Running : Windows Task Manager -
Skin: Arrow - CPU: 2%
Skin: (None) - CPU: 3% (WB Unloaded)
Skin: Target - CPU: 3%
Skin: Aura - CPU: 8%
Skin: DogmaX4 - CPU: 13%
Skin: StealthOS - CPU: 18%

So... apparently not all WB5 skins are having problems - but some are really choking my system down. I never had to worry about CPU usage on skins before, but now it seems to be an issue?

windowblinds

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Neil Banfield

Join Date 04/2001

+1104

Thats certainly not normal.

So it all worked fine with the final RC and then broke with the release build?

Have you tried uninstalling WB & reinstalling it?

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I updated the original post with some examples of the cpu usage of an open Task Manager window with various blinds applied... I'm not seeing any particular pattern.. I thought it was blending that might've been the problem, but then I ran Arrow, and it came in with the lowest cpu usage of all of them... Makes no sense.

I'll try uninstalling WB5 and reinstalling.. There *was* a quirk when I reinstalled it - after rebooting, it brought up the windowblinds config screen to choose a blind... None of the windows had their decorations (just internal contents with no borders) until I chose a blind and applied it.. I have rebooted since then however.

Will post later with results of uninstall/reinstall.

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Neil Banfield

Join Date 04/2001

+1104

Can you try the following

1) Unload WB

2) Go to display properties & set the skin to classic

3) Go to display properties & set the skin to Windows XP style

4) Go to display properties & set the skin to classic

Now see if WB uses lots of cpu.

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I had exactly the same issue except my CPU usage was 100%. I couldn't run anything. I finally booted in SAFE mode and looked for a way to uninstall WB5. Couldn't find an uninstall??? So, I hack the registry and removed all reference to wbload and windowblinds. I want to reinstall it - I love WB and had no such issues with WB4.

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Neil Banfield

Join Date 04/2001

+1104

Jon Loveless: If you installed WB via SDC then the uninstall is done via SDC. If you installed the shareware version then it can be uninstalled via add/remove programs.

We are still investigating this issue. Did you try the steps I posted above to see if they help?

Also what applications do you have which load on startup?

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Neil - I coulkdn't try your suggestions because even after I unloaded WB5 the CPU usage remained at 100% and was split among several processes such as tskmngr. I did update from WB4.x to WB5.x via SDC. It required that I uninstall WB4.x first which I did. I have registered Object Desk so WB was part of that. I didn't realize that I could uninstall via SDC also.

I have a lot of stuff that loads during startup. FSecure, TurboNote, Zinio, SpySweeper, Maverick, a bunch of HP junk for recognizing memory cards, cameras, etc. I tried booting after turning everything off via msconfig, but WB5 continued to load and bring my CPU to its knees. My only resort was to hack the reg which was successful.

What do I do now to re-install WB5? Do I need to purchase a new license?

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Neil Banfield

Join Date 04/2001

+1104

Could you find a file called WB.ini (in the Windows directory) and add the following to it

[Global]

DisableStage1=1

Now does WB cause high cpu usage?

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It's recommended by high authority to have less than 10 apps in startup. The only time I have 100% CPU usage is when I am testing my skin from Skinstudio, and have GIMP2.0 running. Then GIMP likes to take all my CPU space, I guess it's updating it's cache or something. But if I shut down GIMP first, then apply, no probs.

Neil, what exactly does

[Global]
DisableStage1=1

do?

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I just found this thread and it confirms what I've been suspecting since Tuesday. I have the same exact problems! My mouse will work fine and then suddenly become jerky for a few seconds. This happens when I'm running just Firefox and Thunderbird, or MS Word, or Trillian, or any other program that used to work fine.

I have noticed this happening regardless of whether I'm running a skin with transparency or some old WB4.6 skins.

Oh yeah, and I run a pretty darn clean startup. Only WB, Avedesk, Rainlendar, and Symantec AV run on startup, but I still have this problem. I got the 100% CPU usage once, but I haven't replicated that since.

After rebooting, I noticed my mouse was noticibly "jerky"..

If I select a blind that doesn't do transparency, blending, etc, the penalty is not so severe but it does still seem to be there. I did NOT have this problem with the betas either - only after upgrading to the final release did this CPU usage problem crop up...

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I am another who had problems since the release of Windows Blind 5. It was so bad I had to do a system restore and that means that I am now spending my time reloading software, yet again.

I thought that it was something I did, but perhaps it is an indication that one of the skins that has been designed for wb5 is "buggy". If I have applied Desktop X skins then I find I have my worst problems.

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central

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Neil

I reinstalled WB5 and then before I launched it I added the line to WB.ini

[Global]

DisableStage1=1

CPU usage issue was corrected and all is wonderful. I don't honestly know if it was the reinstall or the added parameter. What does DisableStage1 do?

Many thanks for your help.

Jon:)

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Neil Banfield

Join Date 04/2001

+1104

Thats a debug value that you should not leave on as you will find it disables large parts of WB!

But it allows us to narrow down the problem. IF you set it back to 0, save it and then open a new app, does that app run slowly?

If yes, then set it back to 1 for now, if not then try a reboot & see if its slow again.

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Neil, none of this has helped. I reinstalled WB5, making sure to set the themes as you said... I also tried the disablestage1 value you suggested. I'm still having high cpu usage with some themes. StealthOS is one of the worst, with 50% cpu usage while updating a screen (that takes 3% unthemed)..

Edit: I clicked on the option "Never use Per Pixel borders" on system information, and the CPU usage dropped to normal.... Shouldn't the per pixel stuff be offloaded to the video card and not bog the CPU though? (As per my original post, it says my video card is fully supported, 9800 pro, and everything is in working order)...

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Just reporting, same thing as Sir Lotherius on my computer.

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