High processor usage?

[MrJeff]

Well, this problem is almost reproducable :-)

In the latest version of winamp, when playing MP3s only, on several settings of decryption, and through either the directsound or waveout plugin, with no other plugins loaded, I will every so often find that the CPU usage of winamp jumps from it's usual 25-30% to 98%, by using the free windows util wintop. In fact I suspect it wants more CPU, as the music starts to repeat small segments. It's only on the latest version and if I stop and replay the same song, the problem disappears.. ?

[Mr. Ice]

my winamp uses a nice, steady 5% cpu when it's playing, for hours at a time. i'm using 2.62 too.

[aaron]

well, it depends on your processor, of course. but winamp is one of the mp3 players with the least processor use i know. check whether you have other programs running in the background which perform periodical activities, like microsoft FindFast and similar.
aaron

[Farrakh]

Just a quick question for all you winamp boffins, Winamp and Windows NT 4 with SP5.0 good mix or bad? The reason I ask is that on my Win98 machine at home winamp runs with about 10% processor usage, but on my windows NT terminal it goes all the way up to 100%! No matter what. I don't really notice a loss in speed on my machine but, its scary to see task manager reporting that high a usage. It doesn't even change when I turn the decoders priority down, or even winamps for that fact.
Anyone have any ideas?

Farrakh

hyperonian@another.com

[Mal]

I just wanted to put in that I am having exactly the same problem with NT 4 & SP 5. I just can't use winamp like this cause my PC runs way too slow. Any help would be appreciated.

[farrakh]

I have been looking into this, and since I do not have the source code(is it available?) I can not I.D the exactly whats causing the high processor usage.
If anyone knows how WINAMP allocates processor resources, could they give a insight? I think it has to do with the way WINAMP is taking too many processor cycles on NT. Maybe the code has been optimised for win2xxx/9x and the optimization is to blame for the high usage on a NT machine? The kernel usage is about 2-3% when winamp is being used, leading me to beleive that maybe this is a false view of what is happening?
Any other ideas? Mr Moderator?

Farrakh

[Winner]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by farrakh:
I have been looking into this, and since I do not have the source code(is it available?) I can not I.D the exactly whats causing the high processor usage.
If anyone knows how WINAMP allocates processor resources, could they give a insight? I think it has to do with the way WINAMP is taking too many processor cycles on NT. Maybe the code has been optimised for win2xxx/9x and the optimization is to blame for the high usage on a NT machine? The kernel usage is about 2-3% when winamp is being used, leading me to beleive that maybe this is a false view of what is happening?
Any other ideas? Mr Moderator?

Farrakh<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm using Windows 98SE with Winamp version 2.7. I also use the SQR Crossfading output plugin, ver. 1.6, and the DFX 3.3 DSP plugin. When I first start Winamp, Wintop reports that Winamp uses about 16-18% of resource. Over time, Wintop reports more and more resources used by Winamp. On several occasions, I've found it reporting 75% resource usage! This really slows my computer! Has someone found a solution for this??? Has anyone pinned the cause on one of the two plugins mentioned here???

[MrTransistor]

FWIW, Win NT Workstation 4 with SP 6a, Winamp 2.7, no plugins - I'm seeing 2-5% processor utilization. 450 MHz Pentium II CPU in a Dell computer. This is while playing 56k MP3 files.

I've run it with earlier service packs and earlier Winamps without noticing any hoggishness. Though I've never really paid attention to Winamp's cpu stats.

-bs-

[farrakh]

Well what ever the problem was it seems to have been fixed. My processor usage is about 8% which is wonderfull, down from 99 to 100 %. Thanks whoever fixed it. Can you explain why? Come on it annoys me if I don't know.

Please?
Farrakh

[Mr. Ice]

it was probably just a minor bug in the thread handling. i've got several problems with the same problem. they show 100% cpu usage, but if another program wants more cpu power, it gets it. it's more of a cosmetic bug than anything. i'm not part of the nullsoft coding team, so i can't answer for sure, but that's my best guess.

[ltweintz]

I'm having the same problem on two different PCs. They are both Windows 2000 SP2. It's not too much of a problem as others have said because it gives back CPU time to other programs. However, my laptop's fan is constantly running because of it. When I kill Winamp my fan shuts off within 10 secs. Please say that some of the programers are looking into this. Anyone?

[peter]

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66558