Is anyone having random slowdowns on Vista SP1?

[wreckedcarzz]

(WARNING: Mini-rant ahead - be prepared )

I have been running Vista for almost a year now - I love it. IMO the best version of Windows ever (I still love Xubuntu more, but until Linux gets some up-to-date games, Windows is still #1).

Except for the fact that it will randomly just become a little b**** and take control of my CPU. audiodg.exe used to do this when I had my X-Fi 3D simulation on, so I disabled that. Now Windows Media Player does it randomly and I have to restart that. Now explorer has jumped on the bandwagon and is eating up to 85%+ CPU usage... and I am not even freaking using it!!! I am just sitting here, instant messaging, and all the sudden I drop to like 2FPS on DWM and the system just feels like it is a Toyota Corolla that drove into a swamp - it just won't do anything! After I get task manager open and "terminate" the "program" (I prefer to scream... say other words, but that's another story), the system is just as speedy as ever. Repeat every 12 hours for full effect.

What the ... heck is Vista's issue? I am going to go and beat someone to a bloody pulp at Microsoft if this doesn't get taken care of soon!

Can someone provide a solution, or at least someone has to have the same issue as me? It happens only on this computer - my dad's Gateway laptop runs Vista like molasses, but it runs fine - the HP desktop won't install SP1, but it runs like a beauty...

-Brandon

[f0dder]

Vista works in mysterious ways

Is there any disk activity while this happens? when I hear about massive CPU usage for no reason, my first suspect is usually either malware, or a disk that has reverted to running in PIO mode (that can kill the performance of even a 3GHz quadcore).

[cthorpe]

I was having similar problems before going to SP1.  Since the switch, I haven't had any problems.  I think Vista has a mind of its own and decides to work or not depending on phases of the moon, ambient temperature, and other random factors.

Had you made any system tweaks before installing SP1 that might have been undone by the upgrade?  Any indexing or background services that are chewing up resources that you banished a year ago and forgot about?  I seem to remember reading somewhere that SP1 undoes a lot of the performance tweaks that we had done in the past, but I can't recall where I saw that or which tweaks were undone.

[wreckedcarzz]

I have made tweaks, didn't think about that. PIO is also possible (my laptop seemed to have this issue last year, and I had to format to get it to stop). Indexing is off, but even if it wasn't, Vista waits for the system to be idle - I am literally just sitting here and all the sudden its like ... LAG (and especially if I am in a game).

No malware/viruses/spyware/adware/trojans/worms/etc, I do a bit of torrent file sharing but I sandbox everything before I go running all the little fun EXEs I can find

I'll have to look and see, I didn't think at all about SP1 "undoing" system tweaks.