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    Two tips for W520: what was eating CPU resources

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by andy789, Apr 3, 2012.

  1. andy789

    andy789 Notebook Consultant

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    I received my new W520 two weeks ago and am still playing with different options and settings. What really puzzled me was why the CPU Usage in the Task manager could never drop below 18-24%, even with no application running.

    The bottom line what I did after investigating what exactly was eating the CPU resources:

    1) Disabled all X-rite processes from Services and Startup.
    2) Disabled SimpleTap task in the Scheduler.

    Now I've got 1-4% average CPU usage with Chrome 10 tabs and Outlook running. Also, I have got a significant battery life increase.

    Hope it will help someone.
     
    andy789, Apr 3, 2012
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  2. PopLap

    PopLap Notebook Evangelist

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    Thats very strange, as of now, with firefox open, and a few other things, in bouncing between 0%-3%.

    Just so you know X-rite is the screen color calibrator, may not want to turn that off.
     
    PopLap, Apr 4, 2012
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  3. aadadams

    aadadams Notebook Deity

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    With Outlook, Firefox 18 tabs, 4 sidebar gadgets, and 136 total processes running including hueyPro and Simple tap my W510 oscillates between 2 - 8 % But spends most time at 5 or below. Which CPU do you have? Device manager indicates that I have the i7 Q820. I think I predate Sandy Bridge however...
     
    aadadams, Apr 4, 2012
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  4. PopLap

    PopLap Notebook Evangelist

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    i7-2720QM mine is SB. I have about 12 FF Tabs, Steam, Last.fm, and im bouncing around 1% - 5%
     
    PopLap, Apr 7, 2012
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  5. andy789

    andy789 Notebook Consultant

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    There is no reason to keep X-rite as a running process in the memory all the time. I can start it when I need it.
     
    andy789, May 5, 2012
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  6. ha1o2surfer

    ha1o2surfer Notebook Evangelist

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    You have to also remember that is depends on your Power Profile. If you have it set up downclock on idle then have the CPU running ay 700Mhz will appear to have higher usage than the same idle computer that is not downclocked and running at 2Ghz. Right now I have mine set to downclock and have the Core Parking Registry entries and have it set to downclock to lowest speed possible. In my case it's 300-400 Mhz. At that speed CPU usage hovers around 8-14 percent but my Usage watts is 5.6-6 watts. When it jumps up to 2Ghz, usage is always 1-3 percent. So it depends.
     
    ha1o2surfer, May 6, 2012
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