90+% GPU Usage when P170EM is idle (7970M)

Whenever my P170EM is idle for about 5 minutes, the fans spool up and Afterburner shows GPU usage at 90+%. It will stay this way until the mouse is moved or it eventually goes to sleep. I ran process explorer to see what is using the GPU, and it shows that it is a svchost.exe that is using it. The process disappears as soon as I touch the mouse, and the fans die down, as well as the GPU usage. I am running the stock drivers from Malibal, and have already tried resetting Catalyst to default settings. Any idea what could be causing this?

 

Hi, maybe one of the executables is set to use ATI card when it should be using Intel.

What I would do is get latest drivers, sweep old drivers and see if it makes difference.

 

maybe windows trying to get its WEI.

 

What's the best way to sweep the drivers?

 

Also Svchost is very connected to virus... There's like tons of virus that use it to screw the PC. Usually when my cpu was always at 100% and the fault was that Svchost, it was a virus, reinstalled everything and no more problems.

But this can also be other things, no idea...

On windows XP 4 example there are a few svchost processes and they are really needed for the system. But virus can fake\pretend as being one too, or infiltrate in one of the official svchost from M$.
Keep Cool

 

Not sure about the GPU, but I know it close to maxes out the CPU when idling, and that's normal.

 

Well, that was it! Ran malwarebytes, it found and removed a few threats, then after reboot all is well. Thanks!

 

Well, at least on XP I have 6 svchost processes and they are always at 0% CPU usage...

There's only one process that is using always 99-100% which is "inactive process of the system", and it's fake, it's not using 100% of the full cpu to it...

The cpu is always near 0%, 1-2% (and pitches of 4% from time to time) on windows XP even with Xfire, utorrent and a few little more things on the background. At this is a old laptop with Core 2 duo CPU 1.8GHZ.


Like I said everytime I had it at 100% cpu usage on svchost, was a virus.

ps: But can't remember how is the 7, this is a true report, for XP at least. Don't have my desktop for months to go check it.

I'm glad u fixed it for now... It may come back soon! . Sometimes it's better to make a full fresh install (if problem persists). And for more security after a fresh install it's better to change mac addresses so that someone that saved ur for tracking u can't know u anymore:thumbsup: (and turn router of for a while to change ip, unless it's static IP ).
Keep Cool