100% CPU When Viewing Website-Based Flash Media

Dear Friends,

I have tried upgrading to different versions of Flash Player, tried different browsers such as Opera, Firefox, IE.

I have 2GB DDR2 RAM and 1.86GHz - Windows XP

Why does my CPU go to 100% when I view website based FLASH Media content like youtube.com or video.google.com?

I can get over 2 megabytes per second --- so speed is not an issue.

I am able to play HD content on my computer so - why in the world wouldn't I be able to play streaming flash content?

Can someone help?

Thank you so much

 

Is your computer a Dual-Core CPU? Does it have any unnecessary plug-ins being loaded? When you say flash do you mean youtube?

 

When I say Flash - I mean:

-Youtube
-Video.Google.com
- any other website that offers 'video' through a flash player

I do NOT have a Dual-Core CPU, but if my computer can run HD content with out any problems, why should it have any problem with FLV flash?

Thank You

THOUGH, Sorry I did forget one detail:

Whenever I listen to audio within a video or just simply audio, my "System" processe peaks to 20+%, then if I pause the audio or video, the "System" processe goes back to 0%

 

Flash videos always tax the processor, there is nothing you can do about the high cpu usage. The only solution would be find a site that use something other than flv...

 

So, the best bet would be to download each flash video I'd like to watch?

Since, if I download them and play them off my harddrive, then the flash videos do not result in the same CPU spike.

 

I'm not exactly sure about the part of taxing the processor because my undervolted T5300 cpu can browse/watch youtube at 800mhz. So I agree it is mostly CPU, but the other element would come down to the internet data transfer rate of the network card in which case the sites that are being visited might be high activity.

I'm no expert so I may just be talking of my own situation.

 

(Sorry for double post)

Yeah playing off the hard drive would then shift the burden on to the HDD, and if you can play HD content I'm guessing that you should have no problems.

 

If the flash was really using 100% of your CPU then it would do so playing directly off your hard drive as well.

I find it hard to believe a flash video could eat 100% of your CPU. It should use maybe 20%. I would try un-installing and re-installing Flash, upgrading to your latest video drivers, disabling things like virus scanners, etc., and trying again. Also make sure XP is fully patched up.

 

How so? The computer is receiving the data stream by the network adapter, which is caching the video to the hard drive and playing it in Flash. So it's still coming off the hard drive, with the very tiny overhead of the network adapter still receiving the data.

 

The TOS plans to download the videos and store them on the HDD. Then play them back. So the network card activity is no longer an issue.

 

update your browser, clear everything from C:\WINDOWS\Downloaded Program Files

uninstall flash, install the latest flash

 

Okay here is what I have done since I last posted:


- Updated my graphic drivers to the latest Omega drivers
- Downgraded from the newest Flash Player to a older so called less buggy version of Adobe Flash Player.

*When looking at "Process Explorer", when I try playing a Youtube/ETC Flash based video site, the CPU for Firefox/Opera/IE increases dramatically to 90-100%

Here check this:



Anyone have any clue?

Thank You!!!

 

Don't worry, flash is just sucking right now... especially on my Eee PC. I get 60-90% CPU usage depending on the site and how many flash apps are running on the browser.

For those that are doubting the OP, try going to www.mycokerewards.com and then check your CPU usage. I guarantee it will be at least 40% or higher (even on a dual-core computer). My Eee PC struggles on that site since it's ALL flash.

 

Flash is very processor intensive. The reason it's so good for streaming is that it uses your computer, rather than the network for the heavy lifting.

 

But, why then when I download the flash FLV files and play it through a media player - it plays fine at normal CPU levels?

 

Oooh, so it wasn't just my old P4 doing this! :laugh: It gets to 100% CPU usage, yes, but at least the computer doesn't become unresponsive at all.

My laptop gets around 30%+ when viewing YouTube -- almost, if not the same CPU usage as when running HD [720] video on Media Player Classic

 

Flash is just very heavy: 720p WMV videos use 20-25% CPU while Youtube videos use 35-40% CPU. On top of the inferior video quality, Youtube clips are mono sound!

(This is with Opera 9.26, a 2.66GHz P4, and 512MB of DDR-333.)

Uninstall Flash and grab the latest version.

 

I still don't buy it. Here are my two tests on mycokerewards.com, which is as far as I can see, the most CPU intensive site ever built.

Desktop, Ubuntu Linux, Core2Duo @ 3.0ghz: 1 proc between 20%-40%, other proc idle.
Laptop Core2Duo @ 2.0ghz: 1 proc between 25%-50%, other proc idle.

Both tests were with Firefox.

Flash is heavy-weight but I still think the OP has a problem. There is no reason to have a 100% pegged CPU to see a Flash web site. Did you try disabling your virus checker? Upgrading network adapter driver?

Also a side question. Are you running only 1gb RAM? If so then you may be hitting swap, which would slow everything down.

 

Thank you for trying to help.

Here are my specs:

Windows XP Home - SP2
Intel Pentium M 1.86GHZ
335 MHZ, 2.00 GB of RAM
Turned off all graphic interface - "adjust for best preformance" except for a few options like font smoothing.
Can get over 2MB per second through my connection.
Have over 50 GB of HD space available.
Have switched from "System managed file" to "Custom Size" and visa versa.

Just checked anti-virus, spybot, lavasoft - no viruses, no spyware.

Just checked Hijackthis, nothing out of the ordinary.

Temperature remains idle at 40 +/- 5 degrees Celsius.

Did a defragment, the speed on every other program is TOP NOTCH.

Upgraded my Network Card drivers.

But once again, when viewing Flash player (now with a downgraded flash version was before at the very latest) it still continues the same problem.

This is what shows up in Process Explorer when the youtube video is playing:




Anything out of the ordinary? Thanks soooo much. Hope we can fix this.

 

It seems to me to be a Firefox problem then, not a Flash problem. What happens if you view the same page using IE?

Greg.

 

But, you notice in my most recent post, that this problem occurs when in Opera as well as IE too

 

The problem is that we don't have a multi-core processor. I know that having a dual-core CPU in my ol' laptop was able to view MyCokeRewards just fine but with my Eee PC, it's another story.

Our Pentium-based CPU's just don't cut it.

Even my parents Pentium 4 2.66Ghz gets 50-70% CPU usage when viewing YouTube videos.

 

Try changing the hardware acceleration setting for flash - right click a video, select settings, and then enable or disable hardware acceleration.

 

No change,

as you can see here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3168907&postcount=19

when Firefox/Opera/IE increases to 75+ CPU Usage, winmm.dll goes up tremendously at the same time.

WINMM.DLL - any help - maybe there is a way to loophole, trick the OS to not turning on WINMM.DLL ?!

Or if anyone does not know how to fix it, does anyone know where to go for help?

Thank you sooo much

 

On my Vista machine, WINMM.DLL also uses CPU cycles when viewing flash video. However, mine only uses about 20% at 1.5Ghz. Since WINMM.DLL is Audio related, I can only suggest you try upgrading or switching your audio drivers.

 

I am having the same issue If anyone has any suggestion please Respond this is truly a web designers nightmare

 

This problem exists in Linux too, even a little more so. Try using Flash 10 beta 2 which has hardware acceleration, that might help by using your GPU.

 

I have been google-ing this issue for years...the solution is intel core 2 duo...flash player is a very cpu intensive application. It was a light application until adobe took over. They made the application very dynamic, and of course, the price is higher cpu usage.

 

After trying to find the solution for months, I have finally found it!

It's not the Flash Player problem. I followed this guide and it worked!

http://sgsoft.bravehost.com/flashcpuproblem.html

 

CPU throttling.. it could be a problem for many people, but definitely not everyone.