100% CPU Utilisation Thread last updated on 2003-12-17 11:18:27

Posted by member 2111 on 2003-12-10 05:55:55

I have a strange problem where sometimes when I start my machine and login, litestep.exe uses all the cpu, causing the machine to freeze. It doesn't matter if I leave it alone for a while, it will just sit there using 100% of the CPU. I can kill litestep using task manager and start it back up again and everything is fine. The strange thing is it doesn't do it everytime I log in, and I don't think it's related to my current theme, as I have tried a few themes and they all do the same thing.

I'm using a P4 with XP-SP1 and the latest build of litestep.

Anyone with anything similar???

Posted by member 90067 on 2003-12-10 06:56:41 link

Hi mungo,

something similar has happened to me a couple of times, always after cold reboots / startups. In my case, I was able to pinpoint the culprit: my P4PE mainboard in conjunction with the PSU (Enermax) apparently takes a LONG time for enumerating the hardware properly at cold start — sometimes, it takes 30s just to pass POST —, and some features such as USB still aren't always recognised properly even after booting into WinXP. Result: WinXP thinks there's a graphics tablet, a mouse, a web cam, and a scanner, I start up Photoshop -> the shell (e.g. Litestep) goes into wild throes. Prior to Litestep, explorer just shut down and DrWatson came visiting. Reboot, everything works perfectly, no matter how often I log in or out, or reboot.

I found the issue could be reduced considerably with adding a bootup menu and a 10s delay before automatically booting WinXP.

Hope this helps,
-Sascha.rb

Posted by member 90067 on 2003-12-10 16:51:50 link

Addition:

For kicks and giggles, I switched VWM to RabidVWM. And lo and behold, 100% CPU load at bootup, EVERY time, but exactly the same behaviour you described above: re-start litestep, done. I'm back to ckVWM.

93,
-Sascha.rb

Posted by member 36955 on 2003-12-10 17:58:29 link

yup... thats a bug in rabidvwm on xp that occurs when there are no windows open at startup i believe... there have been some threads on it, check the modules forum

Posted by member 182 on 2003-12-10 19:28:46 link

your psu in conjunction with the mainboard takes a long time enumerating the hardware?

i honestly can't imagine how the power supply unit would make the slightest difference to hardware detection. the initial power needed to boot and spin up all drives maybe, but not 'enumerating'.

that said, i've seen my own theme grind to a halt on random systems, only loading as far as lsxcommand.

try commenting out modules in your theme one by one. when you find the culprit(s) maybe email the authors and tell them what's going on.

Posted by member 2111 on 2003-12-10 23:30:08 link

Rabidvwm seems to be the culprit, since it's been commented out, the problem hasn't occurred again.

Posted by member 7223 on 2003-12-11 00:47:44 link

I had a similar problem one year ago (at least) when using RabidVWM (in some conditions only, as I can remember) and it only happens (on my Win2K box) when MS-Office was instaled. There's an exe running in background (sorry, I don't remember the name) which is installed each an MS-Office app is run. If you prevent this exe to run at startup (using BlackICE, for example) you will solve the problem.

Posted by member 90067 on 2003-12-11 01:37:48 link

Hi psynapse,

OT: "enumerating" might be the wrong word, agreed. Issue with my system: take a GeforceFX, an o/clocked P4, 1GB of RAM and 3 HD, and use a weak (but silent) PSU -> issues. ;)

93,
-Sascha.rb

Posted by member 99 on 2003-12-11 11:39:33 link

Also, rabidvwm-1.1.1 will not do this. It's now available on loose-screws, so you should be able to change the netloadmodule line and get it.

Posted by member 182 on 2003-12-11 17:46:25 link

yeah, 1.1.1 is pretty slick

Posted by member 2111 on 2003-12-12 20:26:16 link

The problem hasn't reoccured with rabidvwm-1.1.1

Posted by member 1413 on 2003-12-16 06:49:47 link

Ooo I love answers to problems without even having to ask. :D
Here I was content killing litestep.exe and restarting it.

Posted by member 38575 on 2003-12-17 01:14:31 link

ive also been having this problem, just downloaded rabidvwm-1.1.1 but am clueless as to what to do with it, can anyone give me some quick instructions, thanks in advance.


Stu.

Posted by member 1316 on 2003-12-17 11:18:27 link

in the theme's theme.rc, just change the line that reads:
*netloadmodule rabidvwm-1.01
-to-
*netloadmodule rabidvwm-1.1.1