CPU Utililisation

[Big Elf]

I've been using HWiNFO64 for 3 or 4 years and find it very useful. I use it mainly to report my Swiftech 35X pump speeds and as a quick check on system temperatures. I also like the option of displaying the pumps speeds in the 'Notification Area'.

I have noticed that with the later versions that CPU utilisation has jumped up quite a bit from around 1% in early versions e.g. version 3.80 to 8-9% in the later versions, specifically 4.32.

I've just uninstalled version 4.32 and installed 3.80 and can immediately notice the difference in CPU utilisation.

I know there's a lot more functionality and user customisation included in the later versions but wondered this increase in CPU utilisation is typical or if there's some features that can be 'switched' off to reduce it.

 

[Martin]

I think this higher utilization can be caused by reading some types of sensors, SMART or EC ones are sometimes such and because of their design it can take a bit more resources to read data from them. You can try to disable such sensors by right-clicking -> "Disable Monitoring" and watch if the usage drops down.
If this is caused by the SMART disk sensor and you want to keep monitoring it, sometimes it can help to upgrade the storage drivers.

 

[Big Elf]

I installed version 4.36 and went through every entry one by one and disabled monitoring and hid each item, noting CPU utilisation each time. The program was still showing 8% CPU utilisation in Task Manager with everything disabled and hidden. So even though it's not apparently monitoring anything it's still utilising the CPU! There must be something in my system that doesn't function normally with the later versions of the software.

Fortunately I took a disk image which included version 3.80 so will reinstall that.

 

[Martin]

Please attach a HWiNFO Report File + Debug File with sensor data. Then I can check in more detail what might be causing this.

 

[Big Elf]

OK but it'll be a few days before I do it as I've spent a bit too much time already on this.

At the moment I've reinstalled a disk image and gone back to version 3.80 and can't see any obvious means of creating the Report and Debug files? How do I do them?

 

[Martin]

Please check this on how to create a Debug File: http://www.hwinfo.com/forum/Thread-IMPORTANT-Read-this-before-submitting-a-report

 

[Big Elf]

Thanks for that. Quick update after opening up the 'Sensor Status' window and the 'Summary' Window (in version 3.80). It's when the Sensor Status window is open that the CPU utilisation increases, when it's minimised it doesn't seem to generate utilisation.

I'll post the reports later when I've reinstalled version 4.36.

 

[Martin]

Ah, so when the Sensors window is active even having all items enabled, but minimized then the CPU load is not higher?
That could mean it's not caused by the sensor readout, but the interface instead.

 

[Big Elf]

I reinstalled version 4.36 and took a bit more time to go through and disable every item again. You were right earlier on, it was the SMART sensor readings. The ones for the SSDs had a minor effect but the ones for the mechanical hard drives were causing the bulk of the CPU utilisation.

 

[Martin]

Well, this is happens with some storage drivers. Updating them can sometimes help...