Why is one laptop using so much more CPU than another

[rick gurnee]

A friend and I are each doing a similar display and for some reason his uses 10-20 times more CPU than mine does.  Most of the smaller sequences run fine but three of the larger sequences (40-65K for the LMS file, smaller for the LCS file) show noticible lags in some parts  and one (215K for the LMS file) stops completely and all of the lights go out.

 

He has about 200 channels (13 controllers) on one low speed network and 12 CCR's on a high speed network.  I even took my laptop to his house and played the sequence through his network.  Using task manager mine show 3-8% cpu usage and about 1.5 M of memory being used.  His showed the same amount of memory but 25-100% cpu and continued to show high cpu when all of the lights went out.

 

His laptop is a DELL pentium dual T3400 with 2 CPU's rated at 2.16Ghz.  It has 3.0 Megbytes of RAM and running 32 bit Vista.

 

My laptop is a HP intel i3-3110M with 4 CPU's rated at 2.40Ghz.  It has 4.0 Megbytes of RAM and running 64 bit Windows 7.

 

I noticed when I run on my laptop at least one and maybe two of the processor are recording no CPU at all.  (I expected that because I believe LOR and the audio are two separate processes so they can each be using a CPU at the same time).

 

Now I know my laptop is faster, but I don't believe it is 10 times faster.

 

He is willing to get a new laptop, if needed, but I cannot explain why there is such a difference.  He has a Windows 10 machine that I could install LOR on, but it is also a 2.16Ghz machine.

 

Does the fact that I'm running 64 bit and he is running 32 bit make a difference?

 

I used MSCONFIG to reduce the number of active process from 82 to 57 and that bought back about 1/2 meg of Ram, but no difference.

 

Right now he has just removed the large sequence from his show and the other lags are not easy to see unless you know where to look.

 

Any ideas?

[Orville]

Question, does he have any other programs running in the background?    Antivirus or any other background tasks that are running can eat up a CPU in short time, they may not hook into the ram as much, so that may not even be noticeable, but they may hook into the processor and rob it of what it needs, which will slow the entire process down and eat CPU resources.

 

I have NOTHING running in the background on the show computer except for the necessary ones that Windows requires.   And I'm using an old DELL system {1998 era}, has 2 GB Ram and dual processors and my CPU usage even during the show is not more than 6% at any time, mostly stays between 3-4%, with some sequences that are slightly larger jumping to 6%

 

And it was the same on an older laptop, also a dell single processor and max allowed ram 512K!     So the only thing I can think of that may be causing your friends issue is there are a load of background tasks running and hooking into the CPU, creating the lags or slow downs.

 

Then again, depending on what version of the LOR Software he has, it could be the software, since I've read there was a problem with lagging in some versions and believe a bug fix was released to correct that issue.  So you may want to look into that as well..

[EmmienLightFan]

By the way you say Megabytes several times when you mean gigabytes. A laptop with 4 megabytes of RAM would be unable to run anything.

[Orville]

By the way you say Megabytes several times when you mean gigabytes. A laptop with 4 megabytes of RAM would be unable to run anything.

Sorry, but you'd be wrong.   4MB is a LOT larger than what my laptop has, which is only 256KB and it can run Windows XP and the LOR Software and shows!  

 

So even if the laptop only had 4MB of ram, it would, indeed be able to run the LOR Software and shows.    A Megabyte = 1,000{1,024 Kilobytes}, whereas a Kilobyte = 1,000{1,024} bytes, a Gigabyte is  1,000{1,024} Megabytes  See this article: http://pc.net/helpcenter/answers/kilobytes_megabytes_and_gigabytes

 

So with that info, if I can run the LOR Software and a show on a lowly laptop with only 256K of ram, and if the OP is correct on the 4MB posted in their answer, that laptop surely can run a show and all the LOR Software.    And the first computer system I ever owned, it only came with 4KB of ram, the most it could ever handle was 64KB using a separate expansion system.    And that computer ran lots of things back then on that lowly 64KB of ram, which is still a LOT less than what 4MB of ram would be.  I'd be using this laptop today, but the HD bit the dust on it and it's getting a bit harder to locate older, working used IDE drives made for them for a decent price.   Just not worth putting a lot of money into a machine that's not really upgradeable in this day and age.

 

So your statement of a 4MB laptop computer would be unable to run anything is completely 100% inaccurate!   It may not be able to run the latest software, but older versions of Windows could be run on it.   I know I can run XP and the LOR Software on my 256K laptop with absolutely no problems at all.  I use LOR 3.8.2, can't say about the newer versions if it'd run in a low memory based system with all the most recent changes and upgrades.  Just know what I still use{3.8.2}worked perfectly in that 256KB laptop.

 

The OP probably did mean 4GB, but I just wanted to clear up the error that even if they are correct and it's actually only 4MB, it CAN run the LOR Software and Win XP, possibly Vista, but may not be able to run Win 7{since I think it wants at least 2GB of ram} or later versions of Windows.

 

Although I noticed they stated their friends laptop only has 3MB of ram, which would be extremely strange, as every computer I've ever added ram too, it was *always* even numbers, with the exception of 1GB or 1TB, but after those it was always 2GB, 4GB, 8GB...!TB, 2TB. 4TB....  So maybe their friends machine has a ram issue, they may want to run a diagnostic ram test on their friends laptop to verify all ram is functioning properly, because if a ram goes bad or not functioning correctly, this can cause some issues as well, most often a non functioning ram won't even allow the machine to start up, and it'll just sit there and sound off quick successive beeps to warn you there is a problem or it will just bring up a blank screen and do nothing, usually the latter.

[rick gurnee]

My apologies, of course I meant gigabyte.  I will look again, but I believe the only antivirus that is running is the one from Microsoft that comes with Windows which I am running also.

 

He is running version 3.12.2.  It does not have the latest 'Chinese character bug' fix on.  However, he did see the Chinese characters one time.  Maybe I'll upgrade to that version and see what happens.

[jonsimp911]

Sorry, but you'd be wrong.   4MB is a LOT larger than what my laptop has, which is only 256KB and it can run Windows XP and the LOR Software and shows!  

 

So even if the laptop only had 4MB of ram, it would, indeed be able to run the LOR Software and shows.    A Megabyte = 1,000{1,024 Kilobytes}, whereas a Kilobyte = 1,000{1,024} bytes, a Gigabyte is  1,000{1,024} Megabytes  See this article: http://pc.net/helpcenter/answers/kilobytes_megabytes_and_gigabytes

 

So with that info, if I can run the LOR Software and a show on a lowly laptop with only 256K of ram, and if the OP is correct on the 4MB posted in their answer, that laptop surely can run a show and all the LOR Software.    And the first computer system I ever owned, it only came with 4KB of ram, the most it could ever handle was 64KB using a separate expansion system.    And that computer ran lots of things back then on that lowly 64KB of ram, which is still a LOT less than what 4MB of ram would be.  I'd be using this laptop today, but the HD bit the dust on it and it's getting a bit harder to locate older, working used IDE drives made for them for a decent price.   Just not worth putting a lot of money into a machine that's not really upgradeable in this day and age.

 

So your statement of a 4MB laptop computer would be unable to run anything is completely 100% inaccurate!   It may not be able to run the latest software, but older versions of Windows could be run on it.   I know I can run XP and the LOR Software on my 256K laptop with absolutely no problems at all.  I use LOR 3.8.2, can't say about the newer versions if it'd run in a low memory based system with all the most recent changes and upgrades.  Just know what I still use{3.8.2}worked perfectly in that 256KB laptop.

 

The OP probably did mean 4GB, but I just wanted to clear up the error that even if they are correct and it's actually only 4MB, it CAN run the LOR Software and Win XP, possibly Vista, but may not be able to run Win 7{since I think it wants at least 2GB of ram} or later versions of Windows.

 

Although I noticed they stated their friends laptop only has 3MB of ram, which would be extremely strange, as every computer I've ever added ram too, it was *always* even numbers, with the exception of 1GB or 1TB, but after those it was always 2GB, 4GB, 8GB...!TB, 2TB. 4TB....  So maybe their friends machine has a ram issue, they may want to run a diagnostic ram test on their friends laptop to verify all ram is functioning properly, because if a ram goes bad or not functioning correctly, this can cause some issues as well, most often a non functioning ram won't even allow the machine to start up, and it'll just sit there and sound off quick successive beeps to warn you there is a problem or it will just bring up a blank screen and do nothing, usually the latter.

 

Orville,

 

There is no way, no how that you are running an XP box with 256K of RAM.  DOS 6.22 required atleast 512KB of RAM to run, and the minimum system requirements for Windows 3.1 was 3MB.  Windows XP requires atleast 64MB of RAM.

 

I repeat, Windows XP WILL NOT install on a machine with less than 64MB of RAM - the installer will not allow it.

 

You may have a processor with a 256KB cache, or you may have 256MB RAM, but you are not running Windows XP on a box w/ only 256KB RAM.  Right-click on My Computer, left-click on Properties, and look towards the bottom.

[Orville]

Orville,

 

There is no way, no how that you are running an XP box with 256K of RAM.  DOS 6.22 required atleast 512KB of RAM to run, and the minimum system requirements for Windows 3.1 was 3MB.  Windows XP requires atleast 64MB of RAM.

 

I repeat, Windows XP WILL NOT install on a machine with less than 64MB of RAM - the installer will not allow it.

 

You may have a processor with a 256KB cache, or you may have 256MB RAM, but you are not running Windows XP on a box w/ only 256KB RAM.  Right-click on My Computer, left-click on Properties, and look towards the bottom.

That computer is currently out of commission, needs a new HD if I can ever find one for it as well as a new power brick{I lost it some where-DOH}.  But I can surely attest it only has ONE RAM MODULE installed, BIOS shows 256K and that's all it has.  And it really does run Windows XP just fine with what it has..  It has 2 RAM slots for two 256K ram modules to get it to512K and one is vacant, and the ram module is 256K, that's all it has.   So I've got a strange old, ancient laptop that does something it's not supposed to do,.  But I used it for 2 years to run my shows, test lights and controllers with Win XP.

 

Don't know what to say, but it does run Win XP and the LOR 3.8.2software just fine with what it has.    This is an ancient laptop, but when it works it does what I need it too with it's limited ram!

[rick gurnee]

Just to let you know, this problem has nothing to do with LOR.  I ran other software on his laptop and mine and his always used 10-20 times more CPU.  He swears it ran fine on Thanksgiving, so I might try doing a system restore back to then.  Or I might suggest getting a new laptop and not let his grandson use it for three months going to who-knows-where on the internet, installing who-knows-what software and doing other things that a typical 20 something kid does.

[wmilkie]

Per Microsoft, minimum hardware requirements:

* 233 megahertz (MHz) Pentium or higher microprocessor (or

equivalent)

* 128 megabytes (MB) recommended (64 MB of RAM minimum;

4 gigabytes (GB) of RAM maximum)

* 1.5 GB of free space on your hard disk

* VGA monitor

* Keyboard

* Mouse or compatible pointing device

* CD-ROM or DVD drive

[Orville]

Microsoft?   You actually believe everything they claim?   I've run things they say would not, or never run in some computer environments, but I've managed to run them all the same.  Guess I'm smarter than the folks at that company, since they claim it can't be done, yet I've managed to do just what they say can't be done! ROFLMAO

[larryk5]

 Pentium Dual is not in the same class as a i3 processor. The gigahertz is missleading. The i3 has much better performance, so that may be the simple answer!