why does this happen?

[SIRCOOKS]

when i demux a film using dvd2avi, or when i usually convert a mpa to wav file using winamp or whatever, why does it take up all my cpu usage, it jumps all the way to 100% usually over and as a rsult of that, i cant download anything while its doing that, in fact, i seen my downloads stop on irc wheni demux and convert, but it doesn't happen when im encoding a movie with tmpgenc..can anyone who's computer savvy help me.... holla back

[sterno]

Because processing files in DVD2AVI or compressing/decompressing audio takes a lot of CPU power, plus it tends to do a lot of disk access and most IDE controllers are very dependent on the CPU. The programs will take as much CPU power as they can while they run.

If you're using Windows 95, 98, or ME (which is what it sounds like from what you describe), there isn't a whole lot you can do about it in general. For Windows NT, 2000, or XP you can go in to the system properties and change the "performance boost for foreground applications" setting.

[SIRCOOKS]

actually im using xp...so can you give me details on how to go about changing this minor headache in my road

[disturbed1]

right click on the task bar, select task manager.

Right click on the offending app in task manager, and set base priorty to something lower than normal.

[SIRCOOKS]

then if id o that, the process slows down even more, i kind like it at the speed its at now, i can demux a 2 hour movie in about 40min...i just wanna know how to stop it from locking up my comp

[sterno]

You can also raise the priority of your file transfer programs in the same way you lower the priority of your conversion programs. The main down side is that you'll have to remember to do it every time you start the program. If you either leave things running for long periods of time or only do it once in a while that's probably the best way to handle it.

I don't have an XP machine handy, but in 2000 there's also a button called "Performance options" under the Advanced tab in the System Properties control panel. It can be set to optimize either for applications (the foreground program gets a lot more CPU time than background stuff) or for background tasks (background programs don't lose quite so much CPU time to the frontmost app).

For the average user who just runs office apps, browses the web, and plays games, being set for applications is best. For heavier use like multimedia work or software development, optimizing for background tasks may make the machine run a little better. But no matter how you do it, you only have so much processing power to go around - every running program gets to use the CPU for a certain amount of time based on what it's doing and its priority. To make your transfer programs run better you'll need to make your conversion programs run more slowly.