Computer really unresponsive when mining

[notaek]

I have 2 7970's in my computer right now.  This is the computer I actually do work on, so in the past I have turned one card down to 13 intensity (on reaper) and keep the card that isn't driving the display at 20 intensity.  This has allowed me to use my computer perfectly fine as well as mine at reasonable speeds. With this setup I usually get about 540khps on the lowered card, and 660+ on the card going at full speed. 

Yesterday, I spent a couple hours  trying to fix my computer.  I had a faulty drive.  I got another drive and reinstalled windows on it.  Since the new install of windows, I cannot have any of my cards on 20 intensity without the computer becoming very choppy and unresponsive.  I turn the card driving the display to 13 intensity and the computer runs fine.  If I have both cards mining at the same time at 13 intensity the computer is fine.  If I have the card that isn't driving the display at 20 intensity, the computer starts lagging again. 

I am confused because in the past I was able to use my computer so long as I didn't push the card driving the display too hard.  Now, no matter which card I set to 20 intensity, the computer lags.  Not sure what the problem is here, or if there is a way to fix it.  I do have a few 6950's that I plan to add, so I might throw them in and see if they start to lag the computer when set to 20 intensity.  Any help would be appreciated.

[1714819992]

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[grue]

go to advanced system settings. under performance, set visual effects to "adjust best for performance".

then open task manager, under services, stop service "uxsms"

[notaek]

go to advanced system settings. under performance, set visual effects to "adjust best for performance".

then open task manager, under services, stop service "uxsms"

Thanks, that seems to have fixed it.  Any idea why the issue wasn't happening to me before without making those changes? 

Also, what does uxsms do?  I wasn't able to stop the service but apparently I didn't need to for it to work.

[grue]

uxsms = DWM. see wikipedia for what it does.

[notaek]

Actually it appears that the issue has continued 

It happens in little "bursts."  I can type at full speed but then it hangs for a little bit.  I'm scrolling on a webpage and then it stops scrolling for a short period of time.  It is really annoying, and I have no idea what is causing it.

[-ck]

Mining with cgminer? You probably have a crappy USB implementation and it's lagging when cgminer is doing its hotplug check. Try disabling it with --hotplug 0

[Hektek]

Maybe you using now different drivers ?

[notaek]

I'm actually using reaper.  So now I have 2 6950's in, and the 2 7970's.  When I open any combination of 2 mining programs (2 7970, 2 6950, 1 7950 and 1 6950) the computer starts to lag, even if the card driving the display is not on.  I am using 13.1 catalyst and 12.8 SDK, same drivers I was on last time.  I've always used reaper too. 

I'd like to point out that nothing crazy is going on with my CPU or RAM while I turn these programs on.  CPU stays at 0-10% and ram is under 50%.
Kinda at a loss right now.  Can't mine and get anything done on my comp at the same time.

[grue]

Actually it appears that the issue has continued 

It happens in little "bursts."  I can type at full speed but then it hangs for a little bit.  I'm scrolling on a webpage and then it stops scrolling for a short period of time.  It is really annoying, and I have no idea what is causing it.

disable hardware acceleration on adobe flash player, and in your web browser.

[notaek]

Actually it appears that the issue has continued 

It happens in little "bursts."  I can type at full speed but then it hangs for a little bit.  I'm scrolling on a webpage and then it stops scrolling for a short period of time.  It is really annoying, and I have no idea what is causing it.

disable hardware acceleration on adobe flash player, and in your web browser.

Thanks a lot man.  Seems to have worked this time.

[ReCat]

uxsms = DWM. see wikipedia for what it does.

The freezing is basically a direct result of mining, because mining loads up your GPU with work, and so much work, that it just barely has any time to update and render the screen.

DWM is a part of windows that uses your GPU to accelerate and render the display, for faster performance normally. With it disabled, your CPU will be doing the work of rendering the display instead of the GPU.