The processor, or CPU for Central Processing Unit, is one of the most important components of a computer. It contains the logic circuits allowing the interpretation and the execution of the instructions of the programs. We can say that it is the brain of a computer.
The processor, or CPU for Central Processing Unit, is one of the most important components of a computer. It contains the logic circuits allowing the interpretation and the execution of the instructions of the programs. We can say that it is the brain of a computer.
It sometimes happens that the processor gets carried away and pushes its computing capacities to its limits until saturation. The result ? The computer is overheating. The ventilation system is at its maximum. Windows display extremely slowly. The mouse cursor barely moves. The computer is so slow that it seems to have stopped. What should be done ? How to determine the cause of this saturation?
In this tutorial, we will see how to reduce the use of the processor (CPU) by stopping applications that consume CPU resources and by carefully managing the use of logical cores, to find a fluid system!
Summary
- Reduce processor (CPU) usage
- With Task Manager
- By restarting the computer
- By refining CPU usage
Reduce processor (CPU) usage
With Task Manager
With Task Manager, you can force close the recalcitrant and greedy application that generates a high CPU load:
- Open Task Manager . In the worst case, you will see the CPU saturated at 100%. Click on Processor to sort the applications from the most power-hungry to the least power-hungry.
- Select the application using the most resources and click End Task .
- The situation returns to normal. You can close Task Manager.
Note: in this example, I used the “Stress CPU” function of the CPU-Z software to simulate a faulty application. At home, demanding applications could consume less CPU resources.
By restarting the computer
The other solution is to restart the computer .
This is also the first solution recommended by Intel on their website, because turning a computer off and on again allows you to delete temporary files and free up random access memory (RAM).
By refining CPU usage
We have seen the cases of an application malfunctioning. Now, let’s see how to reduce CPU resource consumption with expert tuning.
- Open Task Manager and click Details .
- Choose the application that consumes a lot of resources (here 99%). Right-click on it and click Set Affinity .
- All processors are selected by default.
- Deselect the logical cores (CPUs) to free then click OK .
- Next, click Process .
- You will then notice that the load has decreased significantly. According to our selection, only two logical cores are used for the operation of the application. The others are free to use.
Note: this trick degrades the execution speed of the targeted program.Warning: these solutions do not solve all the problems. You may need to reinstall the app that is causing the computer to slow down, or even revert to a Windows restore point .
