NRECORD Process Makes Computer Slow On Cold Boot & Reboot

[sub]

That's a good point - it certainly could be something like that happening.

[johnsonx42]

BTJustice still hasn't said what percent of the CPU NRecord.exe was using... all he's said is that the System Idle Process was high, and professed a lack of understanding of what the System Idle Process is and does. Just saying NRecord.exe was the 2nd highest in CPU usage is meaningless by itself (since it could be 1% or 49%), and we have no logs to look at.

[gEd]

If you're on 7, you can use Performance Monitor rather than Task Manager so get a more detailed look. IIRC you can see "who" is using the disk. Might provide some insight. 20 mins of disk activity sounds high, my machines don't act like that, but then the dedicated HTPC has nothing on it but NPVR.

yes I would recommend this (as well as uploading the log for Sub).
The perceived CPU and disk activity may be completely unrelated to one another.
I noticed Avira Antivirus scanning my disk for ages on startup for reasons that were not entirely clear to me. Performance monitor showed me precisely what files it was scanning.

[BTJustice]

@mikeh49
I'll give that a shot after NPVR finishes a recording it is currently doing.

@sub
After the computer finishes booting up, which takes about 4-5 total to finish loading everything, I then go and manually start the NPVR service. Hello 15-20 hard drive constant light. I am going to try what I mention to BrettB and see if that makes a difference. If not, I will post some logs.

@BrettB
That is a good possibility. For about the last 6 months, I have only used Microsoft Security Essentials for real-time monitoring of viruses and malware. I'll add my recordings folder to the exclusions and see if that makes a difference.

@johnsonx42
Perhaps I didn't explain clearly. I suppose I could have said, "I was trying to figure out why the System Idle Process was so high when something was obviously going on slowing my computer down."

@gEd
Disabling NPVR recording service for auto starting helped quite a bit, but i will re-enable it and give that a shot.

[BTJustice]

@sub
On a side note, the forum time is 7 minutes too fast.

[BTJustice]

I re-enabled NPVR Recording Service to start on boot. I rebooted and had the hard drive activity for about 12 minutes. Saved the NRecord log (#1). I added my recording folder to Microsoft Security Essentials' list of exclusions. I rebooted again. I had about 9 minutes of hard drive activity. Saved the NRecord log again (#2).

The only thing I see in the logs is a 6 minute delay before NPVR requests wake up events.

I tried the Performance Monitor, but I can't really figure out how to use it in regards to seeing what processes and programs are using what.

A poster said earlier that disabling NRecord may have freed up something else to finish quicker. I am starting to lean towards that.

@johnsonx42

BTJustice still hasn't said what percent of the CPU NRecord.exe was using

It was upwards to 30% or so last night when I started this thread. So far today it has been no higher than 10%. I do remember that the amount of memory for NRecord started around 30,000 K and made it all the way up to 200,000 K before the hard drive light finally turned off and it dropped back down to 24,000 K. The scheduled EPG Update had already happened hours before this started.

[BTJustice]

My best guess to present is my problem was with Microsoft Security Essentials constantly scanning "npvr.db3" which currently sits at about 90 MBs. I am now using the free version of COMODO Internet Security which seems to work quite well.

[sub]

I missed your post with the logs, but I just took a look at them now, and as suspected they dont show anything happening. They just show a nice orderly startup taking only a few seconds. The problem must almost certainly be caused by something external to nrecord.exe, maybe antivirus/firewall as mentioned.

[johnsonx42]

@sub - both of his logs do show a 6 minute delay at startup. You're probably right that it's something outside NPVR, but it is odd.

Code:

2012-03-01 15:19:09.480    [INFO][4]    Using local in-process recording service
2012-03-01 15:25:13.889    [DEBUG][4]    RecordingServiceProxy@exit

Code:

2012-03-01 15:33:13.056    [INFO][4]    Using local in-process recording service
2012-03-01 15:39:12.513    [DEBUG][4]    RecordingServiceProxy@exit