Windows 7 excessive CPU usage

[wingspan]

Hi Cybershadow & co,

I was lurking for a while and I thought I'd post. Thanks for the wkColorFix module, that fixed my major compatibility hurdle.

I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate, and I have a dual core processor. I've noticed that when I run WA, on the first double-click it hangs indefinitely, and on the second double-click it launches.

After that first double-click, a rundll32 process is using 50% of my CPU (100% of 1 core), and when I exit the game, wa.exe is still open though rundll32 and still using 50% of my CPU.

Is this behavior normal? Also, if there are multiple instances of rundll32, how do I know which to kill if I write a batch file for launching and exiting WA?

Thanks

[CyberShadow]

That's quite strange. I'd suggest the first thing to do is to grab Process Explorer (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx) and to have a look at the command-line arguments of rundll32, as well as what's launching it. There certainly is no reason that W:A would launch it, or that the W:A shortcut would somehow launch W:A through rundll32. "wa.exe is still open though rundll32" doesn't really make sense, either.

[wingspan]

I'll grab process explorer and take a look.

By that statement, I meant that as long as rundll32 was running, I couldn't move/rename wa.exe, which I tried to do as a crude diagnostic attempt.

[wingspan]

Here's the command line according to process explorer:

C:\Windows\system32\rundll32.exe C:\Windows\system32\gameux.dll,GameUXShim {cccf962f-4ebb-4292-8db8-f2a1dd12c55d};E:\Worms Armageddon\WA.exe;3316

I think it has something to do with the windows 7 games folder?

Thanks

[DrMelon]

I doubt it'd have anything to do with the games folder - more likely driver, hardware, or DirectX issues.

[CyberShadow]

Ah, I suppose that you're launching W:A from Windows' "Games" view. Try placing an ordinary shortcut to WA.exe on your desktop instead.

A thread describing a similar problem with another game here (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprogeneral/thread/d9aaef3d-d294-4a27-847f-0dc1422e3930) suggests turning off collection of game usage data.

[wingspan]

That other thread described my exact problem. I don't have always-on internet right now - I actually go online by tethering through my phone's 3G network, and apparently a bug in gameux.dll appears when it can't connect to the internet after a new game is added.

Simply going online to allow windows to update the game fixed the problem.

TL; DR: Microsoft's bug. W:A is off the hook :P