Extreme CPU use by eMule

[Pranama]

I have eMule 0.50 on notebook with Intel Core i3 2,40 GHz, Win 7 Home Premium, 4 GB RAM, HDD 450 GB. Since some time I observe very high use of CPU when I switch on eMule, going up to 25%. This takes about 20 min. until the CPU use drops to a single-digit value, during this time I can´t do anything, just wait. Recently I deleted an eMule copy and downloaded another, still eMule 0.50, but nothing changed for me. Would be grateful for any advice.

[Phuzzy4242]

I'd suspect one of the .dat files in the emule\config folder is damaged or corrupt, especially if you've downloaded a lot. Go to eMule's "Shared Files" tab and find Downloaded History in the folder list. This shows every file you've ever downloaded and the info is stored in known.met. You can try this to see if it's the troublemaker - shut down eMule, RENAME (don't delete) known.met to _known.met, then restart eMule. If it runs without the high CPU use, you've found the culprit. If not, you can rename known.met back and try a different .met file until you find the bad guy.

[Pranama]

Thank you very much, Phuzzy, it helped

[Pranama]

Well, probably I was wrong, the problem continues

[Phuzzy4242]

You mentioned in your first post you downloaded eMule 0.50 again - did you install it from scratch or just write over what was already there? Does CPU use immediately go high when you start eMule or only when you connect? Do you see a lot of hard drive activity eMule is running. Does CPU use go up only when connected? Are files being rehashed when you start eMule? Are there any messages in eMule's log file, like 'cannot save' or file sharing errors? Are there other programs on the computer that make the CPU use jump up?

If you didn't install from scratch in a different folder, I'd try a vanilla install. Run eMule by itself - no other programs running. Don't change eMule's default settings, don't connect yet, no files in the shared folder. Does CPU use jump up? If so, does it drop back down quickly?

Now connect (don't worry about lowid). How's the CPU use now? Do you see a lot of hard drive activity?

Now put a couple files in your shared folder. eMule will create the hashes for them so CPU use will jump, but it should drop again when finished.

Start making changes to your settings to get it back to 'normal'. Keep an eye on CPU use to see if anything you do makes a difference. Add more files to the shared folder and see if any of them have problems being hashed.

If you normally run other programs at the same time as you run eMule, start them up one at a time to see if there's something that interacts with eMule. One program might work fine alone and eMule might work fine alone, but they might have problems running together.

Do you see where I'm going with this? You're changing things one-at-a-time to see where the problem is coming from. Maybe something I mentioned will give you ideas where to look for the source of the problems.

[emuler]

You might also want to exclude the eMule temp folder from your antivirus scans.

[Pranama]

Thank you Phuzzy to reminding me that it will be no easy way to find a cause of this problem:( My computer skills are very limited, so at the moment I am not dealing with and let it be the way it is. After switching in eMule it´s the best solution to go to the bathroom and then to make me a coffee and to drink it:) It´s still some time left before things start to go normally. In case I won´t be so busy like today and be able to take some action I´d like to know what does it mean "scratch" and "vanilla install". Btw, no messages in log file till now.

[emuler]

You might not get anything useful in the log; you need to enable verbose log in options. Options->Extended:Verbose - check the enabled box, and any other boxes where you suspect the culprit could be.

What is the status of the HDD activity LED during this time that you have high CPU usage? (That is the light that blinks when your hard drive is accessed, e.g. while copying files.)

Also, turn off all the startup options like updating ipfilter on startup, updating fake list on startup, updating server list on startup, yada, yada, yada. Also disable 'connect automatically' - you'll need to click the 'connect' button in order to connect, but you can do that when the high CPU usage goes away.

Also, turn off uPnP (options->connections: use upnp to set up ports (in my ScarAngel mod it is tucked away under options->scarangel->connection tweaks ).

[plonkah]

Obvious I know but check disk space - if you have low disk space the hashing of files will take a lot more time and use up all your CPU/RAM whilst it tries to find free memory slots - and swaps data off and on to disk.

[Phuzzy4242]

A "vanilla" install or "install from scratch" means you create a new folder for the eMule program and install it new - you don't use anything from the install that's giving you headaches. Download a fresh eMule direct from the main website - you'll probably want the version that has an installer. Use the defaults except you want to install it in a new folder without touching the folder where your current eMule is installed.

Now run eMule. Don't change any of its initial settings at all, just run it without connecting. If the CPU use goes way up, I'd look at your antivirus logs to see if something is triggering it. If the hard drive starts running continuously, I'd check for problems like cross-linked files, damaged indexes, etc.