iCue interferes with Windows Explorer

First of all, iCue is a massive resource hog. It depends on the Corsair service which itself spawns half a dozen other processes, which constantly consume unnecessary amounts of CPU time.

 

However the bigger problem is iCue seems to interfere in a very odd way with Windows Explorer. Ever since I installed it explorer has been sluggish as heck. It's difficult to describe. It's like the computer is starved of resources and is having a hard time painting explorer windows - components pop up one by one. For example it'll draw the top bar first, then the folder tree to the left, then the main view. It gets worse the more the PC has been on. A restart makes it somewhat bearable. This has been observed across 2 different windows installations.

 

At first I wasn't sure what was causing it, so I began disabling things one by one. The last few of days I've been running without iCue, and it seems the problem has vanished completely. Now all windows explorer windows paint instantaneously. Nothing else on the system has been changed. This leads me to believe it is the culprit.

 

Has anyone else observed similar behaviour?

 

Is there any particular reason downgrading to the old CUE is a worse idea than staying on the bloated piece of crap that iCue seems to be presently?

 

I just have the K70 keyboard. I would gladly give up all the RGB in the world for a more responsive system. I am open to alternatives. The only thing that bugs me right now is giving up the media keys working on non-focused applications.

So ... I've not seen this.

Curious - in the iCUE settings, under Dashboard, do you have "Enable Hard Drive Widget" checked?

 

And .. if you just have the keyboard, you can go back to CUE if you want. Just note that CUE is EOL and won't be updated but if it works for you ... well, you can't argue with working, right?

No, I do not. What does that setting do.

 

Running iCue to check that setting immediately had an effect on the responsiveness explorer windows (and not just - for example I have process explorer running constantly, and it too gets painted one line at a time when you maximize the window), lending further credence to the notion that iCue is the cause.

 

Speaking of process explorer - icue and corsair service's average context switch volume is abnormally high. And idling at ~30% CPU on one core is crazy just for some RGB. I want my billions of CPU cycles back! And put to good use painting windows. Not blinking a few lights on my KB.

What hardware are you running? I've not seen iCUE consume 30% CPU for a while (there was a bug in one of the earlier builds), especially without the RGB RAM.

 

And yes, there's a lot of context switches from the service. They're using TPL quite a bit so it's context switching like mad across the .NET thread pool. But changing that at this point would be a massive undertaking and risky.

9900K.

A sustained 1.7-1.8% processor usage represents a sustained 30% load on one core. iCue alone, to speak nothing of the Corsair service and child processes.

No, I do not. What does that setting do.

 

Gotta love it when you ask someone a question about a suggestion and then they don't reply.

 

It allows you to see HDD temps as far as I have been able to determine....which likely have absolutely nothing to do with your issues but great to know if a drive is overheating. Sounds like a drive is either failing (if mechanical can't speak on SSDs since I have yet to have one with a single error. Old 840Evo in this among others but that one in particular has north of 120Tb of writes on it and still going strong), the CPU is throttling to hell (which doesn't seem right due to loading you are mentioning but if cooling is inadequate you will see the same things or a refresh related issue, which is where I would lean. I can't think of them right off but there has been a couple reports of ICurse killing refresh rates when running. Not something I have experienced but try finding the posts and see what worked for them....if anything worked for them.

 

*stumbles off listening to Dethklok - Face Fisted*

 

Checked ICurse usage on my end it sits at 0% idle and if opened around 0.4% 9900K so I must ask, are you running any other RGB software for other devices (MB, GPU, HDD which is sadly a thing) or anything else that might be monitoring the devices (like AIDA, HWInfo or the like) because that could be some of the issue.

 

Please fill out system specs on your profile so we don't have to assume :)

Edited July 8, 2019 by Waukeen

1. Updated specs.

2. No other RGB. The mobo and video card to tend to glow in my face when I go to sleep, but I've never bothered investigating just how RGB they are. So far they're mostly just blinky R.

 

So it seems it shouldn't be idling that high. Though... if you're using task manager, not sure if it reports fractional percentages. I'm on process explorer over here.

 

Gotta love it when you ask someone a question about a suggestion and then they don't reply.

Hey, he knows what a context switch is and did mention .NET and its janky threading support, so I'mma give him a pass. :P

Edited July 9, 2019 by martixy

1) LOVE the description for the RAM

2) What about other monitoring software?

 

And I don't give passes for certain things.

 

Have you attempted a clean install of ICurse? Revo, while not my preferred option works fine for this. And you will want to confirm there is nothing in %appdata%\Corsair\Cue before you install. And while this shouldn't matter close anything running before the install.

 

That old CM case you have though I have to ask which one? I am thinking about rehabbing my recently retired CM 830 Evo Stacker. Amazingly not only do I still have all the stuff I yanked from it turns out I didn't even lose the BTX stuff for it. Who remembers that? :) Its one of the rare first runs without the tubing cutouts.

 

*Slayer - War Zone for obvious reasons to me*

Edited July 9, 2019 by Waukeen

1. Updated specs.

2. No other RGB. The mobo and video card to tend to glow in my face when I go to sleep, but I've never bothered investigating just how RGB they are. So far they're mostly just blinky R.

 

So it seems it shouldn't be idling that high. Though... if you're using task manager, not sure if it reports fractional percentages. I'm on process explorer over here.

No, it shouldn't. My thought was that you might have some kind of whacky thing going on if you had the drive counters going - but you don't have them enabled so that's really out of the window. And it's not like you're running, say, a Core 2 Duo - had to ask because, well, you can't do much with the brain dead, right? But you're running an 9900K. You shouldn't be seeing this kind of usage. And since all you have is the keyboard, CUE might be the best answer for you right now. However, if you could, some logs would be awesome - if you can turn on diagnostic logs for a bit and then post them, that might be helpful. Also, specifically which process you are seeing the usage in - there are several of them - might also help.

1) LOVE the description for the RAM

2) What about other monitoring software?

 

And I don't give passes for certain things.

 

Have you attempted a clean install of ICurse? Revo, while not my preferred option works fine for this. And you will want to confirm there is nothing in %appdata%\Corsair\Cue before you install. And while this shouldn't matter close anything running before the install.

 

That old CM case you have though I have to ask which one? I am thinking about rehabbing my recently retired CM 830 Evo Stacker. Amazingly not only do I still have all the stuff I yanked from it turns out I didn't even lose the BTX stuff for it. Who remembers that? :) Its one of the rare first runs without the tubing cutouts.

 

*Slayer - War Zone for obvious reasons to me*

 

Well... apart from the mainstay Process Explorer, nothing really.

It's a clean install on iCue, seeing as I upgraded to 9900K recently and did a fresh windows install, with a fresh everything else. Do still have my old windows install on the other drive (still have things things to migrate), it's identical there.

 

The case... I don't have the box with me, but I went browsing thru a google image search and I think it's CM HAF 922 (when I said it's old, I meant it). :D

 

And since we're doing this...

*Gloryhammer - Masters of the Galaxy, cuz I didn't get to hear them live, cuz they chickened out cuz of a bit of rain.*

 

No, it shouldn't. My thought was that you might have some kind of whacky thing going on if you had the drive counters going - but you don't have them enabled so that's really out of the window. And it's not like you're running, say, a Core 2 Duo - had to ask because, well, you can't do much with the brain dead, right? But you're running an 9900K. You shouldn't be seeing this kind of usage. And since all you have is the keyboard, CUE might be the best answer for you right now. However, if you could, some logs would be awesome - if you can turn on diagnostic logs for a bit and then post them, that might be helpful. Also, specifically which process you are seeing the usage in - there are several of them - might also help.

 

I'm assuming we're talking about iCue's logging bits. Damn... it's hot today. I'm baking over here, to speak nothing of my GPU idling at 52C.

I'm just gonna put everything here ↓

iCUE logs.zip

 

I'm assuming we're talking about iCue's logging bits. Damn... it's hot today. I'm baking over here, to speak nothing of my GPU idling at 52C.

 

Is that the min temp or are you seeing it spike to 52C?

Spikes in temps are common and normal in the "Lake" series of processors based on the Skylake architecture. They are very spikey by design, both in utilization and in the corresponding temps and the 9900K is even more extreme in that regard. But you should see a spike and then drop back down somewhat close to (internal case) ambient; it shouldn't stay there. If 52C is your minimum temp, then there's an issue and it's not likely going to be iCUE but more to do with airflow and cooling in the case and/or motherboard voltage settings. The GTX 1070 can contribute to this as well - it raises the internal case temp as it dumps waste heat into the case.

Well... apart from the mainstay Process Explorer, nothing really.

It's a clean install on iCue, seeing as I upgraded to 9900K recently and did a fresh windows install, with a fresh everything else. Do still have my old windows install on the other drive (still have things things to migrate), it's identical there.

 

The case... I don't have the box with me, but I went browsing thru a google image search and I think it's CM HAF 922 (when I said it's old, I meant it). :D

 

If everything on the old install is the basically same have you thrown that back in just for kicks to see if you see the same results? One sure fire way to see if the install went bad. You wouldn't believe the hell an install can cause, made a mistake and used the wrong installer once for 10 Ent on my PC and while it recognized the key and activated the, network was absolutely hosed until I reinstalled using my actual copy instead of works by accident.

 

I was eyeballing that case a few years back. Decided to stick with the Stacker 830 a bit longer myself. And now considering putting it all back together and adding it to the walk-in with the rest of the stuff as a file server.

 

As for the temp I am guessing you are referring to the 52° being the GPU which should be fine at that. If you are seeing that on the CPU, sounds about right.

Well, I threw in iCUE before I knew iCUE would cause any issues. Though I don't understand your first paragraph.

 

The temp comment was my attempt at lamenting the weather around here - I was like, wait... why is the GPU idling so high(according to the iCUE log), then I remembered I'm being cooked alive as we speak too (31C in the shade today, and I don't have an AC, blech...).

 

Anyway, actual processor temps are pretty decent, given ambient temperature. And case airflow is quite good. I'm using all fan headers too(I think): 3 chassis fans and 2 processor fans (my cooler is the trusty old Hyper 212 Evo Plus or whatever it was, except the new ram I got was not low-profile and the normal fan got in the way, so I moved it to the back and got a slim noctua for the front, so now I got it in push-pull).

 

Random edit 2: That case is built like a tank. It's practically all metal and weighs accordingly. Has a 140mm in the back and front by the drive bay, and a 200mm on top.

Edited July 9, 2019 by martixy

Ah! I thought you were complaining about idling at 52C. I misread it, apparently. And yeah, higher ambient temps are gonna cause higher component temps.

 

Living in Texas, not having AC is unfathomable to me. However, I do realize in other parts of the country/world where temps are not so frequently close approximations of the deepest depths of Hades, it's not required.

Well, I threw in iCUE before I knew iCUE would cause any issues. Though I don't understand your first paragraph.

 

Random edit 2: That case is built like a tank. It's practically all metal and weighs accordingly. Has a 140mm in the back and front by the drive bay, and a 200mm on top.

 

Thought you said you had another drive that you switched out and did a fresh install on another drive. Was saying to toss the old back in as boot drive and see if the problem happens on that install.

 

You should see how heavy the whole case I mentioned is. IIRC its something like 35lbs of aluminium and some steel mesh. Thinking about putting it on AirBNB and renting it out for the night. And yes, yes that is a Firewire 800 port on the front :P It was/is a good case even if dated.

When I said up top, that "it's identical there", I meant that I had already done what you suggested and the behaviour was identical.

 

In any case, went and downgraded to the old CUE, but now it says "Incompatible firmware".

 

Guess I'm stuck with iCUE, mostly for worse.

 

Nice case tho. Indy could probably survive a nuclear blast in one of these. :P

Guess I'm stuck with iCUE, mostly for worse.

 

Nice case tho. Indy could probably survive a nuclear blast in one of these. :P

 

Until Corsair gets their act together on the software front sad to say, yep, your stuck unless you go a different route. Though I am still at a loss to explain the drawing issues you describe.

 

HAH, never looked at it like that....maybe ill replace the front mesh with a gold statue painted on it :P

I'd say I'm stuck without RGB for now. :)

 

I'd gladly give up all the RBG in the world for a more responsive system.

 

(This is probably heresy on these forums, so keep it on the down-low.)

I have the exact same problem. I have to shut down iCue in order for me to not want to rip my eyes out navigating through explorer. It also murders the 3D viewport performance in Autodesk Inventor and makes it unusable. All the solutions mentioned here have already been tried.

 

Asrock Z390 Phantom Gaming 6

i7-9700k w/H100i Platinum RGB

32 GB @ 3200

RTX 2070

Corsair RM750i

Commander Pro

Strafe RGB

Windows 10 1903 (happened on 1809 as well)

Edited August 2, 2019 by jwalker55

I detect a pattern here.

 

Both of us are on the Asrock Z390 Phantom Gaming 6 MoBo which has... issues with certain drivers.

 

Starting to get the impression this mobo might be a piece of ****.

Interesting. I have a couple spare SSD's laying around and have been contemplating a fresh OS install on one of them just to do some testing. I have been having another issue where I will have a spike in "System Interrupts" caused by something in the networking stack that causes the entire system to freeze. Unplugging the ethernet cable from the NIC immediately brings the system back until it happens again at some random point. Done all the usual SFC stuff, updated BIOS, all driver's, etc. The issue happens with every NIC I've tried in the system across Intel, Broadcom, and Realtek. Maybe this board is just trash. I feel like there is some weird lag in explorer even when iCue isn't running, but when iCue is running, it's horrendous. Edited November 8, 2019 by jwalker55

Interesting. I have a couple spare SSD's laying around and have been contemplating a fresh OS install on one of them just to do some testing. I have been having another issue where I will have a spike in "System Interrupts" caused by something in the networking stack that causes the entire system to freeze. Unplugging the ethernet cable from the NIC immediately brings the system back until it happens again at some random point. Done all the usual SFC stuff, updated BIOS, all driver's, etc. The issue happens with every NIC I've tried in the system across Intel, Broadcom, and Realtek. Maybe this board is just trash. I feel like there is some weird lag in explorer even when iCue isn't running, but when iCue is running, it's horrendous.

 

Hmmmmm.... HMMMM... Initially I classified it as faulty human memory, but I did also get the impression of weird lag in explorer, even without iCue. I can't do a direct comparison between both, but having a second person confirm my vague, subjective feeling independently gives some food for thought.

 

I initially got the board because it had enough Storage I/O for all my drives(I have all ports populated). I have since discovered how disingenuous they were on that point(using the M.2 ports disables sata ports) and am never buying another asrock product ever again.

 

Random note: The technical term for the interrupt spike you mentioned is an "interrupt storm". It is essentially a DoS attack on your processor. I've encountered it before (not on this mobo). Might help with diagnosing/googling if you know the term.

Hmmmmm.... HMMMM... Initially I classified it as faulty human memory, but I did also get the impression of weird lag in explorer, even without iCue. I can't do a direct comparison between both, but having a second person confirm my vague, subjective feeling independently gives some food for thought.

 

I initially got the board because it had enough Storage I/O for all my drives(I have all ports populated). I have since discovered how disingenuous they were on that point(using the M.2 ports disables sata ports) and am never buying another asrock product ever again.

 

Random note: The technical term for the interrupt spike you mentioned is an "interrupt storm". It is essentially a DoS attack on your processor. I've encountered it before (not on this mobo). Might help with diagnosing/googling if you know the term.

 

Yeah, I've done a lot of research on the interrupt issue, down to disabling some things in the NIC driver that were suggested by Intel, but nothing has helped. I work in IT and manage an environment of ~150 PC's, so feel like I have a very good reference point for system performance, and a machine with mostly top-tier specs like mine feels sluggish, worse than my workstation at work.

 

I have the board loaded pretty good - 2 NVMe SSDs, 2 SATA SSD's, dual port NIC, and sound card. I'm going to try stripping it down to just what I need and see if there's a change before trying a fresh OS install.

 

It feels to me like whatever lag iCue is causing is already there, it's just amplified when iCue is running.

First of all, iCue is a massive resource hog. It depends on the Corsair service which itself spawns half a dozen other processes, which constantly consume unnecessary amounts of CPU time.

 

However the bigger problem is iCue seems to interfere in a very odd way with Windows Explorer. Ever since I installed it explorer has been sluggish as heck. It's difficult to describe. It's like the computer is starved of resources and is having a hard time painting explorer windows - components pop up one by one. For example it'll draw the top bar first, then the folder tree to the left, then the main view. It gets worse the more the PC has been on. A restart makes it somewhat bearable. This has been observed across 2 different windows installations.

 

At first I wasn't sure what was causing it, so I began disabling things one by one. The last few of days I've been running without iCue, and it seems the problem has vanished completely. Now all windows explorer windows paint instantaneously. Nothing else on the system has been changed. This leads me to believe it is the culprit.

 

Has anyone else observed similar behaviour?

 

Is there any particular reason downgrading to the old CUE is a worse idea than staying on the bloated piece of crap that iCue seems to be presently?

 

I just have the K70 keyboard. I would gladly give up all the RGB in the world for a more responsive system. I am open to alternatives. The only thing that bugs me right now is giving up the media keys working on non-focused applications.

 

For more then 4 months I also started to notice the strange explorer slowdown and looking for a solution. It's not noticeable/measurable in task manager but everything stutters and looks like your pc is 100% busy on resources and everything you do is so slow I have a Intel 7850H with 32 gigs of ram for over a year and I was beginning to wonder why windows was so slow as my old 7 year old pc 4800MQ 16gig.

But when i run games I see a difference in performance and it runs the games smoothly.

 

Looked everywhere try to disable everything en I think it's the Icue software for me too. Tried almost everything from this site but nothing works. So I think i found it now just not run ICue software. Will report back in a couple of days. And try to recreate the window explorer hickups with screenshots

 

*Update*

I use a clevo PB51-ED with a el HM370 Express Chipset.

Edited July 5, 2020 by fleu
Update pc specs