Why does my Computer’s CPU meter show it at 100% when I just simply have Pro Tools open and not playing any audio?
The CPU being at 100% with the mobile Pentium
processor or other Intel processor can be normal. Pro Tools (or the ASIO or Wave driver) does not require nor use 100% of the CPU, but it needs to prevent the CPU from going into low-power reduced-frequency mode so audio problems don’t result.
The mechanism used to achieve this makes it appear as though Pro Tools is using 100% of the CPU on some machines even
though it is not. This activity happens on all PCs running Pro Tools 5.x and some systems under 6.x that have processors capable of low-power reduced-frequency mode. Also the CPU meter in the system usage window in Pro Tools will not reset itself when you close a session. You need to open a new session or open and close Pro Tools to get the meter to reset.
Pro Tools is not using the CPU resources displayed when no session is open.
If you are running Pro Tools 6.X or later on a laptop running Windows, you should see if your laptop is equipped with SpeedStep. If it is, disabling SpeedStep in the BIOS can prevent false CPU usage metering from being displayed. Check your laptops documentation for instructions on how to enter it’s BIOS.
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