100% CPU issue on Core 0

[brockwitting]

Hello All,

 

I have been having this super weird issue on 2 different hacintosh's that I have. Both systems have Intel Core2Quad Q6600CPUs.

 

The issue is the strangest thing. If I am playing a 1080p video in VLC, the video will work fine, as long as the process is on ANY core other than the first core (Core 0) As soon as VLC gets pushed to the first core, the CPU usage jumps from the ~30% usage, to 78% usage, and then some other system process fills core0 to max as well, and the video lags. As long as the video is on core0, I have this lag issue. The same with VMWare. As long as the VMWare-vmx process is on core0, VMWare Fusion is TOTALLY unusable. If I open enough other programs, VMware will get bumped to a different CPU core, and work just fine. Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this is happening, or a possible fix? I am fine if I can limit everything to NOT use core 0, but I cant seem to find a way to do that. A real fix or at least an idea of what is wrong would be much better though.

 

Specs:

Snow Leopard running in 64-bit mode

Intel Core2Quad Q6600

Gigabyte P45USB3 motherboard

4Gb ram

BFG 8800gt

 

(note: the other system uses a GA31m S2l board and has the same issue)