Finally resolved this issue (hopefully permanently).
I wrote earlier about this issue where running iTunes consumed an inordinate amount of CPU cycles on my system. This issue pre-dated the iTunes 10.5 release but was certainly exacerbated by it.
Now I have resolved the issue and have iTunes running without my computer cooling fans going crazy. I’m even able to access the iTunes store which I haven’t seen in a LOOOONG time.
The executive summary is that the classic “netsh winsock reset” solution would not work for me because it’s “corrective action” was being overridden. I needed to uninstall Xeno Power Suite and my problems were solved.
Longer version…
I checked out this posting at support.apple.com (iTunes 10.5 for Windows: May see performance issues and blank iTunes Store) which confirmed that the issue stemmed from the existence of a Layered Service Provider (LSP) and how to identify what third party software had inserted this.
In my case the LSP was showing as BFLLR which, after a quick Google search turns out to be a bigfoot product. On my machine (Dell Alienware Area-51 Windows 7 64 Bit) this turned out to have been installed as part of the XENO Power suite which from the looks of my existing configuration, I was using not at all. I did read a review regarding the features of the “Killer Xeno Pro” and I’m sure it’s useful for someone out there (big gamers and torrenters) but I didn’t see that I was getting anything at all from it. Hovering over the system tray for this showed it was “disconnected”. So I downloaded the latest drivers for 64-Bit Windows (in case) performed some network speed tests and then uninstalled the suite.
When the computer came back up the first thing I did was verify network connectivity and speed. If anything, things had improved by a couple of megabits per second (download speed).
Starting iTunes did NOT cause my fans to start ramping up for the first time in ages. Process Explorer showed the Perftune service was back to being the most CPU intensive app on my otherwise idle computer (about 1.3% – anybody know if this is really doing anything for me? The info I’ve read regarding perftune has been really sketchy).
Opening the iTunes Store had me catch my breath as the progress bar paused at its customary point… and then continue on to completion and, amazingly, I have content again!
I’ll be keeping the Xeno drivers in my download folder for a few weeks but I don’t think I’m going to need them. I suspect that if you use them you know already and if you don’t know you need them, you probably don’t.
Posted under General
This post was written by Marc
on November 19, 2011 at 7:46 pm
After we had done a lot of work on our house I thought it might be nice to de-emphasize the litter box and ended up picking up “The Refined Litterbox” from Catsplay.com (they no longer offer this modestly priced alternative). And for the past year and a half it has been great. The cats took to it immediately and all was well.
After hunting around for a while to see what other folks have come up with for similar problems, I came upon 
A nice side-effect is that it seems that the high sides, the effort of climbing out, and the pattern on the lid of the box seem to combine to stop as much litter from making its way out onto the floor too.
