This has been bugging me since I formatted. After installing iTunes on a completely clean computer, changing tracks is causing odd things to happen.
As you can see from the image there is a small spike in CPU usage and in I/O at each track change, but then there is a huge block of 100% usage and large I/O.
I understand that the small spike is the loading of the track, but why then the huge block which last the same length of time and is the same shape every time?
Another odd thing is that it's not just iTunes that surges, it's "System" too.
(Please ignore the spike in the red box, as this is my antivirus updating.)
Thoughts and help appreciated.
(2.66GHz, 512MB, XP Home SP2)