Author Topic: CPU usage  (Read 13814 times)

Offline billyfridge

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CPU usage
« on: February 01, 2008, 06:06:15 pm »
My PC has been getting slower and slower these days :(

I have run volume fragmentation but it says 'this volume does not need fragmenting'.
I ran scandisc that was ok.
yesterday i brought taskmaster up, clicked on 'applications' and it was showing 50-60%, and i had only my desktop on. :o
i had a look round and deleted a few programs that i don't use anymore, and then taskmaster was showing 0-5%, ( i can't remember which progs i deleted ::) ) so i was happy then.
this morning i ran taskmaster again whilst running Windows Live Messenger, and it was showing 70-90%, which i think is normal, but, underneath the green wavy line, in performance, was a red wavy line, i have never seen that before........i'm running Windows XP pro
any ideas guys???

Offline Quantum

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Re: CPU usage
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2008, 08:47:53 pm »
Install Ubuntu?

Windows XP gets like that, it degrades over its lifetimes, I tend to re-install it for people and make sure they keep using low resource applications. Like you could use Pidgin instead of Windows Live Messenger, not as many features but a lot less hassle.
Daniel: "This tastes like chicken."
Carter: "So what's wrong with it?"
Daniel: "It's macaroni and cheese."

cissie

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Re: CPU usage
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2008, 12:08:58 am »
Wouldn't it be just better to take some of the windows programmes out.  Ubuntu you can hardly do anything with, so of course it's going to be better.

Offline Quantum

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Re: CPU usage
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2008, 03:17:17 am »
Wouldn't it be just better to take some of the windows programmes out.  Ubuntu you can hardly do anything with, so of course it's going to be better.

Erm, you can do almost everything with Ubuntu, in fact there was an article on Slashdot saying that Ubuntu is more compatible with XP games than Vista is.

It just has way better program management, so things like registry files and start-up systems don't become a real pain.
Daniel: "This tastes like chicken."
Carter: "So what's wrong with it?"
Daniel: "It's macaroni and cheese."

cissie

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Re: CPU usage
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2008, 06:14:28 am »
 [whatever]  If you like it then that's good for you.  Personally wouldn't touch it.  Plus maybe okay if your a gamer,  many of us don't use our pc's for gaming.  :)  Whatever your happy with dude  [LOL!]

Offline Quantum

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Re: CPU usage
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2008, 09:58:06 am »
[whatever]  If you like it then that's good for you.  Personally wouldn't touch it.  Plus maybe okay if your a gamer,  many of us don't use our pc's for gaming.  :)  Whatever your happy with dude  [LOL!]

Well it's good for messaging, office work, e-mailing etc... So I'm a bit lost on what you can't do with it  [tongue]
Daniel: "This tastes like chicken."
Carter: "So what's wrong with it?"
Daniel: "It's macaroni and cheese."

Offline billyfridge

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Re: CPU usage
« Reply #6 on: February 02, 2008, 06:09:55 pm »
Install Ubuntu?

Windows XP gets like that, it degrades over its lifetimes, I tend to re-install it for people and make sure they keep using low resource applications. Like you could use Pidgin instead of Windows Live Messenger, not as many features but a lot less hassle.

Thanx Quantum,
I was advised to uninstall Norton, and install AVG free version, but i liked it, and bought it, bad mistake, the pro version of AVG is almost as big as Norton, but i must admit it does the job. If I was to keep off ...err..certain web sites I prob wouldn't need a large anti virus program.

I will check Ubuto, and Pidgin out.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2008, 06:13:34 pm by billyfridge »

Offline Quantum

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Re: CPU usage
« Reply #7 on: February 02, 2008, 11:47:23 pm »
Install Ubuntu?

Windows XP gets like that, it degrades over its lifetimes, I tend to re-install it for people and make sure they keep using low resource applications. Like you could use Pidgin instead of Windows Live Messenger, not as many features but a lot less hassle.

Thanx Quantum,
I was advised to uninstall Norton, and install AVG free version, but i liked it, and bought it, bad mistake, the pro version of AVG is almost as big as Norton, but i must admit it does the job. If I was to keep off ...err..certain web sites I prob wouldn't need a large anti virus program.

I will check Ubuto, and Pidgin out.

Ubuntu is an entire OS, so it replaces Windows XP entirely, but it's lower resource and has better management. Takes a little to get used to, but I got my Gran using it very effectively in about 5 minutes. There are some limitations as mentioned before, like certain programs just aren't made for it. But for the most part you can get around it, like you can use OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office, it reads and saves the same file types and more, you can use Pidgin instead of Windows Live Messenger, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Google talk etc... etc...

Only hassle is backing up your data and spending a few days full getting used to it and ironing out any kinks.

AVG is better than Norton by a long way, changes are Norton won't be full removed from your computer with just an uninstall. I'm fairly sure there are free legitimate products out there called 'norton cleaner' or something which gets the crap off.

Speaking of which it might be worth downloading ccleaner, it removes temporary files, I'd run its cleaner and registry cleaner. Just make sure to back-up the registry when it asks you, also carefully check through the options in 'Windows' and 'Applications' tabs in the cleaner, I didn't want my Firefox cookies and passwords or my MSN data removed for example. But the rest is usually temp files you don't need.
Daniel: "This tastes like chicken."
Carter: "So what's wrong with it?"
Daniel: "It's macaroni and cheese."

texasboy

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Re: CPU usage
« Reply #8 on: February 04, 2008, 09:02:20 am »
 ;D  Dont forget Billy, and I have posted this many times before. You can delete many GB of space from your PC and help it run much faster. ie. Go to Control Panel, click on systems, click on System Restore. Uncheck the box and hit apply and ok. This will clear up all the old Restore points that your PC has made over the past months. Then reverse the proceedure by clicking again on the box to start system monitoring, click apply and ok.
Do this only if you are happy with the general operation of the PC (besides being slow). You can gain many GB`s,sometimes 10-20 GB.
You might also try -- Start/Run, type in "msconfig" then "ok". click on Selective start. Click on start at the top right hand corner of the window. This will list all your programs that are starting when you boot up. Click disable all. Then check the boxes of the programmes that you want to boot up. Usually it it only necessary to check your firewall and antivirus. MS will add as it goes along. This will help your boot up time. You can change back whenever you want to "normal start up".
Hope this helps
cheers
« Last Edit: February 04, 2008, 09:13:25 am by texasboy »