Simplify your laptop buying
Windows XP: High CPU usage...
Memory
by harryo555 - 3/25/05 8:28 AM In reply to: Go back???? NEVER by mcgilbddWhen upgrading memory make sure its matched by Manuf. size,and MGHtz. A lot of motherboards wont let you add a 512 with a 256, check your manual for right configuration and type for your motherboard.
Going Back to '98
by RDexter - 3/25/05 1:48 PM In reply to: thanks all of you! by jagwarNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
Try this first BEFORE spending any money.
by timandlorene - 3/25/05 8:40 AM In reply to: High CPU usage... by jagwarAll the nice folks who answered you have a valid point. Nothing speeds up a computer like memory, chipsets, motherboards, etc. But this is the way to get the most out of what you have today. Go to Intel's website and download two small programs. The chipset indentification utility tells you EXACTLY what you have, and the Application Accelerator increases your CPU's effective speed. There is also a Graphics Accelerator, if you want to give it a try. I did. It raised my CPU from 2.4 to 2.78 effective. Worked for me. ---Tim--
http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/inf/sb/CS-009266.htm
Chipsets
by mwkendall1 - 3/29/05 10:41 AM In reply to: Try this first BEFORE spending any money. by timandloreneI am interested in getting the most out of my machine too, when I ran the utility it gave me Intel(R) 115 G/P express chipset family, along with memory and I/O controllers.
I am running a Medion Composer 5100 3ghz W RAID
XP home Edition SP2.
under My Computer - System Properties, it shows as follows:Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHZ
2.99 GHZ, 512 MB of Ram
Under Device manager it shows Computer - ACPI Multiprocessor PC.
Under Processors it shows 2 lines each with
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Does this mean that I actually have 2 P4 processor chips? (Didn't know that it had 2 processors) If so I assume I would need to tweak each of them seperately?
What else might I need to know before making any adjustments?
Intel 915 G/P express chipset
by mwkendall1 - 3/29/05 1:31 PM In reply to: Chipsets by mwkendall1My mistake, it is an Intel 915 G/P Express Chipset Family
Hyper Threading
by bhodges00 - 7/13/05 3:39 PM In reply to: Chipsets by mwkendall1No you don't have two processors, it says your computer has two cpu because you have Hyper Threading enable.
Split your pagefile
by crossan007 - 3/26/05 9:09 AM In reply to: High CPU usage... by jagwarif you split your pagefile between 2 hard drives, it can lead to a big preformance increase
http://www.tweakxp.com/article139929.aspx
read there for more info
Charles
your pc upgrade
by rocky220 - 3/26/05 8:54 PM In reply to: High CPU usage... by jagwarwell the first thing would be upgrade your ram to 512k.
second make sure your hard-drive is defraged.
third insure you have the latest drivers for your video card and chipset.
drivers??
by Miss Clarke - 3/28/05 2:10 AM In reply to: your pc upgrade by rocky220I've got a 521 ram...recently defraged my hard-drive. That leaves me to drivers...Is there any easy way to check if I have the latest drivers installed? How should I find the updates??
Thanks!
Mara
I don't update drivers unless I have a real need
by glb613 - 3/28/05 2:52 AM In reply to: drivers?? by Miss ClarkeI use to update everything all of the time just for the sake of updating. After I had problems with driver conflicts that left my computer unusable, I decided to leave well enough alone. I do update drivers when it is required. A new game or other program is a good reason. But as long as my computer is running OK, I don't fiddle with it like I use to do.
I run the same machine
by cayble - 3/26/05 9:29 PM In reply to: High CPU usage... by jagwarMy desktop has basicly the same specs right down the line, although you do not say what OS you use. I use XP on mine. I actually have no significant problem with almost any game these days. I recently upgraded from 256mb of ram to 512 and that seemed to free up the stickyness I was getting in a couple different games a few weeks back. As has been mentioned, always keep the drivers for your video card updated, they can be found at the Nvidia website. And has also been mentioned, defragging is very important. If you want the smoothest performance in your gameing, particularly as you are running an older machine, it can sometimes help to uninstall your games that are concerning you, defrag and then do a fresh install of the games. Make sure you have no disk errors, run your diskcheck utility and even a cleaning out of the registry by a reliable utility can clean up a bit of intense processor work overall. And make sure your machine is of course spyware/virus free. As I have said, I can run most of the newest games with moderate to low graphic settings in the game options without getting any noticable hang up after I put in the extra ram. Like it or not, both of us should be looking for a new video card in the near future as the 64mb cards days are comeing to an end. If you do decide to go for a new card do yourself a favour and go for a decent 256mb card as in about 18-24 months the 128mb cards will be almost as bad off as the 64 mb cards are now.
best advice
by stanpixel - 3/27/05 7:03 PM In reply to: I run the same machine by caybleIn response to Jagwar's original problem, which I believe is what this thread was supposed to be about 
, there have been many excellent suggestions, but I believe cayble' s post is the best advice for his particular setup. Updating drivers and defragging HDD's cost nothing but time and, hopefully, there are a few hours a week when the computer is not being used that this can be done. Contrary to what some say, experience tells us defragging can be very helpful, especially on older systems, and I doubt seriously that he has multiple 7200 rpm or faster drives with 8MB(much less 16) cache and since he's not running Linux, that's pretty much a moot point. So do your defrag and driver updates for free, when you have some money, buy RAM first(as my wife says about closet space "you can never have enough"), then when you have some more money, buy a bigger, better, graphics card.
OR ask Santa for a brand new high performance gaming machine! Best of Luck!
Thanks, update and more info...
by jagwar - 3/28/05 10:08 PM In reply to: High CPU usage... by jagwarwow! too much to read, too much to learn, too much to improve... Great!
THANKS, THANKS, THANKS a lot for reading, for the advices, for the help! really thanks!
Already got rid of anything fancy about XP, did the defrag, ran all antispyware I got recommended, updated everything and even cleaned up the dust from inside the cpu.
...just a minor improvement on the performance, so I'll guess the RAM is a must.
It's PC 133 ram, afaik is not the cheapest ones, but I'll do some overwork for the extra money :P
...now I'm only scared about EZRIDER's post... I'm also running a Compaq presario, and I also have games that run better in what I understand are lower performance PC's... and he already has more ram and still has the same problem (???).
If this info is anything valuable, I've had 2 "major" problems with this PC:
1) The main fan had to be changed because it stopped working just a couple of months after buying it. (It didn't start working until I "push" it a little bit, then it worked properly). It was fixed.
2) For over a year, whenever I turned on the pc, I got the "high cpu usage" problem before I even started any program. On the task manager I had 2 "cpu idle" process's running -one in spanish, that was the real one (I'm from Mexico); and one in english which was at 99% but actually using memory (not "idle" at all)... I always shut that "cpu idle" process down first thing after starting windows and then it worked good enough (until I started a program like a game)
After formating the C drive about a month ago, I only have 1 "cpu idle" and it works fine.
I'm a graphic designer, so I always use photoshop a lot and never gives me any problem... is just those bloody 3d games that gets me on my nerves!
Thanks a lot for all your support!!!
Dont bother posting about...
by Aaron_ae86 - 3/29/05 11:00 AM In reply to: Thanks, update and more info... by jagwarDon’t bother posting about anything remotely technical though, nobody responds. If somebody does than its probably something totally stupid. Your problem was fairly simple.
SImilar problem
by Eastern.sun.4ever - 6/22/07 12:13 PM In reply to: High CPU usage... by jagwarThis is similar to my problem. But it also occurs when i stream videos like the ones from YOUTUBE. I dont get it. My machine is a
dell 5100 inspiron,
2.7ghz,
intel p4,
winxp pro sp2,
upgraded to 1gb ram,
ati radeon mobility 7500 32mb,
10gb free space(from 30gb)
..... as far as i know it is pretty clean. i have a decent dsl connection.I defragmented the drive maybe 3 weeks ago.`but this problem has been occuring even after my upgrade from 256mb ram to 1gb...any suggestions?
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