System rousources low, what the hell

[gravenewworld]

I just noticed recently that my computer has been running very slowly. when I go to the control pannel and open up system then go to the performance tab I see that my system resources are very low at around 34%. I pushed ctrl alt delte and closed all the programs running in the background except explorer and it still says I have only 34% system resources. I have scannned for spyware and viruses and have found nothing. Whenever I try to open up only 1 program, my system resources drop all the way down to 3-5%. What is causing this?

 

[franznietzsche]

Well, for starters, what are your total system resources?

If you have 2Gb of RAM, then something is obviously very wrong. If you only have 128Mb of RAM, then its not a surprise.

Those percentages tell us nothing by themselves.

 

[TsunamiJoe]

34% used up? or only 34% left?

 

[gravenewworld]

34% left
256 MB of RAM

I guess it is time to get a new computer.

 

[dextercioby]

Don't worry about changing it,i got worse.But mine is still alive & well.

Daniel.

 

[franznietzsche]

34% left
256 MB of RAM

I guess it is time to get a new computer.

Or an operating system that isn't so bloated.

But yes, if you're running Windows XP on that, its no surprise at all.

 

[dduardo]

I agree with franznietzsche, those are normal numbers. If you feel that you need more memory just get more RAM. You don't need to throw away the whole pc.

 

[exequor]

why do you need a new computer?

 

[TsunamiJoe]

well here, how about post the specs of your current computer?

 

[gravenewworld]

HP omnibook laptop ( i really hate it)


256 RAM
20 GB HD
Ethernet connection
pentium II
750 mghz

Thats all I really know.

 

[Lyuokdea]

That's maybe a little bit slow for my tastes personally. But, it is definitely not bad, and most of my family runs on much less. It really depends on what you want to do on it. If you want to run XP and do gaming, it's way to slow. If you are surfing the net, writing e-mail and using word, you should be able to use it for another 5 years.

System resources are just a measure of how much of your ram you are using. It doesn't directly correlate to how fast your computer is running. I have a gig of ram, but I could easily go down to 20% system resources when I have 20 tabs open in the browser and a couple word documents and like adobe acrobat or something. However, if I'm not doing anything to any of those programs, they don't need processor time, and my system is still perky.

As a check if your system is much slower than you would like, run your virus scanner and get ad-aware and run it, and get rid of the junk that is probably clogging up both your ram and your procesor time.

~Lyuokdea

 

[gravenewworld]

Thats the thing though. I hit cntrl alt delete and close all programs running in the background except explorer. After I restart my comp and do that i usually have about 86%. If I leave my computer on for a while maybe say 1-2 hr. the resources go all the way down to 25-30% with no programs opened. I am only running windows 98 and I have scanned for viruses and adware and have found nothing yet.

 

[gonpost]

When in doubt, reformat.

 

[TsunamiJoe]

that is honestly odd, and I personaly don't have any educated guess as to what your problem could be, but the only solution is you might just have a lot of stealth spyware that won't show up in boot and won't show up in your task manager(ctrl alt dlt)

but yes, if you don't have anything irreplacable, I would just format your harddisk and reinstall your OS, or perhaps even downgrade to 95 if needed...

 

[franznietzsche]

that is honestly odd, and I personaly don't have any educated guess as to what your problem could be, but the only solution is you might just have a lot of stealth spyware that won't show up in boot and won't show up in your task manager(ctrl alt dlt)

but yes, if you don't have anything irreplacable, I would just format your harddisk and reinstall your OS, or perhaps even downgrade to 95 if needed...

I love how the standard solution to windows problems is to reformat and reinstall. Why? Because nobody, not even MS, knows how to make windows work properly. Sad really.

 

[exequor]

HP omnibook laptop ( i really hate it)


256 RAM
20 GB HD
Ethernet connection
pentium II
750 mghz

Thats all I really know.

Are you selling it, I'll pay $100.

Are the processors in these things upgradable

 

[faust9]

System resources on windows 98 also includes your hard drive into the equation. If you are running low on HD space then the swap file will be doggedly slow on win98 as well. Also, when was the last time you defragged or did a system scan? A lost or missplaced file can do this sort of thing to windows. Do a complete system scan and have windows automatically fix all file fragments(unless you want this process to go on for days or you plan to watch the process to OK each repair). After the system scan defrag your disk.

You might want to set aside 16Mb as well. Search the net for how to do this. You have to add at least one line to your system.ini file to do this.

Good luck and may the force soon be with you(Might I suggest a Linux distro?).

 

[gravenewworld]

in the mean time i won't be selling it, since i don't have enough money to buy another computer yet (I would sell it to you for 100 dollars too). I have plenty of space on my hd, I have only used ~3.0gigs out of 20. I just did a defrag and system scan. right now I am 27% free on system resources with all the programs closed. i guess its just the way my computer is...