Slow computer caused by weak CPU?

This problem is not malware-related. I have AVG and have barely used internet on it.

This computer was my grandmothers and she only used it for writing, a few games and minimal internet browsing. I have, well inherited it now and began updating. it is maybe 6 or 7 years old. Now, some time ago i added 1gb ram and this improved performance somewhat, but for example when i scroll in firefox it lags. During startup the CPU is working at 100%, which it never does on the other computer. Just having firefox active without doing anything in particular takes 40%. For hardware specifics see my signature, computer 2. This problem started after i finished upgrading to SP3 and installed AVG. Can i be 100% that this is related to a weak CPU?

Slow Computer - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/44690/slow-computer/

Slow Computer-browser Check Here First; It May Not Be Malware - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/87058/slow-computerbrowser-check-here-first;-it-may-not-be-malware/

Louis

I have looked through it. Let me put it this way.

During normal operation firefox takes 40-50% of CPU, taskmanager sometimes up to 10% and even the essential windows processes go 0-5%. There is almost nothing at all running or in startup. Even without AVG its slow, and without AVG there really is only one thing running, windows.

If it was other stuff clogging up the other processes wouldnt be using that much CPU would they? This install Of Firefox has not been used more than 12 hours TOTAL. Barely any software has been added or removed since initial purchase.

Well...you have 1.5GB of RAM installed, but 256 of that is assigned to video.

You have a Celeron processor which wasn't known as a burner when it was brand new.

If you take a look at the programs installed and those which run from startup...I'm sure that you'll see more taxing of this particular system.

You have a 40GB hard drive, which may be low on free space...and probably has hibernation and indexing enabled.

You may have set your pagefile to a static size...which, IMO, is inefficient.

I think you are focusing on the wrong things, but I've been wrong before.

Louis

If the computer is that old and has never been defragmented you might want to defragment the drive.

Oh, we are talking about computer no. 2 in my signature btw.

Edit: Isnt having ram assigned to video a good thing?

msconfig tells me that theres like only 10 items in startup, all essential windows components.

hibernation is enabled, will turning of help? how do i check and disable indexing?

I dont think the page file is static. The comp first had 256mb ram, and continously said that the page file was to small and it was expanding it to resolve the problem. How do you check if its static?

Edited by Surma, 10 March 2010 - 04:04 AM.

<<Edit: Isnt having ram assigned to video a good thing?>>

Having system RAM assigned to video is a necesary thing...for those of us who don't feel the need for a physical video card and for whom onboard graphics are deemed sufficient. The amount of RAM assigned to such purpose...never goes above 64GB on any system I have and...if you do some research, you will probably see that a user like me doesn't even need to assign that much for regular video purposes.

And I always have the max RAM installed that my current motherboard supports.

On a system that doesn't necessarily reflect max RAM installed and needs all the resources it can get to do what the user wants done...it's probably smarter to just put a physical video card in (which has its own self-contained RAM).

<<msconfig tells me that theres like only 10 items in startup, all essential windows components.>>

Msconfig is not the tool to use to manage/view startups. A better tool would be Autoruns because it lists every startup item, no matter what the source...but Autoruns can be confusing to some users because it has so much detail.

For those users...I would suggest something like Codestuff Starter - http://www.snapfiles.com/get/Starter.html.

<<hibernation is enabled, will turning of help? how do i check and disable indexing?>>

See #2 and #3 at http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Easy-XP-Tweaks-t2780.html

How do you check if its static?

http://www.theeldergeek.com/physically_set...e_file_size.htm. System Managed Size is what I suggest for most of us...I've played with various settings and I am convinced this yields the best results.

Louis