pc getting old?

[lodore]

Hi,
i cant play an online game called runescape without my music skipping quite alot.
i just play the game and at somepoints post here while im doing certain things on the game like cutting trees;D
and ive got wlm open as well.
but 5tabs of firefox and my online game being one of them shouldnt make my music skip.
i know since its an online game it uses around 70-95percent cpu but i cant do much about that.
its been along time since i can do everything without slow down on a pc.
my pc specs are,
3200 AMD socket 754
two 512mb corsair value ram.
ATI 9800 all in wonder graphics (AGP)
its two years old now.
I know sometimes it does skip when kaspersky takes some of the connection to do a incremental update and the game laggs because of the connection is given to kis6.0 for a few secs
it was nice when it was new and i could do practically anything.
when i first got it i opened like 50 IE 6 and only used about half the ram=D
and opened other programs as well.
why does the day always come when you cant do everything you want on your pc?
and then you want a new pc but the last holiday has just gone by.
how does this compare to other people's machines here?

lodore

[WSFuser]

theres two reasons for the slowdown:

1. as times passes, your system (Windows) will accumulate junk and performance will slowdown.

2. when u buy a new computer it feels fast because your previous computer was (likely) slower. And after some time, the speed of your new PC will become "normal". youll adapt to it and no longer consider it to be that great.

*****************************************************************************

as for my computer, its sufficient for my needs but it could use an upgrade for Vista.

later games and programs will only further stress my computer, but i will deal with it when the time comes.

[ThunderZ]

Lodore, what media player do you use? WMP can be very heavy on recources. There are some nice lite alternatives out there. Also adding another 512 of memory would help.

[Escalader]

Lodore:

I recently added 1GB of RAM to my Dell 4700. It has made quite a difference in speed. Delete and uninstall all programs you no longer need.

Another thing and I am sure you do these things already, Run CCleaner daily and a Registry cleanup Optimizer. I use Registry Mechanic 6.

When was the last time you defraged your hard drive?


Just reminders, but these things really do make a difference.

Regards

PS what year is your BIOS at?

[lodore]

i defragged my harddrive yesterday.
i hadnt had diskeeper set and forget on since i done chkdisk abour four days ago.
I cant belive how fragmented it can get just over a few days.
also for the ram I meant two 512mb cosair ram dimms which in total is 1gb sorry for the confusion.
my music player is sony's sonicstage version 4.2.
my music is in atrac3 format since i have a sony mp3 player.
i have yet to find a lighter player that plays atrac format.
lodore

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,
Does not sound like your machine should skip. But it really depends on how you treat it, what you got installed and running and such.
Mrk

[lodore]

well normaly i have firefox running with 5 tabs.
(one of 5 tabs is normaly runescape which makes firefox use up to 30percent cpu even when not logged in but the login screen still in a tab.
btw its a java game.
it can use from 60-95percent of the cpu.
it goes up and down all the time.
sometimes it can stay at like 65 percent but sometimes its going up and down all the time.
sonicstage 4.2.
wlm
and thats it
51 processes at login
55 when the programs above are loaded.
avp.exe twice (kis6.0)
two processes for mcafee site advisor
creative sound card drivers
ati display drivers.
ipoint.exe microsoft mouse driver
itype.exe microsoft keyboard driver.

I will try and think of the rest since im at college i dont have acess to that pc atm.
lodore

[farmerlee]

How much free ram do you have? 55 processes is quite a bit to be running at one time imo. I only have like 24 normally.

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,
Really depends on the system configuration.
Normally, my 'best' system has 44 processes on boot, plus p2p, pg2, and some more hardly takes 280M. Usually, raw Windows on most of my systems runs at about 190M.
Mrk

[ChairmanMeow]

-{ Quote: "2. when u buy a new computer it feels fast because your previous computer was (likely) slower. And after some time, the speed of your new PC will become "normal". youll adapt to it and no longer consider it to be that great." }-
I've just read a review of Vista in a magazine called Personal Computer World here in the UK. It used to be a good magazine years ago but the article seemed to just regurgitate what Microsoft told them. Believe it or not, MS claim that Vista will not slow down over time and it will actually get faster (as it learns which applications you use and preload them into memory). Who are they trying to kid????

I'm sticking with XP Pro for the time being.

[lodore]

that does sound stupid.
i dont think super fletch will be that effective.
i was reading and the home versions can take up to 16gb of ram and business versions can handle 128gb of ram whoa.
i will wait till i get a new pc before getting vista.
i was reading paul thurgoods winsupersite and he said dont use the upgrade versions.
and its best to buy a new pc for vista.
also he said if you cant afford a new pc start a fresh install like normal.
i expect i will install it at college so then i can see if i like it or not.
i keep thinking no i hate it then i think its great. so im not gonna decide intill i try it out.
lodore

[Thankful]

I currently have 16 processes running at startup. A good place for information
on Windows XP processes is http://www.majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=12

[lucas1985]

-{ Quote: "
creative sound card drivers
" }-
They are a known source of bloat

[lodore]

oh i didnt know that.
ive got a screen shot of all the running processes.
tell me what i do and do not need;D
heres the link http://img352.imageshack.us/my.php?image=processesbr7.jpg
it was 230kb so couldnt host it here.
also the winlogin.exe was cut of the screenshot.
lodore

[cthorpe]

Well, I have a Pentium 3 running at 866ghz with 512 of PC100 ram and a 32 mb G-Force 2MX. While I don't play a lot of games on it, and very few new games, it runs fine. The last "big" games that I ran on it successfuly were Morrowind and Neverwinter Nights. I tend to have 35-40 processes running at all times. I tend to do a reformat/reinstall once a year, and through the use of FDISR and Altiris SVS, I keep out the bloat. I swear that my comptuer outperforms my wife's brand new laptop in most respects.

Ct

[lodore]

thats odd that it seems to outperform her laptop.
this windows installation is 2 years old.
so that could also partly explain it.
lodore

[lucas1985]

-{ Quote: "They are a known source of bloat" }-
Link (http://www.ngohq.com/home.php?page=articles&go=page3&arc_id=124)
-{ Quote: "During this test we noticed that X-Fi’s driver is written horribly. Instead of coding a driver, Creative took a lot of code parts and integrated them into a single driver. Therefore, it creates a lot of memory usage and may affect the performance of your computer. When we inserted the CD and launched the installer we saw that Creative is adding so many applications – in my opinion, most of these applications are totally useless and are not suited for an enthusiast or a gamer -- musicians maybe, but that’s too much I guess.
" }-
-{ Quote: "When we choose only the Audio Console and the drivers only – without all the applications that we don’t really need -- the installer still showed that 131MB are required to install it. Why the hell do I need to use 130MB on a small audio console and audio drivers? We have enough free space on our hard disks these days, but still, 131MB for an audio driver only and a small console is way too much. Well, let it be, we installed the drivers and check this out:
" }-
-{ Quote: "X-Fi’s drivers added three new applications in our Startup Folder and from what I saw, one of them is totally useless (Updreg.exe). You think that’s all? Well, think again! Except for these three new executables on the Startup, X-Fi’s drivers added not one, not two or three, but SIX new device level services to our system. Every service is handling a different feature. And now you can see that instead of writing one single driver for all the audio needs (Like Realtek is doing) they are writing many parts and spamming your system with their services/executables. And what does this all mean?
" }-
-{ Quote: "It takes away from your system resources due to unoptimized and unprofessional coding from Creative’s side. The screenshot above just shows the usage of the three executables; we still don’t know how many resources are being used by all six of the services-based device drivers. Creative is trying to aim their products to gamers and enthusiasts, but their driver is simply horribly and unprofessionally coded. Why do we need to lose so many resources – just to run a single audio card? Why? There are many solutions out there with almost the same features that don’t spam our systems with tons of services and crapware/bloatware.
" }-

lodore, do you need all those HP processes?

[lodore]

i dont know.
i turned off the auto update in the control panel but there still seems to be an update module loaded with hp.
lodore

[Blackcat]

-{ Quote: " its been along time since i can do everything without slow down on a pc.
my pc specs are,
3200 AMD socket 754
two 512mb corsair value ram.
ATI 9800 all in wonder graphics (AGP)
its two years old now.
lodore" }-
Maybe time for a reformat. Collect all your Drivers, software downloads and then try a reformat. Put in another 1GB of RAM, use a startup manager and then take an image or a snapshot of your new system. Plenty of life left in this machine.

[lodore]

two GB of ram?
are you sure I need two gb of ram?
i hate reformatting all the backing up and such.
but i also hate all the music skipping.
i can do all the installing myself but hate doing it.
i never mind doing it on other people's systems but hate it on my own system.
i dont know why firefox seems to use alot of cpu during normal browsing.
should i try using opera to see if i get less high cpu usage?
lodore

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,

Like I said, different PCs different numbers.

Example, an AMD64 3,700+:

My AVG takes a total 3,000K, all processes. Your Kaspersky takes 55,000!. My svchosts, a total of 6, take only 22,000K. My alg.exe takes only 216K!!! Firefox with 17 tabs open and 23 extensions only 46,000K. Explorer 22,000K. All Acronis, including scheduler, all together 1,300K. CFT only 552K.

This is after 3 days of running with p2p in background, at 43,000K.

Something really eats your bits there...

Mrk

[lodore]

kaspersky memory usage can be as low as 5mb on this pc but goes up during scans and then back down.
i have found out the music skip problem.
if i have runescape loaded in eiether firefox or opera they both use alot of ram even just at the login screen.
also if i have runescape open it makes the memory usage of firefox.exe or opera.exe over 100mb rather than like 20mb.
so i need to report it to jagex.
i reported the exsesive memory usage to jagex aka the makers of runescape before but they havent fixed it yet.
im gonna post in the forums at runescape.com
to get back normal ram usage i have to close the browser.
opera is the fastest browser by far thou and could be my favorite.
lodore

[WSFuser]

-{ Quote: "oh i didnt know that.
ive got a screen shot of all the running processes.
tell me what i do and do not need;D" }-
id try disabling some of teh following stuff:

itype and ipoint
any Acronis, ATI, Creative, and HP servcies

***********************************

for an alternate media player, u can try media player classic but i dont know about atrac support.

u can also try winamp, i think theres a plugin for atrac support.

[farmerlee]

-{ Quote: "oh i didnt know that.
ive got a screen shot of all the running processes.
tell me what i do and do not need;D
heres the link http://img352.imageshack.us/my.php?image=processesbr7.jpg
it was 230kb so couldnt host it here.
also the winlogin.exe was cut of the screenshot.
lodore" }-
LOL i'm not surprised that your computer is running a little slow with all those processes running. I have no idea what you use your computer for so the best thing to do would be for you to go thru and remove everything that is not needed at startup. For example you are running both windows messenger and msn messenger at the same time.
Also go thru your windows services and disable the ones you do not need, for example you don't need application layer gateway if you don't use the windows firewall.

[lodore]

i have done service tweaks.
but i set alg for manual so it starts itself i will change it to disabled tonight.

[lodore]

-{ Quote: "id try disabling some of teh following stuff:

itype and ipoint
any Acronis, ATI, Creative, and HP servcies

***********************************

for an alternate media player, u can try media player classic but i dont know about atrac support.

u can also try winamp, i think theres a plugin for atrac support." }-

i dont know what out ofd that stuff i need and dont need.
i dont want to disable stuff and then my pc not work.i still dont know how you people get like 30 running processes or below.i
guess i dont need the acronis scheduler and scheduler helper services
do you think they can be disbled in prefrences?
i still have no idea why that nokia data layer process always loads.
any stuff you know i dont need?


for service tweaks i used the elder geek guide.
lodore

[Nick Rhodes]

-{ Quote: "LOL i'm not surprised that your computer is running a little slow with all those processes running. I have no idea what you use your computer for so the best thing to do would be for you to go thru and remove everything that is not needed at startup. For example you are running both windows messenger and msn messenger at the same time.
Also go thru your windows services and disable the ones you do not need, for example you don't need application layer gateway if you don't use the windows firewall." }-

Check that these processes are actually using any cpu time, also unused services wont slow your machine down, , if they dont use any CPU time, they cant slow the cpu down, the memory they used will be paged out to disc - wont affect memory load.
Only thing that will be effected is initial OS/desktop load.

It is worth disabling stuff to check that they are behaving correctly though, but no reason to leave them off (unless they are pointless duplicates :))

[WSFuser]

-{ Quote: "i still dont know how you people get like 30 running processes or below." }-
i dont use as much software as you, im just computer savvy, and i use nlite
-{ Quote: "for service tweaks i used the elder geek guide." }-
i use TweakHound's Securing Windows XP version 2 BETA (http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/security/page_1.htm) (page 3 has teh service tweaking)

[lodore]

i used the link you provided and done those tweaks.
i also disabled the nokia modules since my sister was the one with the nokia phone and she isnt here and hardly ever uses it.
I also disabled the acronis scheduler 2 service and the scheduler helper service.
now im down to 45 processes at boottime and 50 when using the pc with sonicstage msn and 47 when using all the programs i always use.
still could be less but its an improvement for now.
how come windows messenger process loads up when i load up msn messenger?
how do i stop that?
i had to stop the process manually since i didnt need it running.
ive got a new screenshot.
http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=processesoi2.jpg
seem processes was spelt wrong but oh well lol.
lodore