pc getting old?

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by lodore, Jan 8, 2007.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2006
    Posts:
    9,065
    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
     
  2. WSFuser

    WSFuser Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 7, 2004
    Posts:
    10,639
    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.
     
  3. ThunderZ

    ThunderZ Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 1, 2006
    Posts:
    2,459
    Location:
    North central Ohio, U.S.A.
    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.
     
  4. Escalader

    Escalader Registered Member

    Joined:
    Dec 12, 2005
    Posts:
    3,710
    Location:
    Land of the Mooses
    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?
     
  5. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2006
    Posts:
    9,065
    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
     
  6. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

    Joined:
    May 9, 2005
    Posts:
    10,208
    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
     
  7. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2006
    Posts:
    9,065
    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
     
  8. farmerlee

    farmerlee Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2006
    Posts:
    2,585
    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.
     
  9. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

    Joined:
    May 9, 2005
    Posts:
    10,208
    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
     
  10. ChairmanMeow

    ChairmanMeow Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 3, 2007
    Posts:
    49
    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 kido_O?

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

    lodore Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2006
    Posts:
    9,065
    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
     
  12. Thankful

    Thankful Savings Monitor

    Joined:
    Feb 28, 2005
    Posts:
    6,552
    Location:
    New York City
  13. lucas1985

    lucas1985 Retired Moderator

    Joined:
    Nov 9, 2006
    Posts:
    4,047
    Location:
    France, May 1968
    They are a known source of bloat
     
  14. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2006
    Posts:
    9,065
  15. cthorpe

    cthorpe Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2006
    Posts:
    168
    Location:
    Texas
    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
     
  16. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2006
    Posts:
    9,065
    thats odd that it seems to outperform her laptop.
    this windows installation is 2 years old.
    so that could also partly explain it.
    lodore
     
  17. lucas1985

    lucas1985 Retired Moderator

    Joined:
    Nov 9, 2006
    Posts:
    4,047
    Location:
    France, May 1968
    Link
    lodore, do you need all those HP processes?
     
  18. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2006
    Posts:
    9,065
    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
     
  19. Blackcat

    Blackcat Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 22, 2002
    Posts:
    4,024
    Location:
    Christchurch, UK
    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.
     
  20. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2006
    Posts:
    9,065
    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
     
  21. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

    Joined:
    May 9, 2005
    Posts:
    10,208
    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
     
  22. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2006
    Posts:
    9,065
    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
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2007
  23. WSFuser

    WSFuser Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 7, 2004
    Posts:
    10,639
    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.
     
  24. farmerlee

    farmerlee Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2006
    Posts:
    2,585
    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.
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2007
  25. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2006
    Posts:
    9,065
    i have done service tweaks.
    but i set alg for manual so it starts itself i will change it to disabled tonight.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.