I just did a quick test, launching Word used 5% of my system resources, but opening a relatively small document briefly required 51%.
Giles, if you would like to get by in American society, then you are going to have to follow our traditions. You're the patriarch. You have to host the festivities, or it's all meaningless.
Buffy ,'Sleeper'
Buffistechnology 2: You Made Her So She Growls?
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dcp - Apr 25, 2005 6:35:45 pm PDT #2599 of 10003
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
Hil R. - Apr 25, 2005 6:35:55 pm PDT #2600 of 10003
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
SailAweigh, I was getting some stuff like that when there was some spyware on my computer. Have you tried running SpyBot and AdAware to see if they catch anything?
dcp - Apr 25, 2005 6:41:56 pm PDT #2601 of 10003
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
The number in the "CPU" column in the "system idle" row is the percentage you have to spare. Higher is better.
Each line in the display that shows a number in the CPU column is a program that is using CPU cycles.
SailAweigh - Apr 25, 2005 6:42:25 pm PDT #2602 of 10003
Nana korobi, ya oki. (Fall down seven times, stand up eight.) ~Yuzuru Hanyu/Japanese proverb
Haven't run AdAware for a week or more. Might have picked something up. I think I'll try that.
SailAweigh - Apr 25, 2005 6:43:06 pm PDT #2603 of 10003
Nana korobi, ya oki. (Fall down seven times, stand up eight.) ~Yuzuru Hanyu/Japanese proverb
"system idle" row is the percentage you have to spare
Then I should have plenty to spare, but it sure doesn't act like it.
ETA: jimi, I use Windows ME.
dcp - Apr 25, 2005 7:01:57 pm PDT #2604 of 10003
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
Windows' "System Performance" figure is based on more than just CPU use, but I don't know the details.
I can help translate some of the "gobbledy-gook" in Process Explorer if you like, but that's probably best done with IM.
SailAweigh - Apr 25, 2005 7:05:42 pm PDT #2605 of 10003
Nana korobi, ya oki. (Fall down seven times, stand up eight.) ~Yuzuru Hanyu/Japanese proverb
dcp, I think I'm too brain dead to talk coherently about this right now. I ran AdAware, there was only 4 files to get rid of (I'd emptied my internet cache earlier to see if that helped.) One interesting thing, you can pull up a view of the "system information." It says I've got a total of 130,256k (128M) of physical memory (which is right), but that only around 3M is actually available. Now, that just does not sound right. But I can't see any processes running that are taking up massive memory!
dcp - Apr 25, 2005 7:12:03 pm PDT #2606 of 10003
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
One other suggestion then, tomorrow you might run "msconfig" and have a look at what programs are being loaded at start-up.
SailAweigh - Apr 25, 2005 7:14:54 pm PDT #2607 of 10003
Nana korobi, ya oki. (Fall down seven times, stand up eight.) ~Yuzuru Hanyu/Japanese proverb
run "msconfig" and have a look at what programs are being loaded at start-up.
I think that's a lot of the problem. I've got a whole handful of things that load in the right hand corner of the taskbar when I start up the computer. I want to get rid of some of them, but I don't know how.
dcp - Apr 25, 2005 7:23:08 pm PDT #2608 of 10003
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
You get there with
Start-->Run
type in
msconfig
click on the "Startup" tab
uncheck the programs you decide you don't want
click OK and re-boot.
Quicken, ZoneAlarm, PGP, McAfee, and FamilyTreeMaker all installed start-up stuff I didn't want, and multiple instances too, which caused resource problems and a few crashes. Took me a while and some tinkering, but I finally got it sorted out.