CPU Usage annoying me

Jamesreeves_2007

Jamesreeves_2007

Member
my cpu usage is all over the place these days and ive seen it at 100% alot these last few days and im worrying that my Processor is going to burn out :( but i cant work out whats causing it...... I have norton 360 installed, could that be it? here are my currently running tasks:

mem.jpg
 
Jamesreeves_2007 said:
my cpu usage is all over the place these days and ive seen it at 100% alot these last few days and im worrying that my Processor is going to burn out :( but i cant work out whats causing it...... I have norton 360 installed, could that be it? here are my currently running tasks:

mem.jpg
Click to expand...

It looks pretty normal for the most part. I have currently 56 processes running and my computer is fine.
Your processor will not burn up from a lot of usage, it is made to work under a heavy stress load. It can burn up if you haven't overclocked it right, or if you didn't apply the thermal correctly, or if you screwed something up with your heatsink. But I doubt you built your computer, right? You won't have trouble with those things on a stock computer.

You should consider getting a new Anti-Virus. Norton is a very big resource hog. I would recommend you getting something like Avast Free Edition (www.avast.com). That is a really good Anti-Virus and is not a resource hog.
Also, Vista does use up resources too, and it too, can also slow your computer down. But if you do a program clean (getting rid of all your programs that you don't use) and change your Anti-Virus, I'll bet you will see a change in speed.
Also, it wouldn't hurt to scan your computer for potential malware, using Malwarebytes. Here is a good scanner that you can use: http://download.cnet.com/3001-8022_...b31ae5ed37111d4e6eb83e5c63af&part=dl-10804572
Any other questions, feel free to post!
 
A couple other thoughts as well. Some sidebar apps are known to cause high cpu-usage at times. It would mean a bit more if you could get the task manager screenshot while it's at high-usage, too.

But yeah, definitely consider switching the antivirus software. It seems like all the subscription ones bog down your machine more than they should. I used to use AVG free edition, but one update a year or so ago cause it to go nuts. Switched to Avast, and couldn't be happier. works like a charm, and doesn't eat my cpu.

Also, have you ever cleaned out your startup items? If not, run 'msconfig' and go to the startup tab. There's probably lots of stuff on there that you don't really need to be running right off the bat. Cleaning that out can do wonders for improving startup speed, and also kill off some unnecessary ram and cpu usage.

Final thought... I'm kinda alarmed by the high memory usage by firefox. either you've got tons of windows open, or firefox uses more memory that I would think it should. I'm running Chrome, and it only uses about 30k, not 130k.
 
Ziel said:
Final thought... I'm kinda alarmed by the high memory usage by firefox. either you've got tons of windows open, or firefox uses more memory that I would think it should. I'm running Chrome, and it only uses about 30k, not 130k.
Click to expand...

Firefox is a big program. But yes, you're right, 130K is a lot for firefox, but it can also have something to do with how many tabs he has open. :)
 
I personally consider Norton just part of the bloat that comes with OEM's:P Firefox is massive, so it doesn't run quite so well on older machines. Granted if you're running Vista, you're computer is good enough to run FF without a hitch. I love Avast!, its kept many a computer running that has no business doing so ( Uncle Ned's online poker/adult viewing PC) You know the type. It never really interferes, and requires no maintenance other than registering. Scanning regularly is of course recommended, but its active scanner is one of the best I've seen. I do beg to differ on its memory consumption however. It's one of the bigger AV's. Due in part to the intense active scanning (Right click on the desktop and you can see the icon spin, checking for malicious software. Needless? Yeah kind of. Thorough? Most definitely.) There is a slight counter to this, in which you can turn off scanners you don't need. If you aren't on a network, you don't need the network scanner running, if you know how to avoid malicious e-mails and such, don't need the e-mail scanner. This makes it quite bearable, especially for the coverage you get.
 
i dont like firefox i use to use it all the time but then google chrome came out and now i use google chome all the time
 
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will uninstall N360 in 2 weeks time and I have now installed Avira AntiVir and I have also used CC Cleaner to clean up my registry and unwanted files, in the middle of a defrag and everything is running smoothly, cheers guys
 
Bodaggit23 said:
I have 50 processes right now and I'm about to go through the "12 Features" tutorial.

I'll post back my results. I've already done the second tutorial.
Click to expand...

I now have 43 processes running after reboot at my desktop.

Here's what I chose to disable from the list above:

Remote Assistance
Internet Printing Client
Windows Meeting Space
Tablet PC Stuff
ReadyBoost
Offline Files
Windows Error Reporting Service


I might not notice a performance increase because of my hardware, but
on a slower system, this makes a huge difference.

Keep in mind that most people I've seen on this forum running Vista have
60+ processes running at startup.

That's crap that doesn't need to be running until you need it.
 
Bodaggit23 said:
I now have 43 processes running after reboot at my desktop.

Here's what I chose to disable from the list above:

Remote Assistance
Internet Printing Client
Windows Meeting Space
Tablet PC Stuff
ReadyBoost
Offline Files
Windows Error Reporting Service


I might not notice a performance increase because of my hardware, but
on a slower system, this makes a huge difference.

Keep in mind that most people I've seen on this forum running Vista have
60+ processes running at startup.

That's crap that doesn't need to be running until you need it.
Click to expand...

Windows seems to be bad for that. Always has been to my knowledge. I have many friends who run 80+ processes. I even had one running 120 or so at idle, using 75% of his ram. There's a lot of truth to the disabling of windows features for a performance increase. Its amazing how many little things that are more or less useless for the average user but take a huge toll on resources, the same applies to those background apps that pile up over time and so on. I do however, think Aero is quite pretty for no effort, and if your hardware can run it, I think its worth the performance hit. If I'm going to spend however much of my time in a day looking at my desktop interface, I want to like the way it looks. Not saying it can't be good without Aero, but its not as easy as checking the box.
 
True. Everything you said.

As I listed above, those are the things I turned off, in Bold.

I like Aero also, so I left it enabled, along with Sidebar, Assorted Interface Beautification Options, Windows Ultimate Extras, and Search Indexing.

I wonder how low I could get it disabling the rest? lol Anyway...

I've gotten my running processes down to 39 by uninstalling NOD32 and
replacing it with Microsoft Security Essentials Beta, and making another
trip through msconfig

In case anyone is lost here, I'm running Vista Ultimate x64
 
Bodaggit23 said:
True. Everything you said.

As I listed above, those are the things I turned off, in Bold.

I like Aero also, so I left it enabled, along with Sidebar, Assorted Interface Beautification Options, Windows Ultimate Extras, and Search Indexing.

I wonder how low I could get it disabling the rest? lol Anyway...

I've gotten my running processes down to 39 by uninstalling NOD32 and
replacing it with Microsoft Security Essentials Beta, and making another
trip through msconfig

In case anyone is lost here, I'm running Vista Ultimate x64
Click to expand...

Yeah I realized that afterwards :o I leave my statement as is then, except in general, not necessarily directed towards yourself or anyone.

39 processes is ridiculously impressive for Vista. I can get my XP down to about 28-29 depending on what I'm doing. If I replaced some programs I'm positive it could be lower to maybe 20-24 but I really don't feel like juggling around my applications, my performance is fine and I'm not running needless processes, so I'm quite happy.
 
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