CPU usage??

ZrByte · 08-03-2004, 23:42

Im using my laptop now and ive noticed it seems rather slugish, things taking a long time to load, then suddenly loading a large chunk then taking ages again, before finally finishing loading.
Its not as bad when running off mains power but it still seems a little sluggish.

Just to check that everything was working ok I loaded up task manager and took a look at the CPU usage table, I left it running for about 5 mins and these are the reults.....
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/zrbyte/...PU%20usage.JPG

Is that normal? that seems very erratic to me, Please bear in mind I left the laptop Idle while the Usage monitor was running, power management, screensavers etc are disabled so theres no chance they kicked in to cause the spikes in usage.
Running in the background I had 2x IE6 on Nthellworld.co.uk, MSN messanger 6, and assorted other background stuff (Battery monitor etc).

Only noticed this today, only changes I have made t the laptop are...
1.) from windows update I installed my modem Drivers
2.) Also from windows update I installed a processor update for all K7 Cpus (Think this could have something to do with it)

Laptop specs are as follows....
Compaq Presario 2100 Series (2143EA)
AMD Athlon 2500+ XP-M (519mhz when on batteries, 1.8Ghz when on PSU)
512mb DDR RAM
40GB hdd
ATI Radeon 340M

Thats about all thats relevent I think, Just as if you need anymore info.

So my question is.... Does that CPU usage look normal??

Paul K · 08-03-2004, 23:44

In task manager check your processes to see which is hitting the CPU heavily when it occurs.
Could be auto index? Is it turned on?

ZrByte · 09-03-2004, 00:01

Explorer.exe and Csrss.exe seem to be the most cpu intensive, explorer is much heavier than the other.

Indexing services are all disabled, ive always found it made my system run smoother without it.

Paul K · 09-03-2004, 00:15

Csrss.exe is a service for servers, do you need it running? Have you tried closing any un-necesary apps etc and seeing if it occurs with just nominal services and and Explorer running?
Any firewall or anti-virus running?

ZrByte · 09-03-2004, 00:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul

Csrss.exe is a service for servers, do you need it running? Have you tried closing any un-necesary apps etc and seeing if it occurs with just nominal services and and Explorer running?
Any firewall or anti-virus running?

What is CSRSS listed as under services? its not listed under the name of its executable.

No firewall (LAptop connects Via ICS on my gateway machine upstairs so it wasnt nesescary to have it. I have Anit-Virus installed but Auto Protect is disabled.

ZrByte · 09-03-2004, 02:25

Just rolled back the Driver for the processor update I applied last night and now all is well again

It now shows as 1.8Ghz even when removing the psu, I assume this processor update added AMD's equivelent to Intels Speedstep, wich would explain why everything was so slow.
Pitty really, it did make my battery last much longer (Nearly 3 1/4 hours) but it meant that I couldnt watch any Video, and browsing internet was painfully slugglish).

Bifta · 09-03-2004, 09:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZrByte

Just rolled back the Driver for the processor update I applied last night and now all is well again

It now shows as 1.8Ghz even when removing the psu, I assume this processor update added AMD's equivelent to Intels Speedstep, wich would explain why everything was so slow.
Pitty really, it did make my battery last much longer (Nearly 3 1/4 hours) but it meant that I couldnt watch any Video, and browsing internet was painfully slugglish).

If you want to get a little more performance, you could have a look here http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm and disable other services that aren't needed.

Ramrod · 09-03-2004, 09:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bifta

If you want to get a little more performance, you could have a look here http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm and disable other services that aren't needed.

yep, blackviper's got some good info