Bad Ram or what?

[bwatson283]

My desktop system at my apartment is running real slow at some points. At some points i notice my CPU utilization spikes to 60% and above and stays there for about 30 minutes, then dies down to the 10% range. It will do it under little load (Gtalk,Itunes, and websites). Is my CPU trying to compensate for the ram doing a piss poor job?

What promted me to check the task mgr is that the Itunes songs were skipping, and sounding like crap.

The background programs are Norton, Bullet Proof Spyware, and ZoneAlarm. My Laptop (currently on right now) Runs a ton more backgroud and front end apps, with almost NO issues. See my sig for short version of specs.

I dont do any but really game on my desktop, and my laptop is my "workhorse".

 

[Newf]

Your ram and cpu are fine, otherwise you would be complaining of system crashes or no boot conditions.
This is probably either a software issue, or a bloated windows install.
One thing to check is if you have enough ram. Open Task Manager again and see if your peak commit charge exceeds total physical memory. If so than either get more ram or shut down some tasks.
One other thing to do:
Clean up your windows install. Run msconfig.exe and weed out startup programs you don't need. Then cleanup your hard drive and defrag it. You can use the windows tool for cleanup, but I like this freeware which is more comprehensive;
CCleaner Free utility
http://www.ccleaner.com/
HTH...

 

[Fishy007]

If you're talking about iTunes 7, there are known problems with it skipping and distorting sound.
Even so, spiking to 60% for 30 minutes is weird.

 

[Bobthelost]

It's not XP doing something in the background? I get it slowing up for a while as it indexes my files (i think that's what it's up to).

 

[bwatson283]

Originally posted by: Newf
Your ram and cpu are fine, otherwise you would be complaining of system crashes or no boot conditions.
This is probably either a software issue, or a bloated windows install.
One thing to check is if you have enough ram. Open Task Manager again and see if your peak commit charge exceeds total physical memory. If so than either get more ram or shut down some tasks.
One other thing to do:
Clean up your windows install. Run msconfig.exe and weed out startup programs you don't need. Then cleanup your hard drive and defrag it. You can use the windows tool for cleanup, but I like this freeware which is more comprehensive;
CCleaner Free utility
http://www.ccleaner.com/
HTH...

Bloated install after 2 months?

 

[bwatson283]

bizump

 

[bwatson283]

Originally posted by: Fishy007
If you're talking about iTunes 7, there are known problems with it skipping and distorting sound.
Even so, spiking to 60% for 30 minutes is weird.

Really, thanks for telling me. I will wait and only use itunes some until they patch it.

 

[Fishy007]

When it spikes to high usage, what process is using the CPU power? Post the name here and then someone can tell you if it's at least a legit process or if it's malware.