advice pls- PC "jumpy" & slow, not r

Chippy_Minton

By a process of elimination you should be able to determine whether the slowness is caused by an application/process hogging the CPU or using the Page File excessively.

Reboot your machine, but don't start any applications (close down any if they auto start). Run Task Manager and tick Options - Always on top (in fact it's a good idea to have all 3/4 options ticked). Look at the Processes and Performance tabs to get an idea of the system in an idle state. Click the CPU column twice to sort by descending CPU to see the most active process at the top. Also, click the Page Faults column twice to see the most active PFing process (if Page Faults column isn't shown tick the box in View - Select Columns). Is anything using a lot of CPU or racking up Page Faults?

Keeping Task Manager on top, run your web browser (is it IE or Firefox etc?). Watch the CPU and Page Faults as it starts up and settles down - are there any CPU hogs? Which sites do you have in your web browser? I recently had a slow system caused by the scripts running on ebay.co.uk.

Next start up Word and start typing. Watch Task Manager and look for excessive CPU usage and Page Faults.

How much RAM is in your machine and what is the size of the Page File? Right click My Computer - Properties - General tab gives the RAM. Advanced tab - Performance Settings - Advanced tab - Virtual memory shows the Page File size.

Finally have a look at the Windows XP Optimization guide. The first 4 items in the Step 7 Tweaks section will give noticeable performance improvements (esp. disabling the Indexing Service).

jema_2

thank you guys
here goes
on paging faults-BrmfRsmg=81 wnen opening up IE,
explorer .exe =19
iexplorer .exe flits about below these 2,

when opening up IE sysidle is still top of the cpu with 81%,

i do use ebay alot, deleted their toolbar months ago,

the pc is .1.49 ghz, 256 m
paging file 384

thx

Chippy_Minton

You should have no probs if PFs are that low, I presume you mean %CPU.

BRMFRSMG.EXE is Brother Resource Manager. From http://www.processlibrary.com/directory/files/BRMFRSMG/ :

BRMFRSMG.EXE is a process which is used by the Brother Print Processor (the Brother Print processor is an integral part of most Brother printer drivers). Terminating these processes will cause your PC to not be able to communicate with the Brother device if it is connected via the Parallel, USB. This program is non-essential process to the running of the system, but should not be terminated unless suspected to be causing problems.

Therefore it's worth terminating that process and seeing what effect it has. In Task Manager, select BRMFRSMG.EXE (sort by Image Name if the processes are jumping around) and then click the End Process button and Yes to the warning message.

If this process is the problem, it might just be a case of updating to the latest Brother printer drivers to fix it. If you don't have a Brother printer connected then uninstall the drivers.

Page file is correct size for your amount of RAM.

jema_2

THANKS FOR ALL your help

i've followed all advice, seems to be somewhat better behaved, still a liitle jumpy / time lagged

the CD unit seems to have died completely now ... could this have been something to do with the problems

can get the light on front to activate / or get the cd carrier / draw to open... any advice on what to do , to see if its recoverable

thanks again for all help

jema_2

oops, previous post should say

CANT GET CD TO LIGHT / OPEN!

blinky

Does it appear in device manager ?

Could just be a loose power or IDE cable.

jema_2

hi
no,
disapeared, the dvd still apears, but no cd

ideas pls, it was (cd) playing up intermitantly last week, would apear after re-boot ...some times spit its drwaer out un propmted, recorded some cd's on friday...said it hadnt completed them (dvd drive said it had), then packed up
..been having other problems with the pc...(as above) not sure if connected...any advice welcomed
thx

Myosin

I've tried this step and there's a program called "Explorer.exe" which racks up PF Delta of 14-20. CISVC.exe also pops up now and then with PF of 40. Also VSMON.exe randomly appears with a PF around 30.

I noticed this thread as I'm having similar probs to the OP - I have 256MB RAM on a PIII 800Mhz. It tends to be in Windows Live mail that it doesn't type properly, it turns out jerky. MS Word is fine as is this forum box, but Windows Live emails have a lag of a few secs.

When looking at streaming video the video is also jerky and slow to update.

I take it PF Usage monitor is different, but if this is currently showing 386MB, and I only haev 256MB, is that where the problem lies?

So confused hope you guys can help me too

Chippy_Minton

Wow, this is an old thread...

256MB is a little on the low side for Windows, but it depends on how many processes are running and how much memory they are using.

PF (Page File) is a file on the hard drive which Windows uses as extra 'memory' when there is insufficient RAM for all the processes on the system. PF Usage indicates the amount of data currently stored in this file. Page File size + Physical RAM is the total amount of 'memory' available to Windows.

explorer.exe manages all the other programs in Windows.
cisvc.exe is the Indexing Service. This can be turned off by Start - Run - type services.msc - OK. Double-click Indexing Service and set its startup type to Disabled and click Stop, then OK.
vsmon.exe is part of ZoneAlarm firewall

Adding another 256MB RAM will improve performance, but in the meantime follow Black Viper's guide to see which other services you can safely disable or set to manual. Also, Start - Run - type msconfig - OK and look at Startup tab to see which startup programs could be disabled. Both these steps will free up more RAM and make the computer more responsive.