Understanding Task Manager

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My XP Home computer is very sluggish and I think it is something to do with the CPU Usage.

In Task Manager/Performance it is showing the CPU Usage as 50% even when no Processes are running-the System Idle Process is between 96-99 . I could understand the 50% if some processes were running but they are not!

The Physical Memory is 228848k with 75568k available.

I have a couple of spyware progs and AVG antivirus and when they are doing their daily scan the computer completely locks up.

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Thanks for the advice.

It shows the biggest Mem Usage as svchost,explorer and smc which I would expect. I can understand how the total Mem Usage would therefore give me an 75568k available but I cannot understand how this translates to CPU usage. I have had a look at another XP computer that has all the above processes but the CPU usage is approx 4-9%. Is it becuase there is 242000k available on this machine? If so do I need some more RAM ?

albertross_2

you need 512MB or above for a smooth running XP, if you bought another 256MB from https://www.crucial.com, your PC would run a lot better.

pchelpman

One more thought on Task Manager. It's "OK" but Process Explorer gives more detailed and helpful information. It's available free from this link and is easy to use ...

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html

stevo25

albertross wrote:

you need 512MB or above for a smooth running XP, if you bought another 256MB from https://www.crucial.com, your PC would run a lot better.

this is so true i use 1 gb of ram and mine slows some times remember xp is very memory hungry as are some anti virus programs u made need to turn off the flashy graphic front end on xp too until you increase ram size

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Thanks for the advice.

I have ordered 256MB from Crucial so I hope to see a much better performance.

I will download Process Explorer if I don't get the expected improvement.

pchelpman

I would urge you to d/l Process Explorer anyway ... it's a great little utility.

jasonrat

bit off topic but related to task manager . my red x box in the top corner is no longer there how can i get it back thanks

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pchelpman wrote:

I would urge you to d/l Process Explorer anyway ... it's a great little utility.

I would certainly give it a go if I thought I could understand it.

I am still trying to get my head round the CPU Usage figure in Task Manager-It cannot be made up of the running processes or the memory usage so where does the figure come from?

Would Process Explorer make this clearer to me or confuse me further?

pchelpman

Icon wrote:

I would certainly give it a go if I thought I could understand it.

I assure you it's nothing complex. Download/install the tool and click on procexp.exe. Look at the window it gives you. It's essentially the same as Task Manager but in more detail.

The first time I used it I just played with it for a few minutes to get the hang of it. Much as any new program. You'll get your head round it, I'm sure.

Icon wrote:

I am still trying to get my head round the CPU Usage figure in Task Manager-It cannot be made up of the running processes or the memory usage so where does the figure come from?

Would Process Explorer make this clearer to me or confuse me further?

CPU usage is only an estimate but gives a good indication of what's happening on your machine.

This may help you ...

http://www.tmurgent.com/WhitePapers/TaskManagerWP.htm

I'm not sure Process Explorer would make this any easier but who knows? Give it a try. You've nothing to lose.

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pchelpman wrote:

I assure you it's nothing complex. Download/install the tool and click on procexp.exe. Look at the window it gives you. It's essentially the same as Task Manager but in more detail.

Give it a try. You've nothing to lose.

I got the memory from Crucial this morning. Excellent service as I only ordered it yesterday. I fitted it with no problem although I did have to clean around the slots because they were full of dust from the fan. Task Manager is now showing my Physical Memory as 490992k with 191000k available so it must have been fitted OK. Unfortunately the CPU usage is still showing at 50%!

I downloaded Process Explorer as you advised and low and behold it tells me that 50% of my CPU usage is 'Hardware Interrups'. I have still got to understand TMurgent Technologies paper and what the Hardware Interrups is but maybe I am a little closer to a solution!