How to get my computer to run on CPU more, less on RAM

[Scott Shepherd]

I'm running XP Home, 3GB of RAM and I'm having more and more issues where I see programs just crawling. Go to the task bar and I can watch the memory usage. It will climb all the way up to the 700,000kb range while the CPU usage stays at 2 or so. Seems to me like the CPU should be rolling, calling on the memory when it needs it, but to me, it looks like the system is running almost entirely on the memory.

Do I have something set wrong or can I change that somewhere. No matter what I do, I can't get the CPU to really "go to work". It seems like it likes to shift ALL the work to the RAM, which causes for some serious slow downs.

Any suggestions?

[Steve knight]

sounds like it is time to wipe the system and start again. this is just something that happens with xp. though if you don't change anything it takes longer.

[Michael James]

Besides get a MAC? no... just kidding. Im so up to my eyeballs in software I can't afford to switch over.

[Leo Graywacz]

RAM get used by programs. When you load a program into the system it allocates a certain amount of memory for that program. Some programs are relatively static on there memory usage and others are quite variable. The amount of memory being used has nothing to do with the percentage of the CPU usage. When you are doing something with the computer the CPU usage will go up and most of the times the memory usage will too. As the program finishes up with whatever it is trying to accomplish the CPU and memory usage will go down again.

Check to see if you have any malware. I recommend the program Malwarebytes (http://Malwarebytes.org). Make sure to update it before each use.

[Steve knight]

I have had to wipe out my mac before. though I found making a new account was easier.

[Scott Shepherd]

I'd love to have a Mac, but unfortunately, this is a work computer that runs a variety of pieces of equipment, none of which have MAC drivers. I refuse to get a Mac and then have to load windows on it just to make that entire setup work. To me, it defeats the purpose to buy a mac, then load windows on it.

I'm close to being forced to get a new computer, so this computer will end up repurposed to run a piece of equipment somewhere around here. I just feel like my CPU doesn't do anything, while my poor RAM is working so hard :) It's not fair, I tell you, not fair. I've got the RAM filing grievances against the CPU, the CPU maintaining it has seniority, and don't even get me started on those USB guys......

I was thinking my virtual memory size might be set completely wrong, it's got 3069 MB allocated currently (which is less than what's recommended by the system).

No malware here. The computer is squeaky clean in all those aspects. I'm familiar with malwarebytes and all the other stuff out there. This computer is pretty protected and I practice very safe browsing with it. Email is scanned at the server level, then once again before getting to my email, so I'm pretty good on that end.

[paul cottingham]

Look. if you are using a lot of RAM, but very little cpu, this is normal. Everything in the computer must run in Ram, the cpu can only execute something loaded into memory. virtual memory is hard drive space that applications that aren't in the forefront (ie, they aren't being used) are swapped into. Anything in virtual mem. is not running, but kind of in limbo. So memory is where most bottlenecks are on computers.
Cpu usage is minimal even on a sever, because it does everything so fast. Find an msconfig style app for xp and make sure that there is nothing odd loading. Check for viruses, using a good antivirus (ie not avg), and run spybot. I'll bet things get better.

There is a chance, if you are like me and install and uninstall a lot of apps that you registry is corrupted. Really the best way to fix that is an fdisk, format, and reinstall.

[Bill Huber]

Have you looked to see what is using the memory in Task Manager?

On the processes table you can sort the list by memory just by clicking on memory, this will show you what is being used and by what. The you can look at the larger items. If you don't know what they are just do a Google search on it and in most cases it will tell you what it is.

You can also do a Start - run - msconfig and look on the start up tab to see what is starting. Again if you don't know what it is do a Google search and find it.

Uncheck anything you don't need, then reboot.

[Rick Davidson]

I run Windows7 and had the same issues. I dumped everything reformatted and it runs great now. I have to do this probably once a year other wise the computer starts running so slow I want to scream. Just reformat it you will be glad you did.

[Rick Gibson]

First windows xp will normally only use 2Gb of memory. Some programs will use more if they are flagged on startup.

XP will often slow down over time for a few reasons. The registry gets bloated with invalid entries, spyware, malware or virus's on the computer. Applications running in the background that do not need to be running.

Easy Cleaner by Toni Arts is free software that will clean up the registry and also let you check programs that start when you boot your computer and remove unneeded programs. I have used it for several years on 3 systems without any problems. The registry cleaner section flags invalid entries and lets your remove some or all. I have never had a problem just letting it remove all. The startup section will list the programs that start when you turn your computer on. If you don't know what a program is a google search will usually tell you and then you can decide to remove it or not. Some examples Epson wants to load printer software when I start my computer. I don't use my printer much so it does not need to be running all the time. The same with Microsoft Office or Open Office. Stuff I only use occasionally so it does not need to be running in the background all the time. It only means a few seconds longer the first time you use it that day.

Spybot search and destroy does a pretty good job of removing spyware and malware it can also prevent a lot of it from getting installed in the first place.

Startup monitor by Mike Lin will monitor your system and notify you if something you are installing is trying to put itself in the startup file. I always say no. It just means that whatever you are installing may take a second or 2 longer to start the first time that day.

There is also microsoft security essentials which from reports I have it does a pretty good job of virus and malware prevention.

All of the above are free and available for download just do a google search. Some ask for donations but that is up to you.

Hope this helps you get that system running better.

[Dan Hintz]

My XP machines are usually in the 800MB of RAM usage range... my work machine right now is using over 1GB, but that's because I'm stuck using Lotus notes, which is a memory hog, along with some corporate anti-viral software and other various scripting crap.

[Scott Shepherd]

Let me clarify this, as the direction seems to be that I'm all bloated by stuff. That's not the case and this isn't a problem that occurs when I try to open my mail, or something like that. I'm using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, both dealing with larger files. Not huge, but large. I'm not all maxed out with garbage running. This computer stays pretty clean, as it's my primary work computer and it's treated accordingly. I don't download and install software on a weekly or even monthly basis. It's used to produce graphics and files to do my job. It's at the bottom end of what was acceptable to run those software packages and I'm heading towards an upgrade shortly, but in the meantime, I was hoping I could figure out a way to make it go faster and in watching the way it works, it sure seems to slam the RAM and the CPU almost never works over a couple of percent, which may be normal, but doesn't seem normal to me.

If it's not Illustrator or Photoshop, then it works just fine, and both of those work, they just drag on opening like crazy. Once open, they respond decent. Not exceptional, but decent and I attribute that to the computer's overall specifications being at the bottom end of what's recommended to run them.

[Dan Hintz]

Steve,

The two programs you mentioned are memory bandwidth hogs... unless you're actively running filters (like Gaussian Blur), the CPU will be used very little (a few percent, as you've seen). With 3 Gigs of memory, you're pretty much right next to the usable memory space limit for a 32-bit OS, so more memory won't help. The only possible way you have to get more speed out of the system is to max out your memory access speed (i.e., faster RAM), and you'd probably be better off purchasing a more modern system that can handle faster memory. You can overclock the memory bus, but then you run into potential issues with stability.

[Lee Ludden]

Photoshop is a memory pig. Uncompressed TIFF images can be huge and there is a much larger footprint for editing than viewing. Programs like that are some of the few that can perform significantly better on 64 bit systems with more ram (I have 12gb on my workstation).

[Scott Shepherd]

Yeah, that's kinda what I thought. We are due for an upgrade, but that poses more problems than I currently want to address, but I guess i'll have to deal with it. I have some old software I use to create some products and there is no work around for not using it. I had a heck of a time getting it installed and running in XP so I'm positive it won't run on a 64-bit processor, so that, and several other programs are causing me some major upgrade heartburn that I haven't figured out a work around for yet. Upgrading at home is one thing, upgrading in a small business is another. You start upgrading and next thing you know, you have to update every computer you own and every piece of software you own, especially since it's all going 64-bit.

[Steven Hardy]

Let me clarify this, as the direction seems to be that I'm all bloated by stuff. That's not the case and this isn't a problem that occurs when I try to open my mail, or something like that. I'm using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, both dealing with larger files. Not huge, but large. I'm not all maxed out with garbage running. This computer stays pretty clean, as it's my primary work computer and it's treated accordingly. I don't download and install software on a weekly or even monthly basis. It's used to produce graphics and files to do my job. It's at the bottom end of what was acceptable to run those software packages and I'm heading towards an upgrade shortly, but in the meantime, I was hoping I could figure out a way to make it go faster and in watching the way it works, it sure seems to slam the RAM and the CPU almost never works over a couple of percent, which may be normal, but doesn't seem normal to me.

If it's not Illustrator or Photoshop, then it works just fine, and both of those work, they just drag on opening like crazy. Once open, they respond decent. Not exceptional, but decent and I attribute that to the computer's overall specifications being at the bottom end of what's recommended to run them.

The bolded comment tells me that you need to do a disk defrag after doing a disk cleanup.
in general...(to be more specific..i would need an xp system handy)
a go to add /remove programs and deinstall anything you declare unwanted.
b go to windows explorer/properties and initiate a "disk cleanup"
c go to admin tools and run "disk defragment on the drive in question.
d after this is accomplished...you should increase the size of your swap file.....how large needs to be weighed against available disk space
6 gig is optimum...but may be overkill

[paul cottingham]

If I remember correctly, the accepted best practice is to hard code the swap file to twice the installed ram. Set the swap file min and max to that value. That will lessen disk thrashing.

Some motherboards have really slow or poor ram buses, this too will make memory pigs open slowly.

[John M Wilson]

it sure seems to slam the RAM and the CPU almost never works over a couple of percent, which may be normal, but doesn't seem normal to me.

I think the problem may be in the way that you are looking at the RAM vs the CPU: these are not similar, and are not in competition with each other to see who can work the most / least.

This is a poor analogy, but it may be helpful: you are thinking of the CPU as the brain, which is fairly accurate, but think of the RAM as a workspace -- a place to get things done. You have a lot of RAM, and your computer is correctly using that workspace to get things done as quickly as possible -- meaning that the CPU is not working that hard. This is exactly what you would want to have happen. Instead of comparing the RAM to the brain as you do the CPU, think of it as the size of the monitor you are using. When you went from a 15" monitor to a 19" monitor, you thought it normal when the computer used all of it. RAM is the same -- the computer will use as much as possible to prevent spooling to the disk, which is vastly slower. So, unless you are running out of RAM, and spooling to virtual memory on the disk, your RAM is not "slammed" -- it is being used to run all of your programs efficiently.

[Don Alexander]

how many Office docs are stored on your desktop ? this is also a memory pig and an accumulative one at that
if you use Outlook for email when is the last time you cleaned out the inbox and all associated folders? another memory pig that often gets overlooked

+1 for checking the to see what exactly is running constantly you might find that you have previously unheard of apps running in the background eating up the resources and slowing you up
things like Spybot and some versions of Norton antivirus are notorious for slowing computers to a crawl (there are many others that do too )

lots of stuff saved to the desktop, toolbars , screensavers , cute little animated apps etc. all contribute to lousy performance

check to see how much free space is on your harddrive ........ if its less than 30% that is not good , performance starts dropping off rapidly from that point on if it gets too full you can't even defrag it also the builtin defragger in XP is better than nothing but not very good check into Diskkeeper, much better than the default; empty the temp files in your browser , delete the cookies also , increase the swap file space to max (only will help if the HD isn't overstuffed)

thats a few of the ways to help XP's performance shortof reimaging, though that might be necessary as well

HTH

[Scott Shepherd]

I guess my reasoning came from an experiment I did. I had Illustrator really hung up and not acting well. I went to the task manager and set the priority to "real time". At that time, it zipped through, my memory usage dropped and my CPU started working harder. I've used that technique a few times and it's always cleared the log jam right up.

Probably not the right thing to do, but it worked :)

I use Eset for security and it's about the least intrusive as anything I have seen.

I have done the disk cleanup and the defrag. I do both about once a month, or any time I have a lot of activity on the disk, like moving files, or deleting stuff.

One thing I probably do need to look at is I have developed a habit of saving stuff on my desktop. Not everyday stuff, but when I get something out of the ordinary and I'm in a hurry, I will just save it to the desktop so I don't have to dig through my network to get to the file. My intention is to always come back and delete the file, but I have a habit of not doing that as much as I should. I'll have to clean that up and see if it helps.

I don't use Outlook, or any MS products that I can think of. I don't have any of them installed.

[Tom Esh]

...I went to the task manager and set the priority to "real time". At that time, it zipped through, my memory usage dropped and my CPU started working harder. I've used that technique a few times and it's always cleared the log jam right up.

Probably not the right thing to do, but it worked :)


I guess if it works ...but it's sorta like killing flies with a sledghammer, and it may actually make things worse. Setting it to High would accomplish the same thing without the risks. When you set a process priority to realtime it can compete with ring0 stuff (drivers, OS kernel, disk ops) for CPU cycles, but that's worst case. Typically process priorities will have no noticable effect on GUI apps until CPU load approaches 100%. Also FWIW GUI (visible window) app threads are subject to additional priority "bumping" based on their state:
Z-order (top vs bottom of a stack of windows)
Focus (highlighted titlebar)
Visible (vs minimized or hidden)
Basically the Windows OS does a really (really) good job of CPU scheduling by itself. It's not like you're likely to hose anything by mucking with priorities, but if the mouse becomes sluggish or disk writes take forever, you'll know why.:)

[Jim Becker]

When is the last time you did a deep defragmentation/sort of the hard-drive? (using free third party software...the Windows defrag doesn't go far enough) I was having major "crawling" issues with my work machine and a deep defragmentation of the drive combined with using a registry cleaner (cc) made it into practically a new machine. (XP on that particular computer, too) The defrag should be done with the paging file removed, too. The reason this is therapeutic is because a badly fragmented hard drive causes the drive heads to be bouncing around constantly, even for just normal "idle" tasks. The computer becomes a major pig as a result. Doing this operation could very well save you from wiping and reloading everything, too.