My laptop has gone on strike - it's either on a go slow or working to rule

[KatyMac]

I have done disk clean up
I analysed the de-frag & it said it wasn't necessary
My virus software (AVG) is up to date

What else can i DO?

[KatyMac]

Aww go on help me

[nannynick]

Mine runs slowly, when it's on battery mode. When plugged in, it works fine.
Temperamental things!

[KatyMac]

Thanks Nick

It's plugged it

It's just so slow

[nannynick]

If running WinXP.
Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up Task Manager
Click on Processes
Click on CPU, twice
The processes will now be listed by how much CPU time they are taking up. Currently on my system MsMpEng.exe is takings lots of processor time... not sure what that is, will Google it.

[nannynick]

MsMpEng.exe is Windows Defender, which is running a background anti-spyware check. So tasks like that can slow down the system on a temporary basis.
Your system may be doing something similar.

[KatyMac]

The highest number is 51

What's yours?

[nannynick]

At times it was 80 or higher. The number really isn't that important, the key is to identify what is causing it... the program name. Google the program name to find out what it is... some are not very clear.

[KatyMac]

No - I don't think that's it Firefox is my highest

[nannynick]

Firefox won't be your problem... I find that's only high CPU usage, when actually performing a page update, it very quickly drops down to low % when not doing much.

In Windows Task Manager, click on Performance.
You will see a CPU Usage History graph, plus other figures for things such as Physical Memory and Kernel Memory.
What figure do you have for Physical Memory Available? (it will constantly change, mine is around 570,000)

[KatyMac]

About 400,000

[nannynick]

So not a lack of memory issue.

Can you describe the symptoms you are getting. What exactly is going slow?

[tissy]

how much RAM does it have? I improved the speed of my PC by removing any programmes that I didn't use regularly. The biggest improvement was from removing Norton effin Antivirus!

[tissy]

ah...

[KatyMac]

I got rid of Norton about 4 weeks ago

Where will I find out about ram

Pages are taking forever to load
Files are taking forever to open (but closing is quick)

[nannynick]

We just did RAM (memory), you have 400,000 kilobytes of RAM available (not being used at present by Windows, Firefox, other things you have running).

[nannynick]

Pages - you mean Mumsnet pages, in Firefox?
Could be down to internet connection speed, webserver traffic.

Try:
START, RUN
type CMD and press Enter
In the windows that opens, at the > cursor, type PING www.mumsnet.com

It will produce results of how long it takes to get to the Mumsnet servers. Mine says:
Approximate Round Trip Times in milli-seconds, average: 18ms

[KatyMac]

Total physical memory 915556 apparently

What does 'Ah....' mean?

[nannynick]

to close that window, type
exit
and press enter

[nannynick]

Sounds like you have plenty of RAM, as long as you are using WinXP and not VISTA.

[KatyMac]

Average 30 ms

[KatyMac]

Oops - I just closed it

[nannynick]

Files - what files are you opening? If you open a MS Word document, MS Word has to open to let you read it, AVG will anit-virus check the file upon loading, this all takes time. Ok, not usually that long, but certainly it can be noticeable.

[nannynick]

30ms sounds respectable.
Are you sure you're not just being picky tonight

[KatyMac]

I am also deleting programmes - anyone know what Gemmaster mystic is?

[KatyMac]

Maybe I am

Do I need this AOL stuff