Still having CPU usage problems on the 6400:

The problems for me with this laptop never seem to end.

I have just spent the afternoon wiping my hard drive clean and doing a fresh install of Vista. For some reason, my CPU manages to get up to 100% with one or two windows open, stays there and then freezes the whole system up.

In the task mgr, there are multiple culprits whose usages are jumping all over the place (allof the seem to be svchosts?).

I would take a screen shot, but i LITERALLY can barely get the computer to open the task mgr, let alone take a screen shot and then post it here.

Is it possible that populating iTunes with a couple of thousand songs (along with the artwork and gapless info that itunes goes through) could freeze up the computer multiple times?

Im using 4gb of ram on a 9400 duo chip and I cannot get over how slow this system is. Should I consider 6 gigs?

PLEASE HELP-this laptops killing me.

 

Run Ad-aware or Spybot or some anti-spyware program, somehow.

 

Try doing another clean reinstallation and then see if the computer runs OK without any applications. Then install your software packages one at a time and check after each one. First you could try to run msconfig and disable as much as you can from starting automatically.

I've never tried iTunes but Apple might be happy if it cripples a normal PC so that users then go round to the Apple shop.

6GB RAM is not a solution for some application that is hogging the resources.

John

 

I doubt reinstalling AGAIN is going to help anything!

i would suggest calling Dell and having them replace the motherboard cpu.

4gb of ram and a T9400 proc should NOT be doing that. PERIOD.

 

Did you install the Intel Matrix 8.2 software Yet?

 

To help quickly narrow down and pinpoint the source of the issue:

1. In the start menu search box type msconfig.exe (or type System Configuration) and select the program icon once displayed.

2. In system configuration go to the 4th tab - Startup, and select Disable All.

3. Restart the system.

4. Verify if the system is now stable and functionining as expected.

5. Go back to the Startup tab in System configuration and check ON a few programs (3-4) at a time and restart.

6. Verify if the system remains stable.

A. If yes, go back to step 5 and check ON a few more startup programs and restart the system.

B. If not, then go back to the startup programs you just enabled before the last restart and disable all (3-4 checkboxes) except leave one enable at a time to determine which of that set is the source of the issue.

Good luck.

 

No-what is it?

Thansk for this-will try.

 

I think I found the culprit: Symantec.
Im not sure why or how, but it was killing my CPU.
Tried uninstalling and installing a couple of times just to make sure it was installed properly-still the same problems.

Im going to run my laptop for a couple of days w/o Symantec (carefully) and see if that changes anthing.

Mind you, I run the bare bones minimum of Symantec Corporate and its gui and "smc" were still eating my CPU alive.

 

Glad you were able to track it down. Good for you.
It's not too dificult when you use the right tools and certainly more painless than reinstalling the OS.

We exiled everything Symantec here years ago.
Switched to Eset Nod32 since then and it's been great. Very light, efficient and effective. You don't even know it's there. The way it should be.

At least now you can go back to enjoying your notebook

 

I hope so...there was one other "svchost" that was taking up a huge amount of my cpu as well-hopefully that was related to the Symantec issue.
Im going to run this for a couple of days and see what happens.
Thanks for the help.