High CPU usage, hoping to find a way to lower it.

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MrZNF

Honorable
Oct 27, 2013
3
0
10,510
Dear community,

My Eee PC, Asus laptop. With AMD C-30 PROCESSOR 1.20 GHz and 1.00 GB RAM memory running Windows 7 starter is not performing well. It's very slow and freezes on a regular basis. Meaning that I can move my mouse, but I cannot interact with the screen. Also, the computer does not respond anymore to keyboard input. I have found out that if I close the screen and wait for a bit. I can open the screen again and the laptop will function as normal (until it freezes again). Moreover, upon checking the Task Manager and the Resource Monitor and checking some threads on this site about cpu troubles I have found some programs and processes that are using the most cpu;

svchost.exe; I read this has to do with Windows Updater. It rather frequently spikes to 50%+ for me

Chrome.exe; Google Chrome (spikes very frequently 20%+ and for some reason there are usually several chrome.exe running)

Perfmon.exe; The Resource Monitor I used to find out about the values uses about 15 cpu on average.

In general, it seems that any program running uses about 5-10% cpu and I frequently hit 100% cpu which higthens the chances of my computer freezing. I understand that 1GB memory is not a lot, but is there anything that I can do to prevent my computer from freezing? (Other than not running more than 1 program :) )

For your information, I am only using the laptop to browse the internet, skype and listening to music.

My apologies if I am posting this in the wrong (sub)forum, I am new to this forum. Nice to meet you all :)
 
Solution
sincreator
Try using ready boost with a USB drive. It will act as ram, and could benefit greatly on your Eee PC since it only has 1 gb of ram.

Link to what ready boost is, how it works, and some benches: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2163/5

PS: The article I linked is for Vista, but it still applies to windows 7. I used to set up net books for a company, and I found that readyboost works well in lower ram systems. Less than 2gb system ram installed will show the biggest impact. With 2gb of system ram installed, you won't see a difference at all.
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sincreator

sincreator

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May 27, 2009
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Try using ready boost with a USB drive. It will act as ram, and could benefit greatly on your Eee PC since it only has 1 gb of ram.

Link to what ready boost is, how it works, and some benches: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2163/5

PS: The article I linked is for Vista, but it still applies to windows 7. I used to set up net books for a company, and I found that readyboost works well in lower ram systems. Less than 2gb system ram installed will show the biggest impact. With 2gb of system ram installed, you won't see a difference at all.
 
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Solution
M

MrZNF

Honorable
Oct 27, 2013
3
0
10,510


Right, my apologies for not including this in the original post, but this is actually a laptop that I borrowed from a friend for a 6 month stay in China. She wasn't using this laptop and remembered experiencing this problem. With the help of another friend we tried to fix the problem. In the end we reinstalled Windows and it was a completely clean computer. Since then I've been using it for about a month now, installed Skype, GoogleChrome, Some client for my phone, some drivers for my music player and a wifi stick and VLC mediaplayer. However, I am still experiencing slowness and most annoyingly, my computer sometimes freezes, as explained in the previous post.

Funny enough, if this happens while I am skyping, I can continue skyping, though I cannot interact with my PC. If I want to interact again, I need to either reboot or close the screen and wait for 15 seconds for it to go to sleep. Then I can open it again. This process I would like to avoid. If possible, any less slowness is also appreciated of course, but I understand that with one GB of memory I cannot expect a lot :)

Thanks for you suggestions, but sadly, I will not have the oppurtunity to install more RAM, as it is a borrowed computer. I'd be better off, buying a new laptop, but right now it's not necessary. I can live with the current problems I am experiencing, but it would be nice if they were not there ^^
 
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MrZNF

Honorable
Oct 27, 2013
3
0
10,510


Ah, that sounds like a good solution. I had no idea that is possible. Ignore my previous post! I will take a look at this and if I get the chance to get one of these, I will let you all know the result.

In the meantime, if there are any tricks to streamline your pc and cut down on cpu, I'd highly appreciate the information. Thank you all for your help!
 
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dalaran

Distinguished
Jun 7, 2011
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18,710
chrome.exe is opened once for each tab you open, so close tabs you don't need anymore, it should also help a bit

you could also disable windows update, and do it manually once in a while, not really recommended as far as security is concerned but if it's causing performance issues...

Note that svhost can be used for a lot of things and it usually has multiple copies running as well, it's not only used by windows update, if you want to make sure, you can download Process Explorer (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx), in the details for each process, in the Threads tab you can usually see what the svhost.exe process is running.

Also have a look trough your startup configuration, disable anything you dont need (you can do that with msconfig.exe) if you're unsure about some items leave them on, some services are required for normal windows operations so disabling everything is not a good idea, there are usually guides on the net that explain what each service is doing, which ones are mandatory and which ones aren't you could google it if you need to.
 
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Cassey

Honorable
Oct 23, 2013
10
0
10,510
Memory first and foremost, anything under 2GB for Windows 7 is asking for trouble, and I'd recommend at least 4gb. 1GB is the absolute minimum, so don't try and multi-task much. The ReadyBoost should help.

My real add is to check your add-ons. First through Control Panel -> Programs and Features - removing anything not needed. Be very watchful for search tools, webtools, browser bars, shopping tools, "Optimizers", etc.

Next go into Firefox, Chrome, and any other browser you use and check for add-ons. My wife had a problem where Firefox was taking 25% of her system (e.g. An entire cpu at 100%) and we eventually tracked it down to some junk add-on that got installed.
 
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Colt Nrg

Honorable
Oct 21, 2013
19
0
10,510


Hi ,the one problem is that ram get it up to 2 or 4 gigs if you can ,,,,,programs like Chrome and your anti vises program always update and talk to the network, in witch you are using your hard drive ,and if you are running Skype and jamming out all the same time your pc is overworking your I/0 and duping large data chunks to your hard drive in stead of your ram and your hard drive can only handle so much so it asks for more power and drains you pc in places that need the power like your 1 gig ram so it is a never ending thing ,oo and the new web browsers and the net work out in the world is very fast so the older pc have to work over time to keep up in return you slow down ,,,,over bogging you need to up grad you ram is probely $20 to $30 and look up how many gigs it can handle and max it out that should help .
 
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