What's bogging down my PC? constant brief interruptions . .

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hondochica

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I did not know where else to post this question - so I started here cuz it seems like a cpu problem. Please relocate as necessary

I have a HP a4310 desktop; AMD Athlon II X2 250 cpu; 4 GB RAM; Win 7 home premium 64 bit.

If Firefox (latest) has been open for awhile - with lots of Windows, the computer will get slow and choppy. even after I close all but 1 window (1 tab), the computer still seems to be processing alot (orange light blinking wildly) - but task manager only shows Firefox running. But loading a new website will be choppy and very slow. It seems like other stuff is running in the background, but there's nothing there and "processes" only shows Firefox.

What's up with this?? Even now, while typing this, I type but nothing shows for a few seconds then it's all there . . . so I just keep typing waiting for the computer to catch up . . . It's very annoying. Any ideas what's up??

thanks

Kelly
 
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hondochica

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thanks for the tips Mt6Anime - downloaded both - ran both - no change; there wasn't much to clean up. if anything the problem is worse. Now, not only do I have to wait for text to appear, the cursor often turns to the blue circle and the active window is briefly not active while I'm surfing the net - like the cpu(?) went off to do something else, firefox hangs for just a couple seconds.

Kelly
 
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MT6Anime

MT6Anime

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Do you experience these slow downs outside of firefox? Try out Google Chrome and if you have the same issue I would recommend an upgrade or look around for a second opinion. However if Google Chrome runs faster it is most likely to be some plugins and/or extensions you have on your browser.
 
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hondochica

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yep - that looks like it!

it actually sounds like something is constantly writing to the hard drive - it's forever churning and churning - even when I'm just sitting and reading something on the web. I'm not much of a computer techie.

Will try google chrome - I've had this computer a few years now. no new software added in > 1 year - only updates. But I'm thinking this problem has been slowly building - maybe in the last few months. Seems I wrote a note to Lumosity a few months back that one of their games was 'jumpy' - guess it was my computer.

thanks for stickin' with me!

Kelly
 
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hondochica

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WOW!! Chrome is incredibly fast! or I've gotten so used to slowly bogging down in a quagmire I forgot how my computer is supposed to work! I have 3 windows and >10 tabs open and . . . WOW! It's like I have a new machine!

But I'm thinking that Firefox is just as fast in the morning on a clean boot. It slowly starts to bog after many websites and several computer sleep sessions. So this is probably not a fair comparison: Chrome is new and clean!

Any idea why Firefox would bog as the day goes on? I'm not so hip to change anymore - I like what I know and Chrome is already challenging my patience as I can't find what isn't there (e.g. menu bar!) it's hell getting old! :)

Thanks - will check back tomorrow - I'm pooped for the day!

Kelly
 
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MT6Anime

MT6Anime

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Well since we have established that its not a hardware issue I would guess that you must have a lot of addons/toolbars/extensions on your firefox browser. If not then maybe a corrupt install. I would personally keep Chrome but if you really don't like its UI go ahead and uninstall and then re-install firefox and see if that helps.
 
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hondochica

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I was also thinking about doing an 'un' and 're' install of firefox instead of sleeping last night - (not for long!)

I have two extensions running: norton toolbar and ziftr alerts
I have NO add ons
there is a long list of plug ins; but all of them have "ask to activate" default so I'm assuming none of them are running.

hmmmmmm . . . new install probably warranted. will keep trouble-shooting.

thanks so much for your help

Kelly
 
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hondochica

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Hey again! Well - I finally gave Chrome a full test with 3 windows and 15 tabs open - most just sitting and not active - switching between 2 tabs on the same window. The problem is not as bad as Firefox: my typing here is not affected - but I've only been on the computer a couple hours - not like a whole day when this issue popped up w/ firefox; but the problem seems to remain. Websites load slower - I often have to click on something twice to get activity. and my Norton pops up with a 'high cpu usage' warning; more in chrome but also got this in firefox (forgot to mention).

Am I just taxing my cpu beyond it's ability - or might there be something else going on?

Thanks

Kelly
 
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MT6Anime

MT6Anime

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You have a very old and (now)cheap CPU and the problem is not helped by your low amount of RAM. So to answer yes you probably are just pushing your PC a bit to hard. I don't know what you're doing but having that many tabs open shouldn't be necessary. Honestly with the age of your computer I would consider an upgrade at this point. It is well past it's prime at this point. Otherwise just take it easy on your PC and it should last a bit longer.
 
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hondochica

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wow! I thought 4 GB of RAM was "alot" of ram! sighhhhh . . and I certainly didn't consider 4 years to be "old" for a computer . . .

Would it be possible to upgrade the cpu? Guess I'll have to look up the mother board and figure out how many/type of slots I have etc . .

I have ADD - so I tend to have lots of windows/tabs open on my desktop while my mind bounces from one thought to another - I leave websites up and often come back to them later in the day when I realize I"m not doing what I had started to do and got sidetracked . . . (ooh , . look . . a squirrel! . . . or "let's go over here and do this now" ) . . .

Thanks so much for your help! Really appreciate all your time.

Kelly
 
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MT6Anime

MT6Anime

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No problem and your computer was already rather low end four years ago and time did not help that issue. If you need any help with a new build or simply upgrading(I recommend a new build by the way)feel free to message me or post on the forum. There are lots of helpful people on here :)
 
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