INTEL CELERON CPU 2.53GHZ Really that slow?

[MrOsonice]

Hi, I've got an INTEL CELERON CPU 2.53GHZ with a socket with a 400 / 533 MHz system bus and 1.5 gb RAM. It is sooo slow I see 100% CPU usage in task manager very often and all I use it for is internet and quickbooks. It jumps up from below 10% to 70-100% when I move the mouse around erratically-is that normal?

I'm wondering if it is likely the CPU because it is that old and slow or if it might be settings, etc that I can adjust. I've ran many free antivirus programs and don't think its that.

Any input would be great, thanks.

 

[ahumphers91]

Let me know what socket you have and I will take a look at some things. It also would help to have more ram.

 

[jsc]

When is the last time you rebuilt the OS?

You can also load Task Manager | Processes to see what is eating CPU cycles.

If you just use the system for internet and QuickBooks, you should not have many programs loading on startup.

 

[MRFS]

> You can also load Task Manager | Processes to see what is eating CPU cycles.

Then, click on the "CPU" tab twice, to sort that percentage into descending order
(largest first, next largest second, and so on).

This will force the higher numbers to the top of that list:
then, you can see which processes are using the most CPU time.

If you don't recognize the "Image Name" on any given line,
just Google it: almost all of these processes have now been
documented somewhere on the Internet.


It's a pain, but it pays to know what processes start up automatically:
you probably don't need all of them.

If you want to prevent any given process from starting at boot time,
do START | RUN then enter MSCONFIG.

Click the "Startup" tab, and find the process in the column headed
"Startup Item". Then, uncheck it.

You'll need to re-boot for this change to take effect.

It's also a good idea to keep a manual LOG of such startup changes,
in case you need to re-enable one.


You may also have a virus that is triggered by mouse movements;
but, that's an entirely separate research project.


Hope this helps.



MRFS

 

[MRFS]

> INTEL CELERON CPU 2.53GHZ Really that slow?

p.s. In answer to your original question: NO!


MRFS

 

[sykozis]

If it's one of the Northwood based Celeron models (Celeron 2.5), Prescott based Celeron models (Celeron D 325) or the Wolfdale-3M based Celeron models (Celeron E3300) then no....the processor isn't necessarily slow. All 3 are bottlenecked by their own system bus though. Compared to the newer Clarkdale based Celeron (Celeron G1101), any of the Core 2 series processors or Core i3/i5/i7 series, they are a bit lacking in performance.... The Willamette Celerons (Celeron 1.7 and 1.8, not to be confused with the Celeron 1.8A, Northwood based cpu) were dream chips of sorts though....very reasonably priced for their market segment, but were able to match and in some cases exceed the performance of their Pentium4 counterparts.

 

[MrOsonice]

Let me know what socket you have and I will take a look at some things. It also would help to have more ram.

Hi, I guess the socket info was cut out. It is an mPGA478 socket.

Is is common for the CPU usage in task manager to spike to 70-100 just from moving the mouse back and forth real fast over and over?

Thanks

 

[MrOsonice]

When is the last time you rebuilt the OS?

You can also load Task Manager | Processes to see what is eating CPU cycles.

If you just use the system for internet and QuickBooks, you should not have many programs loading on startup.

I've never rebuilt the OS, I actually got it used.

I've looked at task manager and aside from having about 40 processes open the internet iexplorer.exe eats up the most especially when I have several tabs open.

When I do there are about 3-5 iexplorer.exe and each at about 150,000k - 220,000k.

Next is the System at about 100,000k.

About 10 processes at about 30,000k and the rest are only 2,000 - 6,000k.

 

[MrOsonice]

> You can also load Task Manager | Processes to see what is eating CPU cycles.

Then, click on the "CPU" tab twice, to sort that percentage into descending order
(largest first, next largest second, and so on).

This will force the higher numbers to the top of that list:
then, you can see which processes are using the most CPU time.

If you don't recognize the "Image Name" on any given line,
just Google it: almost all of these processes have now been
documented somewhere on the Internet.


It's a pain, but it pays to know what processes start up automatically:
you probably don't need all of them.

If you want to prevent any given process from starting at boot time,
do START | RUN then enter MSCONFIG.

Click the "Startup" tab, and find the process in the column headed
"Startup Item". Then, uncheck it.

You'll need to re-boot for this change to take effect.

It's also a good idea to keep a manual LOG of such startup changes,
in case you need to re-enable one.


You may also have a virus that is triggered by mouse movements;
but, that's an entirely separate research project.


Hope this helps.

MRFS

Thanks for the input. I'm assuming my mouse movement causing a 100% CPU usage is not common. I will look into that.

I've done MSCONFIG and have minimized it to 7 items on startup which seems ok since Quickbooks and MS Security Essentials are the only program files and the rest look like Windows system commands. BUT I still have about 40 items in Task Manager on startup. I'm guessing it has something to do with the "Services" tab (in MSCONFIG).

 

[ahumphers91]

Yeah, thats not common. I would say that it's not associated with your cpu. Is there anyway you can back up all your pic's and files and re-install OS?? If so, you should try that and make sure all your drivers are up to date.

 

[gamerk316]

Question: Which OS are you trying to run?

Granted, a Celeron is slow by todays standard, but shouldn't be that slow...on XP at least...

I'd also sort Task Manager by CPU usage, and try to track down what processes are using the most system time.

I should note, I have a P4 ~2.5GHz as my work pc on XP, and with a single IE (6.0, unfortunatlly) window open, I get about the same performance as the OP does. And since Celerons were poor mens Pentiums...

 

[MrOsonice]

Question: Which OS are you trying to run?

Granted, a Celeron is slow by todays standard, but shouldn't be that slow...on XP at least...

I'd also sort Task Manager by CPU usage, and try to track down what processes are using the most system time.

I should note, I have a P4 ~2.5GHz as my work pc on XP, and with a single IE (6.0, unfortunatlly) window open, I get about the same performance as the OP does. And since Celerons were poor mens Pentiums...

I'm running XP.

You say you get similar performance? Does your CPU usage get up there in the 80-90 often and moving the mouse around makes it worse?

If so I wont worry too much since my computer is still useful but if it was something that I could fix i'd keep trying.

 

[gamerk316]

Not just moving the muse (unless I'm already at 100%); again, this is a coorporate PC with lots of extra (unneeded) security slowing everything down...just moving the mouse shouldn't stall the OS.

 

[Wisecracker]

Download and install Hijack This -- run a system scan and see what is percolating ...

Sounds like you still need to clear out a bit of crapola.

It has been a while for me but IIRC you should be able to build an XP Recovery Disk to do a fresh install if you have a legal key which has been registered with MS. That would allow you to reformat the HDD and re-load -- you would lose any pre-installed apps (but hopefully you have some sort of backup plan there )

As others have noted --- a fresh install cures many ills. Make sure you have backed up any of your important information. Also verify which service pack upgrades are available for your version of XP. Once again --- it's a little fuzzy but IIRC some initial XP versions were a *bear* to update with new service packs -- at a minimum you need something like XP1a for a successful update to spk2 or spk3.