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To get a glimpse at how your PC is operating speed
wise,
press Ctrl+Alt+Del and then click on the "Performance" tab. While your
system is idle, CPU usage should be minimal (< 8%). After your
PC
has been on awhile and you are using it, it is normal for your CPU
usage to spike and run at 90% or more at times. If the CPU usage stays
consistently above 50%, you may have a virus, a rouge process that is
hoarding the CPU, or its time to purchase a faster PC. By
clicking on the "Processes" tab, you can see what processes are running
in the background. Click on "CPU" to put them in order of
highest
CPU usage to least CPU
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usage. Look at the processes that are utilizing the CPU the most.
Look their names up on the Internet to determine if they
are part
of
a legitimate program or they are a virus. It will also let you know if
they have
a tendency to hoard the CPU.
Click back on the "Performance" tab and
look at
Total Physical memory. For users with Windows XP, you should have
512,000 Kbytes or more. If you have Windows Vista, you should
have
1 GB or more. If you look at "Available" memory, and this number is very
small compared to your "Total" memory, you probably should
consider
adding more memory.
The next thing to check is free hard drive space.
If you
are running out of hard drive space, the computer will become very
slow. To free up some hard drive space, start by using Windows Disk
Cleanup. Windows saves your files in the first
available space it can find. If the entire file will not fit in that
space, it finds the next available space and saves more of the file
there. A single file can be saved to several different spots on your
hard drive, this is known as fragmentation. You can speed
things up by running Windows Defragmentation Utility.
Windows uses Virtual Memory. For the most part,
virtual
memory is a combination of chip memory and hard drive space. When MS
Windows gets low on chip memory, it begins to use part of your hard
drive space. If Windows spends alot of time swapping stuff back and
forth from chip memory to hard drive, this is known as thrashing. A
tell tale sign of thrashing is your hard drive LED is constantly
blinking. Under System Properties, Virtual memory should be set to 1.5
times the total RAM in the computer. If you are experiencing
thrashing, you need more chip memory.
The last thing to check is your internet speed. In
terms
of theoretical peak performance, cable modem runs faster than DSL.
Cable technology supports approximately 30 Mbps of bandwidth, whereas
most forms of DSL cannot reach 10 Mbps. Try an Internet
Speed Test.
If you want to evaluate your system even further,
you can
search the internet for benchmark programs. Both cable and DSL
service providers usually employ bandwidth caps for
residential
customers
If its
time for a new computer, check out some HP
Desktop Systems.
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