PC speed is variable throughout day

Yorky

For some unknown reason my PC has variable speed. Earlier today pages were 'freezing' and 'hanging' and word processing was virtually impossible. Now it is back to normal speed and functioning properly.

Does anyone know the reason for this?

Mr. Presentable

Check your running processes. Check for malware, viruses etc. Some anti-virus products can kill the resources on a PC if a scan is running also, for example.

Alanstrainor

Check your anti virus? Maybe it's running a scheduled scan every day at a particular time?

Bob_Harris

Maybe you've Norton installed.

Awaits Overheal backlash :pac:

Farcear

Assuming you are running Windows, next time your computer starts running really slowly press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC to bring up the task manager. Then look at the "Processes" tab to see what specifically is taking up all of your CPU time and/or Memory.

My guess would also be your anti-virus doing a daily scan.

Overheal

Bob_Harris wrote: »

Maybe you've Norton installed.

Awaits Overheal backlash :pac:

For clarification Norton only runs during system idle time. Default is After 10 idle minutes but this can be tweaked and also set to disabled when running fullscreen or user-selected apps, or when on Battery power. Scans automatically suspend/save+close on user action or removing AC power.

ronkmonster

www.malwarebytes.org

download the free version and do a quick scan. might be some spyware that waits a while before starting up

Bob_Harris

Overheal wrote: »

For clarification Norton only runs during system idle time. Default is After 10 idle minutes but this can be tweaked and also set to disabled when running fullscreen or user-selected apps, or when on Battery power. Scans automatically suspend/save+close on user action or removing AC power.

Norton doesn't need to be scanning to cause similar symptoms to the original post.

Overheal

Bob_Harris wrote: »

Norton doesn't need to be scanning to cause similar symptoms to the original post.

If you say so but I've never had random freeze-ups that I couldnt attribute to something. I cant categorically deny that its possible though, I am but one user.

but pogface you'll be delighted to know it finally happened. Karma much? On boards no less.

monkeypants

Make a note of the times that this happens and see if there's a pattern.

Yorky

Thanks all. I'm monitoring CPU usage using Windows Task Manager and often is at 100% capacity. Can anyone tell me what high usage for an individual item on the list is?

ronkmonster

Yorky wrote: »

Thanks all. I'm monitoring CPU usage using Windows Task Manager and often is at 100% capacity. Can anyone tell me what high usage for an individual item on the list is?

what is it?
did u run malware bytes?

i had a virus problem with a client pc recently and a windows file had been infected. you might need to use a boot antivirus cd or avast's boot scan to check for virus before windows loads

Cluster

Yorky wrote: »

Thanks all. I'm monitoring CPU usage using Windows Task Manager and often is at 100% capacity. Can anyone tell me what high usage for an individual item on the list is?

http://www.updatexp.com/windows-xp-task-manager.html

PogMoThoin

Overheal wrote: »

but pogface you'll be delighted to know it finally happened. Karma much? On boards no less.

Karma, Yes

Run MalwareBytes and see what it finds

I blame it on the fact that Your placing Your trust completely in one security suite, when a mish-mash of several is what we've always recommended. My Sons pc runs Nod32 as av, but I still run MalwareBytes from time to time and have SpywareBlaster installed for extra protection. My own pc's awaiting new parts, but I run a similar av setup on that.

My laptop runs Ubuntu, I wouldn't dream about putting anything other than Linux on a laptop, it just works, needs no av, no cleaning or defragging and is nice and snappy with the latest Ubuntu 9.10 and best of all, it boots in 35secs.

Overheal

I hate waiting around to run manual scans

I just thought of the OPs problem here at work, when I tried running quickbooks, firefox, and world of warcraft on a P4 with 512MB of RAM...

OP download this montioring tool: http://download.cnet.com/Moo0-SystemMonitor/3000-2086_4-10864749.html

Now Im looking for a few values when you start freezing, look at Memory %; Mem Swap %; HDD Busy; Main Loader; Bottleneck; and tell us what those read out as. Also, How much RAM does your system have?

Yorky

Thanks for the reply and apologies for the delay in replying. I downloaded the Moo0 monitoring system and here are the results:

On Start Up: Bottleneck CPU
Burned by MsMpEngjqs

The CPU is often at 100% capacity

At other times:

Bottleneck CPU
Burdened by Firefox
CPU 100%


The RAM is 1.37Gb and the processor is an AMD Sempron 3000+

Overheal

how dare you ask for help on another website :eek:

this is the google result for MsMpEngjqs

http://www.google.com/search?q=MsMpEngjqs&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Its safe to say this is your culprit. MsMpEngjqs.exe

Yorky

Thanks but what is it?

Yorky

The CPU seems to be burdened most of the time with Firefox or wahtever other application is in use. It's an AMD Sempron 3000+ Processor . The PC is five years old - would it be worth upgrading the CPU?

Erper

could u tell more about ur problem... does ur computer changes speed in idle or when u work something on it...
mine is changing from 2.8 to 2.4 in a second... depends what am i doing on it..

Yorky

Thanks. I've checked msconfig and there are only a few items checked mainly relating to security software but the slow speed strarted after these were installed.

All actions are slow - printing, opening an MS Word document etc. Sometimes when attempting to open the scanner software a message comes up 'insufficient memory' and it won't open at all.

Erper

can u tell us, what machine do u have... what OS... u might need to reinstall that win...