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Thread ID: 128813 2013-01-16 22:01:00 100% CPU activity NZHawk (4093) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1323252 2013-01-17 03:47:00 One thing to remember, Microsoft's updates are causing problems on lower powered machines running XP.

For a while now when ever updates have gone in theres a bit of a performance hit. Machines with more power are not generally effected so much if at all.

If you were to reinstall XP from SP3, you would find it runs reasonably quick even for a Celeron, put in all the updates and watch the performance drop out the bottom. XP Updates are turning it into a bloated system.
wainuitech (129)
1323253 2013-01-17 04:34:00 Ok posting this on a sempron with media player playing a song in the background, CPU usage about 4% BUT - if I leave a viualisation running and leave the window open (not minimised) CPU usage is 60-90% so check that, turn visualisation off or set it to album art. Also I noticed big CPU spikes from time to time, this thing just has no power to spare. I also noted initial spikes of CPU usage from MSE but it settled down fairly quickly.

Other than that It runs ok - just don't try too much multitasking on these old single core machines.
dugimodo (138)
1323254 2013-01-17 20:06:00 Yes but 7% of what? what's your processor?

Intel celeron 2 . 4ghz, 2 gig of ram
Whenu (9358)
1323255 2013-01-17 21:45:00 wainuitech: very good point

dugimodo: thank you for that - I fully agree - this system is single task only.

cheers
NZHawk (4093)
1323256 2013-01-18 00:33:00 Double post :S Agent_24 (57)
1323257 2013-01-18 00:34:00 Does the thermal paste dry out if the heat sink has had a lot of dust?

I don't think so. Dust will impede airflow and may cause overheating.

Some cheap thermal paste dries out over time from becoming old. Maybe it all does, eventually.


Ok posting this on a sempron with media player playing a song in the background, CPU usage about 4% BUT - if I leave a viualisation running and leave the window open (not minimised) CPU usage is 60-90% so check that, turn visualisation off or set it to album art

Visualisations may also cause high CPU usage if your graphics card is weak or the driver is not installed, causing graphics processing to be offloaded to the CPU and run in software instead.

You said you just reinstalled Windows, make sure you have all your drivers correctly installed and up to date.

And, If you have an AGP Graphics card, it will rely on the Motherboard chipset\GART drivers to be installed, too, otherwise you can get performance issues.
Agent_24 (57)
1323258 2013-01-18 00:48:00 No graphics card
Will recheck drivers are up to date.
Is this best done through the Device Manager or using 3rd party software like DriverMax....
NZHawk (4093)
1323259 2013-01-18 00:57:00 I prefer to install drivers manually with their own installers or through device manager if the driver doesn't have an installer.

I am skeptical of anything that updates drivers automatically, as Windows update often royally buggers things up when it tries to autoupdate drivers.
Agent_24 (57)
1323260 2013-01-18 01:02:00 Understood,
didn't get a driver cd so will recheck all through device manager
NZHawk (4093)
1323261 2013-01-18 05:22:00 Understood,
didn't get a driver cd so will recheck all through device manager

The CD would probably be out of date anyway. You can download them from manufacturer's website.
The model number you gave for the board comes back as an MSI P4MAM series, which uses a VIA chipset: VIA P4M266 (VT8751)

Assuming that is correct, you can get:
Chipset drivers (install first) are here: www.viaarena.com (You want the old 4.43 as this is an old chipset)
Latest video drivers for XP are here: www.viaarena.com


You can also search yourself at www.via.com.tw
Agent_24 (57)
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