Need help improving the efficiency of an old computer

Hi, my desktop computer works ok for almost every program, but has some trouble with stuff related to media, like video and pictures.

It gets kinda jumpy when streaming videos and when I open the windows live photo gallery.

The thing I notice when I open the task manager is that it goes from about 2% (no program is open) to about 95% when I see a video or run the photo gallery.

I think this is more of a software issue because I have a laptop with Pentium 4 at 2 GHz, 1GB RAM and 16Mb of video; I sometimes play age of mythology there and runs quite well on high settings, but when I put this game in the desktop it gets jumpy and somewhat slow during gameplay.

The specs for the desktop are:
Pentium 4 1.70GHz
1GB RAM
Graphics chip: Intel(R) 82845G Graphics Controller 64MB
Graphics Driver: Intel(R) 82845G /GL/GE/PE/GV Controller

So my question is why does the desktop have problems running media related programs if it has 4 times the video memory than the laptop that has no problems running it.

I also recently changed the RAM from 128MB to 1GB, before that change I used to have a pop-up message saying about low virtual memory, does that have to do with anything?

Thanks in advance.

 

You shouldn't have issues with video with the P4 or for that matter with a 1GB Celeron P3 or even less!:confused There is something obviously else going on here. All I can say at this point is update the drivers and/or check for device manager warnings.:confused

 

I checked the device manager and the only problem I saw was about an ethernet adapter. I just reinstalled a wireless adapter to my computer that use to give problems to "csrss.exe" in the task manager, I pretty much solved that problem for the rest of the computer but seems to give problems with video.

Here is more about that problem, http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=238480

Also, how could I like reinstall the video drivers, if I uninstall them would I still be able to see whats on screen?

And if the problem is still with the wireless driver, how can I get a driver that works with that card.

 

Here is the info you requested.

I think that the program named "Wireless Configuration Utility HW.51.lnk" might be the problem, I let it run at the beggining so the computer can conect to the wireless router, after that I close it and Im still connected; I do this to solve the problem I posted earlier.

The reason I think this program might be the problem is because when I reinstalled the driver it said something like "This program doesnt have the WinXP seal of approval and might cause the system to be unstable now or the near future". I uninstalled it last week to see what problems did it solve, the one with the 70% use of cpu was solved, but the media files were still jumpy, not as much as right now but not in the best condition.

Also when cleaning the registry on CCleaner there is a file extention that doesnt get fixed no matter how much I click repair, the file name is:

{80b8c23-16e0-4cd8-bbc3-cecec9a78b79}

Does this file have to do with anything?

P.S. the info about on the computer is in spanish, if you need anything translated dont be afraid to ask.

 

Hi,
I am butting in here but try this to resolve any or your boards driver issues...

http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect/graphics

this will detect and update the hardware drivers for your systems board.

iain.t :major

 

Im starting to think that the video driver might not be the problem, I've checked the intel website and it gives me this info:
Product Detected "Intel(R) 845G
Current Driver Installed 6.14.10.4342
Your driver is current.

The codecs might be a problem since last night when I opened Windows Live photo gallery it said that it wasnt able to open some video and/or photos because it might be missing some codecs.

One thing I notice in the task manager is when I use the photo gallery or windows media player 11 is that in the part that has the list of process, the programs says WLXPhotoGallery.exe is using 70% or more, but when I close that program that .exe is still open and using cpu power, so is there a way to fix this?

I also found the datasheet of my wireless adaptor that use to give me problems, should I post it or is it not necessary right now?

 

Hello again, sorry to bring this old thread again but my desktop is getting worse. I can still use it but I keep getting random problems.

Today the windows explorer opened out of nowhere three times. I still have the problem of the cpu use rising rather easily, now it jumps when I use the windows media player (that didnt happened before).

I also want to delete a lot of files that I dont think they are usefull, I'm freeing a lot of disk space right now but have a few doubts about the next folders, they are located at C:\, the names they have are:
~MSSETUP.T
2a823ea52e24de9295cb10
97ecf7a351f9556b3af94feb5ce
507e33b1f
There are like 20 with names like this, inside them they have diferent things like folders and exe files.

Other ones are:
Sigmatel C-major audio driver

Upon opening other folders I see that most of them say that they are drivers, is there a way I can reset or reinstall all the drivers in my desktop because by the look of things there is more than one driver for one thing.

Thanks in advance for any information.