problems with slow pc

i have an older Dell pc for the kids. usually when you go online it is so slow and freezes up all the time. The hard drive is only half full and usually has plenty of ram but it says CPU usage is 100%. does that mean the processor is too small? it says it is 2 gz?

 

Operating system? How much RAM? What are you using for anti-virus? Does it run better or the same in safe mode?

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "usually has plenty of ram". You didn't indicate what operating system your using so I'm going to assume XP.

A 2ghz processor should do fine if your running XP. You should have at lease 512MB of RAM which I suspect you are confusing with Hard Drive space but RAM is actually the memory that is used by the computer. If you right click on My Computer and go to properties, it will tell you the processor speed and amount of RAM.

The slowness of the computer is probably something running in the background based on your comment about CPU usage of 100%. In the task manager, if you look up the list, it should indicate what process is using the processor. Please post what that process is.

The freezing can be caused by many things from bad capicitors on the mainboard to bad or insufficient RAM or a corrupt or failing HD.

I would suggest visually inspecting the mainboard for bad capacitors first. If none are found then boot go to MY Computer and right click on the C Drive and go to properties. Then click on the Tools tab and click on the Check Now button in the error checking box, check both boxes in the small window that comes up and click start. It will display a message that it can't run the test because the HD is in use or something to that effect. So tell it to run the test at the next boot. Then reboot the machine and allow the test to run. It could take from several minutes to several hours depending on the size and condition of the drive. This will run a complete test on the drive and should repair any corrupt data.

Post back the name of the process that is using the processor and we should be able to help fix that.

 

It is Windows XP and has 1.25 gb RAM. There are many processes right now. Some of the large ones:wlidsvcm.exe, svchost.exe,seaport.exe,alg.exe,unsecapp.exe,spoolsv.exe,aawservice.exe,alg.exe, those are the largest ones. i will search them, not sure what they are. I use Nortons,Malwarebytes,adaware.

 

You said in an earlier post "says CPU usage is 100%". That's what I'm trying to find out. What process is putting the processor at 100%? It would be in the CPU column of the Task Manager not the memory column.

1.25GB of RAM would be very good for running XP on a 2.0ghz processor. I think you need to make sure the board is good first, then cleanup the process on the computer and run chkdsk.