Slow Reaction At Times

Hope this is the right area...When using Itunes for listening to music and firefox for internet, my laptop has started to slow down right before I open another app or try to change the song im listening to. When changing web pages the music starts to cut in and out for a second and I can tell the speed slowed way down changing to another site. Then its back and runs fine. The music has also started sounding like it was skipping. Then I pause it or close whatever app I was in, it would clear up. Weird...

Is that a physical memory problem? Or something software related?

Also: I always find myself working 5 times faster than the computer can. Upgrade to 2GB?




http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u32/Roush03/Clipboard01-1.jpg

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u32/Roush03/Clipboard01-2.jpg

 

XP will always benefit from 1 gig (or more if you are a power user).

Install FreeRam XP Pro from MG at
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1670

Keep an eye on the "Free Ram" figure when you install it, down by the time (bottom right). It will show you how your free ram fluctuates from program to program. This will give you a clue as to how much you may benefit from extra Ram. Bazza

PS: What is the skin you are using. I thought it was Vista at first. Very nice. Baz

 

No skin. Just regular XP.


Thanks

So that program is basically going to solidify the fact that I need to upgrade it? haha

So is that what my problem is? The slowing down of one when opening another?

 

Checking your screenshots again, Firefox is a RAM hog. Over 83 megs in your case. Maybe look for another Browser that uses less RAM, or add extra RAM.

FreeRam XP Pro monitors free RAM, in real time, and will show you how free RAM fluctuates as you load and close various programs. Bazza

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Im definitely going to be upgrading the RAM here soon. In the meantime, any recommendations for daily browsing? Im using Firefox and have used AOL Explorer. I liked AOL ex better but was getting some bugs with it

 

If you do increase your RAM then Firefox will not be the same RAM hog, percentage wise, that it is now.
You will probably be happier with your PC, and can still use Firefox. Bazza

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Well I ran ccleaner, adaware, spybot and then diskeeper lite. Computer is back to normal. I still need to upgrade the ROM but its not as urgent now. I need an external as well as a thumb drive...time to visit newegg

 

There are quite a few ways to free up RAM, system resources, first is to choose (None) on the wallpaper, and second use Windows Classic Style instead of Windows XP Style. Little better boot time without the Icons on the desktop too, if it is a must have drag it to Quick Launch. It takes a little getting used to, but is worth it in the long run. A guide I used until it was ingrained is here:
http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/xptweaks/supertweaks1.htm
most should work for MCE also.

 

In one of your screen shots, you have 71 processes running. You might want to trim a few of those down, should speed you up some more.

E

 

recognize any on the list that I dont necessarily need?

Also now that I have diskeeper lite, I keep getting this pop up every few minutes:

"Volume (F has a 12-bit FAT. Diskeeper does not support 12-bit FAT partitions"

 

It seems like almost every program you install lately wants to auto start its self when you boot your computer... My computer has 27 processes running now, including Open Office, Firefox (duh), and Folding.

Here is a good link for trimming down stuff you don't need running.

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Just be careful, you do need some stuff running, or XP will not be happy and neither will you! But is you can trim it down to 30 or so, I think you will gain some speed and have a faster boot time.

As far as the FAT warning, (I am assuming this is an external drive or a partition?) I the drive is formated FAT instead of the newer NTFS format and diskeeper does not like the older FAT 16. Not sure if it works on FAT 32.

His is a little info on NTFS and FAT.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/russel_october01.mspx

E