In Task Manager, my Pf Usage is shown as reading 697- 700Mb. Is this normal? I have 520 Mb ram Memory installed, and the computer seems to be running rather slow.

Thanks,

Tosh

For reference....
Don't know what its supposed to be, at the moment I've got three internet explorer windows and ant outlook express open plus a program called PVM which is converting a film so it can be watched on a Nokia phone, my CPU usage is showing 100% and the Page File usage is 412Mb, the computer itself seems to be working fine.

On my version of Task Manager (Win XP) this is referred to as "Commit Charge" and given as amount used/ total available.

It's normal for this to be larger than the real memory available: virtual memory systems like Windows rely on being able to over-commit real memory, holding some parts of application and system memory out on disk, for loading in as required.

Slow running is often due to either heavy, but bona fide activity by one or more applications, or possibly something like a memory allocation fault in one of the applications. Difficult to tell without more information.

Just possibly you have something nasty like an infestation of spyware, but I suggest you exclude other possibilities first.

Hello Tosh,

You may have too much loading upon startup - a common problem

Check the process tab to see how may items you have here. 25-30 processes is a lean and healthy machine.

Anything over 40 is a warning flag - could be bloatware (included with computer) or something more sinister.

Hello Tosh,

You may have too much loading upon startup - a common problem

Check the process tab to see how may items you have here. 25-30 processes is a lean and healthy machine.

Anything over 40 is a warning flag - could be bloatware (included with computer) or something more sinister.



Ah, so ~50 might be too many..!! My problem is, I don't know what is what for most of the items. Most of the name tags are meaningless to me.

Each time I attempt to stop something, I get a warning, and then I back off.....:cool:

I have 57 processes running and a PF usage of typically 350 or so ....

try this to see where you are using memory ....

on task manager hit the 'processes' tab

double click on the 'memory usage' heading ...
(this should sort the list in size order) .... you may have to do the double click twice to get it to sort ...

now make a note of the 'biggies' and do a Google on them to see what they are used for if they are not obvious (there are other ways to do this but I like to Google them .... if you are running something like Norton Internet security, Mcafee etc you will find a good deal of the processes are tied up with running the security system ....

The key to the OEM bloatware stuff can be found in the Tray - where all those icons by the clock reside.

Find yourself a techie and have them disable startup bits until the process list is lower, PC performance is more acceptable and nothing you use becomes unworkable.

An easy way to non-destructively accomplish the troubleshooting part is to click START > RUN and type msconfig here and hit enter (click OK works too)

Uncheck START UP items here - reboot and see what gives as above. Pay special attention to hardware-related items (printers/scanners/etc) and your anti-virus items. Clues to program identities are in the COMMAND section (you can expand this with your trusty mouse).

Hi Tosh,
I use this site http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/ it has an easy to use and fairly comprehensive 'start up' database. Simply type in the prog name as they appear in your processes tab and the software will tell you what they are, what they are associated with and whether they are necessary.

As always thanks for the advice, guys. I never fail to be amazed at how many people on this forum know so much about the insides of computers!!

Regards,

Tosh

I must copy this somewhere on my PC as I seem to re-type it in this forum every other week :} The Microsoft anti Spyware suite (free) has just the tools you need. You can see what programs these processes are affiliated to and then selectively restrict them from starting up.

It really is a useful little program and ambivalent though I sometimes am with MS products, the Anti Spyware is the jewel in the dungheap, as far as I am concerned.

Conan