My usual pc contact is getting his leg over as i speak, so i need some 'outside' help lol

My CPU is working at 100% And he said i need to get some more RAM.

Now, where the hell do i get that from?

And no i aint got loads of windows open

 

RAM is Random Access Memory, which stores info for the PC to have "at it's fingertips" for applications, web pages, etc.

What you need to do is go to CONTROL PANEL > SYSTEM and it should tell you how much RAM you already have.

Next you need to find out what type of RAM you have so it can be matched

There is an online programme for this but for the life of me I can't remember what it is

You can find this out the hard way tho - open the case up and it will be written on a sricker on the stick of RAM (something like PC2400 330hz or something like that)

You need toknow this so you can match the size and type of RAM for upgrading.

 

Cpu-z mate, tells you what type of ram you have and how much you have installed

 

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

 

If he's got nothing open, wouldn't it be a good idea to find out what is causing the machine to run at 100% first? More RAM might not fix it.

Check the task manager and see what process is grabbing all the CPU time. Look in your Event Viewer as well for any errors.

Cheers

Matt

 

Well it says i have:

2.09GHz, 1.00 GB of RAM

 

Doubt you need more RAM then

I'd check your Task Manager first to see whats grabbing the CPU.

Cheers

Matt

 

Right, so you have 1gb of RAM, probably 2x 512 sticks

You need to find otu now what TYPE of RAM it is, and if you have more slots in your motherboard for more sticks. Some mobo's have only 2 slots, some have 4 (mine has 4). If you have 4 slots then it's cool, you can just get another sick (or 2) of 512 RAM of the same type which will bump you up to 1,5gb or 2gb (I have 3x 512 giving me 1.5gb total)

 

How do i do that then, its driving me nuts....... its sooooooo slow

 

Can i not just replace what i have with 1 stick of 1GB? Or 2?

 

If you've got XP, right click on your taskbar and choose Task Manager. Click the processes tab, and under the CPU column, look for the one thats using all the CPU. Maximum number will be 99.

Punt the process on here, and I'll try and find out what it is.

Cheers

Matt

 

It appears to be msmsgs.exe 120k.

Its fliting between 97, 98 and 99

 

That'll be Windows Messenger killing it then. Try closing it down and see if the PC runs any better, if so, then you've got a buggered Windows Messenger and might want to consider reinstalling it or upgrading to the latest Windows Live Messenger.

Cheers

Matt

 

right if its windows messenger causing the prob then disable it, it wont effect msn messenger so dont worry.

Click start bar>control panel>administrative tools, services, then when the box comes up, click on any of the words in the list and hit the letter "m" on your keyboard, this will bring the list down to every service beggining with an "m", it should jump straight to messenger, double click on it and disable it, then restart your pc, when its back on press control alt and delete and see if the cpu usage has gone down

 

I'm just uninstalling MSN, will reinstall it again and see what happens,

I think i need to increase the size, whatever happens.........

Any thoughts?

 

paul try this

http://www.download.com/Startup-Mech...-10551512.html

its like msconfig ..but more easy to use ..

tells you what programs are running in the background on the pc ..

and has a easy ABLE/DISABLE program ..i use it

well worth a try and free

 

did you not read anything i just sat there and typed!

Msn and windows messenger are two different things!

No need to uninstall it(dout you would work out how to do that anyway because its part of windows!)

Just do what i said and disable it, then it wont be working in the background

 

Who's your usual PC contact ????

And why would he say you need more ram when its your CPU thats maxed out

I had this problem ages ago when my old spec pc just wasnt up to the jobs i was asking it to do and the cpu was running at 100% as soon as you asked it to open something or resize photos.

In the end i bought a new CPU but it required a new motherboard, power supply, hdd, gfx card, ram. So basicly i bought a new spec pc

 

AndyRST

I think we both know who i'm talking about!

Thats what he said, i can only have 1 window open at a time now and its getting on my man tits

I'll give him a buzz in a bit, see what he suggests in the terms of some new bits.

GTi_iTG

Yeah sorry about that, i read it lol Dont mean i understood what the hell you were talking about tho

 

Paul 1bg of ram is enough for ANY pc to run ANY programs today.

I reckon its your CPU thats the bottleneck. Is it a AMD or a Pentium ?

 

GTi iTG msmsg.exe is MSN messenger

my work laptop does the same, messenger shoots to 100% cpu.

 

Its a AMD Athlon XP2600+

Will i have to go down the same road as you?

 

I dont know m8.

But im running a P4 Pentium 2.8ghz with 1gb ram and loading up MSN and having few webpages open and windows media its only using 33% of the CPU.

of that used MSN is between 3-10% of the cpu and 13,500kb of mem used.

Does your PC still run slow even when msn is closed?

 

i have a AMD Duron 1Ghz PC at my dads with 256Mb of RAM. it will run numerous programs at once and is fine with messenger and messenger plus loaded up at the same time. with yours there is obviously a problem somewhere else along the line, like at startup (sort this by using the Startup Mechanic avid-fan suggested) or other things that load up when you computer is running, use http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.html hijack this, to sort it out. if you are not sure what to get rid off, post a screendump up here and someone should be able to tell you what can be safely removed.
you will probably find that there are loads of items that come up on your first scan, i know they did on my Dell Pc, but now i only have 5 or 6 important items.
any problems let me know
thanks!

 

let uncle jimmy fix it

 

Can't see a 2ghz athlon and 1gb of ram being a problem with general web browsing, IM and even much more but then it depends on what other programs you have installed, what else boots up a start up, what processes and what you run as well.

With things like this start at the basics before odering new ram modules on impulse. Do a full virus, spyware/adware and trojan scan then use something like Advanced system optimizer to clean up the system by removing old cluttered files, dead registry entries, un- necessary start up programs and much more. For example de select MSN and similar things so they don't start up and just run them manually when required. I think ASO and similar system optimizers have a resource manager too. Not free but you can get it free if you look.

Then do other simple things like changing visuals from xp or even cusomised to the old school classic theme, center instead of stretch the wallpaper. Decrease the recycle bin reserve and so on. All helps to have a clean, smoother system. Sometimes if your PC is always grasping for air, or RAM then it will send the processors heart rate sky high at times too. Also get a HD cleaner and delete all the old files that recycle bin never really deletes from your hard drive. All 3 things go hand in hand if you ask me. (Cpu, RAM, HD)

You may find RAM wise 2Gb is your limit, probably in the form of 2 strips of 1gb so you may need to throw or put the old modules in the spares draw if its 2x 512. or you could just add it to 1.5gb anbd settle for that.

But again IMO a 2ghz athlon with 1gb should be able to do those task and also play music or have something heavy like photoshop cs2 or dreamweaver (norton ha ha) running as well.

http://www.crucial.com/uk/index.asp

 

Not exactly mr current affairs are you dave

Paul, after re-evaluating it, it's possible that something is hogging all your system resources open. Didn't realise you already had a gig of ram in there

So, click start, type in run, then type in msconfig. Click on the startup tab, and then printscreen and paste into photoshop / pain what's listed so I can see what's causing the problem.

I'm popping to Tony's on Monday so can kill 2 bird's with one stone with a bit of luck

 

ive got 2.6GHz celeron and 1GB of ram, runs the net(with a fair few tabs) zonealarm pro and avg, windows live messenger and it peaks at 10% cpu usage

 

Was supprised you would say ram when paul says cpu @ 100%, thats why i didnt think it was you making school boy errors

Killing 2 birds? your not that desperate to pull are ya?

 

tell you what, how about we fix your PC and get everyone out for a beer? the missus is away and i'm BOOOORED and looking for an excuse to goto the pub

 

Go watch the football

 

i didnt even know it was on till somone told me on MSN a minute ago

 

Its been on for 110 mins now

 

He caught me off guard rofl

 

nu-uh, you are wrong - GTi iTG is spot on.

Billy, what firewall are you running?

 

I should prob know all this, glad you didnt call me

 

Umm, nope, don't think so

1) The Messenger service is used for network broadcast messages using the net send command from a DOS prompt.

2) Windows Messenger loads as msmsg.exe and is part of the Windows install routine. To remove it from Windows, download this http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_messenger_remove.htm. Run the script and when you reboot, no more Windows Messenger.

3) MSN Messenger is an add on component downloadable from the web for Windows. You can use the old MSN Messenger 7.5 or the new Live Messenger 8.