85-90 Processes on Startup: Normal?

When I turn on my Vaio Z, there are always around 85-90 processes running. That's a significantly more than my 3 year old Dell!

I also would also like to ask about the fan on my computer, which seems to always be on. It can't be heard in a room with people, but by myself, the sound becomes a nuisance. Is it normal to have this fan on at all times (once in a very rare while, it turns off and is silent)? Is this an issue with my computer? Is it due to the fact that there are too many processes running?

Thanks!

 

Whats your CPU load? You can change the FAN Settings in the Vaio Control Center (Enegyoptions).
Mhm I have Win 7 on my Z (64bit) installed all things and with 3 opened programs I have 70 processes. I think its not usual if you have 90 processes
Did you installed a lot of trash? xD

 

you might have installed some spyware or you might have viruses on your comp. look at the process names. some fishy looking names are mostly viruses or backgroud spyware programs that you DONT need. update your anti-virus?

hope this helps

 

I wouldn't be freaked out about this. My Samsung also has like 80 processes running, on my Dell with XP it's "only" 65.

So don't start stopping every task you are not sure about, I'd say in 99% of cases everything is just fine. A lot of programms have permanent tasks running like Updaters or something like that. Also Vista itself should have a lot of tasks running permanently, and especially on a notebook, you have a lot of extra programms running for things like FN-keys, touchpad...

Chheers
Tobi

 

Is that a brand new computer? Used? Fresh recovery?
Also - that Dell, XP or Vista? Vaio, XP or Vista?
Vista will run more processes as its - well Vista, but this isn't per se bad.

I've currently got 70 processes on my SZ - running a few things. It can drop to below 60 after startuo if left alone - generally idles around 65 with nothing running for me...

Not necessarily - if the laptop is new - Sony's do come with a lot of bloat - addding a few things of your own, and 80-90 is easily reached.

Yepp - but: Updaters can be a huge waste of resources... and do you ned quicktime and adobe loading every time at startup? No.

 

Its easily possible to get yourself below 50 precesses if not lower then that. Your battery and processor will thank you if you do.

http://www.ccleaner.com/ that should get you started

 

What OS?
Less than 50 processes under Vista would be difficult - also, tweaking Vista is different from tweaking XP as Vista tweaks itself.

To that effect - leave the laptop idling over night.

 

I'm on vista ultimate with 33 processes running right now. Granted I'm not getting my Z till tomorrow so I can't say how that will go, right now I'm on the eeepc 901. Thats besides the point though cause I have a fully functioning system with under 40 processes at all times.

 

Well - fully functioning?

Better say fully functioning as in "you have not yet encountered problems".

Save mode in XP was 17 processes I think... I don't know how many it is for Vista - that is a "barebone" system.

The problem with that is though that it lacks a lot of features...

Also, did you turn of for example superfetch and readyboost?
(Readyboost isn't only for a RAM extension)

 

I've been running this system for many months while I was waiting for money to get my new laptop, so I can tell you for sure there isnt a single issue "I haven't encountered yet"
readyboost is running, dont remember about superfetch

 

Hmm...
Just thinking - antivirus, drivers?
The alps tpuchpad runs 2 odd processes for the driver...
Antivirus - Kaspersky is 2 processes...other's need more...

 

Thanks everyone for your kind replies.

This is a brand new computer (approximately two weeks old) and runs 64-bit Windows Vista Ultimate. I haven't installed much - just Microsoft Office 2007, Norton 360, and some very few basic software. I manually uninstalled some programs I deemed bloatware, such as Windows Onecare and others.

Currently, I have 85 processes running. I checked task manager and I can't seem to distinguish what's necessary and what's not. I also checked my installed programs and, aside from the VAIO products, everything seems to be very barebones as is.

Not sure what the problem is here, but the fan seems to almost always operate, especially in speed mode. Anybody have ideas on how to reduce the strain on the fan (without forcing the computer to go into silence mode)?

 

Well... speed mode... the dedicated card gets hot no matter what...

About the processes:
Get CCleaner - and in Autostart, get rid (uncheck) of Adobe Reader Quickstart, Office12, Quicktime, Real Updates, Jusched (Java Update sheduler) this'll remove some unneeded processes.

 

Urban myth alert!

The number of processes loaded has ZERO to do with the battery use and load on the processor. The number of ACTIVE processes does. There is a big difference. Many processes lay totally dormant, waiting for an event to cause them to spring into action. These dormant processes are usually paged out of memory (if the memory is needed by other tasks) and consume virtually no resources whatsoever.

Just take a look at the processes and services running using a tool like ProcessExplorer or even Task Manager. And you can readily see this to be true.

The quest for the absolute lowest number of processes and services is one of diminishing returns.

Gary

 

Unless these processes are updates which have got nothing better to do than checking for updates every few minutes...

And I'm just thinking - windows will be fully functional once most processes have loaded - (then the remaining RAM gets filled with the prefetching files) - if you have fewer processes, these processes will start quicker...
And I do think that laptops with a lot of bloat (updates, etc.) do load significantly slower - also, if you have too many toolbars for example - I find IE to be much slower... (I don't use any)

 

The number of processes does affect load time, I never claimed otherwise. But once the system has finished booting up, the raw number of processes is of little concern. You could trim 15-20 processes off your system and it would save you milliseconds of boot time. Big deal.

The idea that the number of processes affects battery life or the processor as Inspector Jones claimed, is just not true. The number of ACTIVE processes does. Your updates phoning home would be ACTIVE processes.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying it is not a good idea to eliminate un-needed processes and services. But, I am saying don't expect it to have a major impact on battery life or processor performance, unless you are eliminating active processes.

Gary

 

I haven't tweaked Vista and currently running 45 processes at start up.
I disabled some programs (like toshiba bluetooth) that I don't use from auto start up.

 

If they're unneeded then it can't hurt to get rid of them. Active or not, and if they are, then it WILL help your comp.

 

If you are just saying getting rid of UNNEEDED processes will help your computers battery and processor, no it will not. If you are saying getting rid of UNNEEDED ACTIVE processes, then you are absolutely correct.

Too many folks are under the mistaken impression that the raw number of processes is what matters. And that has produced this mad dash for who can get the smallest number of processes. The only point it time that the raw number matters is a boot time. Each process adds a very small amount to the boot time, but after that, when the system is running, the number of ACTIVE processes are what consume CPU cycles and hence battery power. The inactive ones take up virtual nothing, save for a few bytes of memory pointing to their paged out location in the pagefile.sys

Gary