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    System idle process help!!!

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by stephanh, Mar 18, 2011.

  1. stephanh

    stephanh Notebook Consultant

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    Hi, I have been having a lot of trouble with the system idle process lately. I know its supposed to be there but it's clearly not functioning correctly. It uses all of my computing power all the time. I know its supposed to "give" computing power to processes as I open them, but it seems its not doing this. Every time i open a new window, or even a new tab in my web browser, the computer reacts very slowly. If i have music playing while i try to open a new tab, it will glitch the sound and make it sound all fuzzy. Also if i open something like a pdf, (or do anything that requires more computing power then my computer is willing to give) it will say that that program has stopped responding and shut it down. Once i shut down my computer and restart it, everything goes back to the way it should be, but after awhile it will start doing this again. Can someone please help me in fixing this problem? restarting my computer all the time is very annoying. I am also running windows vista.
     
    stephanh, Mar 18, 2011
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  2. Kuu

    Kuu That Quiet Person

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    Kind of sounds like something isn't releasing memory of CPU usage like it's supposed to.

    How much RAM do you have anyway? Updates? Virus Scan? :eek:
     
    Kuu, Mar 18, 2011
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  3. Pitabred

    Pitabred Linux geek con rat flail!

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    The system idle process has nothing to configure. Your problem is possibly something with your RAM, given that it goes away after a reboot and surfaces after time. Can you run a Memtest 86+ on it? There are lots of bootable disks out there that you can download and burn to do that.

    The other possibility is that it's your storage drivers flaking out. Are all of your system drivers up to date?
     
    Pitabred, Mar 18, 2011
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  4. stephanh

    stephanh Notebook Consultant

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    It may be the RAM. This computer is pretty old and it only has 2gb of RAM. Ill run memtest and let you know when it finishes.
     
    stephanh, Mar 18, 2011
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  5. KLF

    KLF NBR Super Modernator Super Moderator

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    Broken HDD can also slow the system down to crawl.
     
    KLF, Mar 18, 2011
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  6. michael_recycled

    michael_recycled Notebook Deity

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    2 GB of RAM shouldn't be a problem unless you run really memory-intensive software like virtualization or professional-grade image manipulation software.

    My crystal ball whispers, this is a problem that can not be resolved by installing an additional memory module.

    Michael
     
    michael_recycled, Mar 19, 2011
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  7. Primes

    Primes Notebook Deity

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    It could be malware too, do a scan with malwarebytes.
     
    Primes, Mar 20, 2011
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