Low System Resources Problem

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Bob Zimski - 26 Mar 2005 15:21 GMT

When I boot up my system resources stand at 70% after I run anything it gets
down into the low 60's eventhough I closed the application. As it gets lower
the system gets slow and eventually hangs. I have a PIII-600 with 256meg ram.
I don't do anything fancy, just small spreadsheets or word documents. I did
notice that my firewall 'Zone Alarm 4' is a real pig and uses up 13% of my
resources. Is there a better product that uses less resources. How do I find
out what the offending applications are and how do I turn off some of these
things from being memory resident. I am not a techy which is why I am looking
for the help.

Many thanks in advance.
Bob

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Don Phillipson - 26 Mar 2005 19:18 GMT

> When I boot up my system resources stand at 70% after I run anything it gets
> down into the low 60's eventhough I closed the application. As it gets lower
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> resources. Is there a better product that uses less resources. How do I find
> out what the offending applications are and how do I turn off some of these

You will just have to find out by experiment:
e.g. Zone Outpost AV seems to use by
itself much less than 13 pct resources.
I was surprised to find Word Perfect seems
to use about 10 pct. and MS Word much less
than that; but this experiment confirmed that
Quicken XG was a resource hog (20 pct. approx:
but then with 512 Mb RAM at 2.8 GHz I have
seldom run out of resources like you.)

Signature

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

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Ron Martell - 26 Mar 2005 20:11 GMT

>When I boot up my system resources stand at 70% after I run anything it gets
>down into the low 60's eventhough I closed the application. As it gets lower
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>Many thanks in advance.
>Bob

The value of Free System Resources should not be a concern unless and
until you start getting "System Resources are getting low" type
warning messages, which generally happens at about the 10% level. In
test circumstances it has been shown possible for a computer to
operate at full performance with System Resources showing zero percent
free.

See http://www.onlinehelp.bc.ca/tips.htm#resources and also
http://www.aumha.org/win4/a/resource.htm for information about System
Resources.

One of the best ways to improve the value of free System Resources is
to reduce the number of background "tools and toys" (a.k.a. crap and
corruption) that gets loaded when the computer starts up. Use Start -
Run - MSCONFIG and go to the Startup tab. Compare the list of items
that are loading at startup with the following checklist web sites to
see what can be safely dispensed with:

http://www2.whidbey.com/djdenham/Uncheck.htm
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php
http://www.3feetunder.com/krick/startup/list.html - has trojan related
items listed

Note: Please ensure that you fully understand the purpose of a
startup item, how and why it was put into the startup, and the
consequences (if any) of removing it before you make any changes.
Some items are very important for the proper and safe functioning of
your computer, including at least one item that is listed twice.

Disabling an item by unchecking it in MSCONFIG should only be done for
testing purposes or as a "last resort" when no other way of getting
rid of the unwanted item can be found.

Hope this explains the situation.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada

Signature

Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

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FACE - 26 Mar 2005 20:27 GMT

>Disabling an item by unchecking it in MSCONFIG should only be done for
>testing purposes or as a "last resort" when no other way of getting
>rid of the unwanted item can be found.

Excuse me, but you could give an actual explanation as to why you do not
think MSCONFIG is a good way to get rid of startup items on a single user
machine.

FACE

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Jeff Richards - 27 Mar 2005 23:25 GMT

Many applications contain their own flag to decide whether they should be
executed on startup or not. Flagging them in MSCONFIG simply means that
they install themselves in the startup all over again.

MSConfig has to engage in some fancy juggling to keep track of what's
enabled and what's not. If the intention is to simply disable something
then there's no need to keep track of it.

It confuses the heck out of support people.

Signature

Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)

> snip <
> Excuse me, but you could give an actual explanation as to why you do
> not
> think MSCONFIG is a good way to get rid of startup items on a single user
> machine.

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FACE - 28 Mar 2005 00:02 GMT

Thank you. Some react well, others don't. I submit that RealPlayer is one
that does not react well. -- FACE

>Many applications contain their own flag to decide whether they should be
>executed on startup or not. Flagging them in MSCONFIG simply means that
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
>It confuses the heck out of support people.

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