Hello. I welcome you to another Covered in Bees computer problem.
Meat (The Problem): This time the problem with my computer is that my music will skip when Firefox is loading a page. Most notably from SDMB threads. This I assume is my processor not being able to handle processing the new page and having to play music, but the problem is that this has never happened before because of the internet.
It does happen when I attempt to go into Program Files or other such computer folders.
Why?
Potatoes (Possibly Relevant Info):
[ul][li]Windows XP SP3[/li][li]Windows Media Player 11[/li][li]Firefox version 3.0.11[/li][li]AVG Free 8.5[/li][li]Only two other small programs running[/ul][/li] Gravy: Also, does it have anything to do with the Task Manager saying CPU Usage is at 100% briefly? When I open Task Manager, CPU Usage will be at 100%, then will immediately drop to below 10% then fluctuate between there and the mid20s. WTF?
Have you checked for spyware/malware or anything? I’m running a minimal netbook (1.6G processer, XP), but unless I’m bringing up a page full of auto-video loads, my music still won’t skip if only firefox and windows media player are open.
I’m guessing you probably already checked that, but figured I’d throw my hat in the ring.
Actually I haven’t. AVG does a weekly scan and didn’t find anything last go round and I don’t visit any shady sites on this computer. I keep a strict routine of visiting legits sites on this computer.
More Potatoes:[ul]
[li]Pentium 4[/li][li]2.80GHz[/li][li]2.79GHz (Properties of My Computer lists it exactly like this, IDK why there are two)[/li][li]1.98GB of RAM[/ul][/li]
Also, visiting GQ damn near kills my music just trying to view the default number of threads on the first page.
Your system is definitely thrashing. You are trying to do too many things at once and your system cannot keep up so certain things pause while another thing is being taken care of. Usually the system can jump between multiple tasks quickly enough so you never notice but it can get overwhelmed and you get hiccups. It is not just CPU usage, it is disk access (usually disk access is the culprit although in most PCs disk access also uses CPU).
Try clearing your cache. You can do it without this but personally I like CCleaner for this. Just be aware you can delete saved passwords and such (e.g. browsing history, recent documents) if you have those checked (all selectable). If you want also run the Registry Cleaner built in to that. Very fast. Very nice. Just be sure to backup the Registry before you do it and realize anytime you mess with the Registry bad things are possible. (FWIW I have run the Registry Cleaner part of CCleaner on many computers and never had a problem as have a number of other people I know…that said it is your risk to take).
Then try defragging your hard drive after that. People who make CCleaner also have Defraggler which works well but again you can use built in Windows crud for this.
Both are free and safe (no adware and such). CCleaner works very fast. Defragging can take a long time depending on a variety of things. Go watch TV or sleep or something.
Click on START>RUN and type in MSCONFIG.
A window will pop up. Select the STARTUP tab.
In there uncheck anything that looks like crap you do not need. Over time can be a lot of it. Do not worry…unchecking a box does NOT delete the program…just stops it from autoloading at startup. You can always go back and toggle the box if you turned something off you want to run. In general keep your antivirus running (may have a few components in there) and maybe print drivers and maybe iPod stuff and whatever peripherals you have hooked up. Expanding the COMMAND column so you can read the path helps you determine what a thing may be. Google also helps.
Again, the MSCONFIG thing does NOT delete anything. You can still use a program you “disabled” as always. This just stops it from running at startup when you may not need it and frees system resources.
Reboot the PC after all the above (note you will get a message about programs being disabled from your work in MSCONFIG…check the box to not bother you again and ignore it).
If your PC still hiccups on you after that perhaps more RAM would help. Beyond that you’ll need a faster PC to do all the things you want at once without stumbling.
Damn I love the SDMB! It’s freaking midnight and I’m actually getting replies. Even more awesome, is that I’ll be going to sleep soon and can let it defrag while I’m in my nightly ritual of unconsciousness.
May I ask why a whole program is required to clear your cache? Isn’t the cache just a folder stashed away under "WINDOWS → System32 or some shit?
Either way though, I actually have CCleaner. A friend put it on for me while he was in possession of this thing a long while back and I never messed with it.
I can’t tell which of these I need. The AVG one looks like one I’ll keep, but the rest are in what looks like an alien language. Well, they might as well be in an alien language because I have no idea what any of them are.
Especially the one at the bottom. It has no name. It’s just all blank in the “Startup Item” field.
The location for all of them is almost all the same also. It annoyingly doesn’t tell me the full location when I hover my cursor over the locations. Grrr.
Part of the annoyance is that I’m not doing much of anything on this computer. Firefox and WMP being the two biggest (and sometimes only) things I run on here.
You do not need a program to do it. You could do it by hand. But why?
The program cleans not just your cache but a bunch of other things. Basically it automates the task for you and makes your life a whole lot easier. Windows provides this functionality as well (Disk Cleanup) but Disk Cleanup can be strangely slow. CCleaner is speedy and allows more control over what is being deleted. Add to that it has the Registry cleaner (which I personally love but you can skip running that if it worries you as it is a separate thing to run in the same program).
But whatever suits you. The point is to clean all that crud out your PC collects over time. How you do it is your lookout.
If you use CCleaner be sure it is up to date. Old version will clean out the cache just fine but the Registry cleaner benefits. It may prompt for an update when you start. If not and it has been awhile just download it. Not a very big program so should come down pretty quickly unless you are on dial-up.
For the location drag the column wider. Between COMMAND and LOCATION column you will see a very thin line. Hover your cursor over it and it will change. Drag the column wider so you can read it (COMMAND column). Looking at where it is running from gives you a clue as to what it is. If in doubt leave it alone. Other things may pop out at you though (things like RealPlayer or junk like that).
As mentioned MSCONFIG will not kill anything. Just stops it from running and gobbling resources when you start the PC. You can always turn stuff back on the same way by toggling the checkbox.
Note: I’d say you have plenty of RAM. More will not help. Thinking your PC needs a good cleanup. A P4 is a little old these days but should manage what you are describing just fine.
Update: Running CCleaner did stop my music from skipping, but I’m still wondering about that 100% CPU Usage that Task Manager says when I start it up.
Question: How often should CCleaner be run* and how often should a computer be defragged?
*Because that thing cleaned a bunch of shit out and it’s obviously beneficial to keep it all cleaned up regularly so stuff doesn’t get corrupted and bad and whatnot.
**EDIT:
Question 2:** Okay, I have my .mp3s all in one folder. If I have this folder open and I right-click on a song, it will completely stop my music from playing. Dead stopped until I make the options menu go away and then the music will start playing again like nothing happened. This cannot have anything to do with my cache or processor can it?
I should say in MSCONFIG you want to turn off EVERYTHING you do not actually need.
By that I mean everything that is not antivirus or peripheral related.
Some few other things you may want to leave running such as (for example) iPod/iPhone/Whatever phone you use if it hooks up. Essentially that is a peripheral too and you want your software to autorun when you plug it in.
Most other stuff can be turned off. MS-Office stuff you can shit down (see that in there a lot). Office will run fine when you want it to by clicking on the icon or opening a document. Never seen the point of the crud they try to autoload.
Play with it. No need to get freaky stopping things. Just the fewer the better. Leave it up to you when a program should run.
Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL on your keyboard (press them all at once).
Task Manager comes up.
Select the PROCESSES tab.
Where it says CPU in the window click on that. This will make it sort on that column. You may have to click on it again…not sure if if defaults to highest/lowest or lowest/highest on the first click. You want the high numbers at the top. See what is pegging your CPU at 100% and report back to us.
Run it once every two months or so. Depends on how much you use your PC and what you do when running it but on average that should be fine.
Do you have a disk access indicator light on your PC (most do)? A light that flickers when the PC is accessing the hard drive? When you right-click like that does the light turn on and stay on (barely flickering or completely solid)?
I had problems with programs when using AVG as the anti virus. It’s a pig. Firefox would pause my media playback too.
This software however helps stop spikes that glitch other processes like you media player. Process Lasso I think you’ll have good results with this program as it can be set to limit programs to a maximum processor usage. You’ll have to play around with settings to find what works the best, but the defaults work good too.
A simple way to check if AVG (or some other process) is overloading things is to set it’s process priority lower. E.g., Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up process manager, select AVG with right mouse click and select Set Priority -> BelowNormal. Then repeat whatever was causing the skipping and see if it still happens.
I’d also run HijackThis, Malwarebytes, etc. to check for bad stuff.
I found the Progress Lasso does a better job. It will control all programs at the point they take over the system, but it leaves stuff set with the priorities you assign them for regular use. it also can be run at start up and actually limited the resource hogs from delaying system start up so I could use the mouse before the AVG stopped all it’s start up scans where windows was unresponsive for almost a minute. I have a new multicore processor so I don’t have to use this program any longer. you can set the program to automatically kill a process every time it is started too.
That 100% is just Task Manager itself starting up - if you’ve got the Processes tab set as the one you see on opening the manager (it displays the one you were on when you closed AFAIK), you should be able to see it listed with a high CPU percentage.
