Att: all gru's, computer question

[PineRidge]

Need bit of help from you computer gru's out there. (you know who you are)

Lately one of our computers seems much slower than normal at times. If I attempt to reboot a screen tells me it is closing down a program running in the background that I expect is hogging the resources. Once rebooted the machine runs smooth and quickly for some time.

I am aware that hitting ctrl-alt-del will bring up a list of all running programs but is there an easy way to tell which of the many is using the most resource and causing the problem?

Also unrelated to this we started using IE7 and now spell check & IEspell doesn't function, what's with that? Don't want you guys to know how bad my spelling actually is.

 

[ronjhall]

I am sure there are people that are better with the slow operation of your computer. I would look in msconfig for a program that you do not want to start.
The IEspell should be on the tool bar. If it is not. Right click on the tool bar (same bar as tabs), select customize command bar, then select add remove commands. You should see a Ispell icon. Add it to the right side. If the Ispell in TBN does not work. You may have the active X deactivated. Look for a yellow bar at top of TBN page. I had to do a new download of IEspell to get it to work within TBN.

 

[PineRidge]

I am sure there are people that are better with the slow operation of your computer. I would look in msconfig for a program that you do not want to start.
The IEspell should be on the tool bar. If it is not. Right click on the tool bar (same bar as tabs), select customize command bar, then select add remove commands. You should see a Ispell icon. Add it to the right side. If the Ispell in TBN does not work. You may have the active X deactivated. Look for a yellow bar at top of TBN page. I had to do a new download of IEspell to get it to work within TBN.

Howdy Ron!

You just took care of part of the problem, the spell check now works. Guess the active-x did the trick. Thanks!

 

[MikePA]

I am aware that hitting ctrl-alt-del will bring up a list of all running programs but is there an easy way to tell which of the many is using the most resource and causing the problem?

Once in Task Manager, click on Processes, then click View ---- Select Columns, then add what ever columns will help diagnose the problem, probably CPU Time or I/O Writes. Once these columns are added, click on the column heading and you'll be able to see what Process is consuming vast quantities of CPU time or doing lots of writes.

 

[MossRoad]

Need bit of help from you computer gru's out there. (you know who you are)

Lately one of our computers seems much slower than normal at times. If I attempt to reboot a screen tells me it is closing down a program running in the background that I expect is hogging the resources. Once rebooted the machine runs smooth and quickly for some time.

I am aware that hitting ctrl-alt-del will bring up a list of all running programs but is there an easy way to tell which of the many is using the most resource and causing the problem?

Also unrelated to this we started using IE7 and now spell check & IEspell doesn't function, what's with that? Don't want you guys to know how bad my spelling actually is.

Do CTRL+ALT+DELETE and click on the task manager.
Click onthe Processes tab.
Click the CPU column to sort the CPU column. It will show the least busy processes at the top of the list.
Click the CPU column again and it will sort the column in reverse order, brining the most CPU intensive items to the top of the list.

Hope this helps.

 

[MossRoad]

Once in Task Manager, click on Processes, then click View ---- Select Columns, then add what ever columns will help diagnose the problem, probably CPU Time or I/O Writes. Once these columns are added, click on the column heading and you'll be able to see what Process is consuming vast quantities of CPU time or doing lots of writes.

DANG! Beat me by two minutes. Mornin' Mike!

 

[ronjhall]

That's quick. I learned something new here again.

 

[PineRidge]

Once in Task Manager, click on Processes, then click View ---- Select Columns, then add what ever columns will help diagnose the problem, probably CPU Time or I/O Writes. Once these columns are added, click on the column heading and you'll be able to see what Process is consuming vast quantities of CPU time or doing lots of writes.

Morning' Mike & Moss! Thanks to you both, we'll see what happens when I get home from work later today, I appreciate the assist.

 

[LMTC]

I followed the above instructions on one of our PCs which has at times seemed to be quite slow (although we have had AV, anti-spyware, and a firewall forever on it). On Task Manager I get lsass.exe as a big consumer and svchost.exe--two listings, one a very big consumer, the other moderate, and msimn.exe as a big consumer. iexplore.exe as well, but I know what that is. Looking up lsass and svchost I read that either can be a trojan, but are also legitimate files. How can I tell which they are, and should I have two entries for svchost (CORRRECTION--I just counted seven listings of svchost.exe in task manager)? Apparently the msimn involves outlook express, which I use for email.

 

[fenneran]

Whenever I see a process running that I am unsure of, I chaeck with this site:
Windows Process Library

It will tell you if it is a badun' or a goodun' and what to do about it