David McGown wrote:
In my experience, this occurs under the following conditions:
1. There is a high CPU demand by an application
2. If you are reading a large amount of data from harddrive.
3. If you are paging (swapping) to a harddrive, usually due to not having enough RAM.
4. You are installing an update or pulling alot of data across the network.
5. There is some process in startup or background that is hogging system resources.
6. You may be in the middle of a system scan (anti-virus or hard drive integrity/optimization)
There is an excellent tool at your disposal to help determine what is going on. It is called "Task Manager". Point your mouse at the taskbar and right click. You will get a menu and select "Task Manager"
This will give the current processes or applications that are running, the performance of the system in terms of CPU usage, memory usage, etc. Often, when a system is sluggish, you will see either the CPU utilization is very high, or the memory usage is high. It maintains a running history of load so you can see the effect over time.
Maxing out memory is pretty easy to remedy, just install more memory will take care of that. If you are running with 4 GB, then you may be under resourced and need to install more memory. 8GB for a Windows system is pretty much the standard recommendation these days. If the CPU is being maxxed out, then it is a program or process that is the issue.
David
And when all else fails you can execute a pyrotechnic re-boot (12-ga 00 buckshot or a rifled 12-ga slug will do nicely). Then afterward you can drop some hard-earned cash in a new up-to-date computer that will become obsolete the day you bring it home. Then repeat the cycle. Meanwhile -- so called updates and improvements come along because of early (premature) release to the public without thorough beta testing. Or -- so-called enhancements without thorough vetting have a cool way of screwing up legacy apps that once preformed perfectly -or- instead of screwing with it they just plain drop support altogether forcing you to spend more money to get back to where you were before the craziness started a new cycle.
Are you having fun yet?