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"Why is my computer soooo slow :("

It's horrible

1024mb Ram
2.53gHz processor

And it jerks while playing a song, or when moving my mouse across the screen.

Any ideas?

I've
- run a virus scan
- run an ad scan
- defragmented it

down wrote:
> Well, it's a bit odd
>
> When I play a song, it's almost like an upside down graph, with it
> flat at the top, but spiking downwards randomly
>
> And it still jerks.
>
> When I close it, it spikes randomly, but it did that before, anyway.


That's wrong, mp3 decompression should take about 2% CPU. Have you tried downloading a program like winamp to play mp3's in? Also, what version of Windows do you have (and what variety, like XP Home or XP Pro)?

Well, it's a bit odd

When I play a song, it's almost like an upside down graph, with it flat at the top, but spiking downwards randomly

And it still jerks.

When I close it, it spikes randomly, but it did that before, anyway.

Alright, try going into the Task Manager and to the Performance tab, to view the CPU usage graph. From the View drop-down menu select Update Speed -> High. Now play an mp3 - whilst the mp3 is playing, do you see any average rise in the graph or rapid spikes to 100% (asides from when the media player loads)? Now close the media player - asides from the burst of activity associated with closing the program, do you see any spiking to 100% or any other anomalous CPU usage (it should be fluctuating between about 0% and 5% ideally). What about when you move the mouse around, what CPU usage do you see when your mouse is jerking around the place?

Not until I play an mp3 or Football Manager, and from then until I turn the computer off, even when both are completely closed

Even when System Idle Process is 90+, it still jerks when moving the mouse across the screen.

down wrote:
> System Idle Process

System Idle Process is the percentage of CPU time that it's not doing anything. A high value in the CPU column for the System Idle Process means that your processor is not busy.

When exactly does your computer stutter - all the time, all the time whilst playing an mp3, some of the time playing an mp3, some the time just generally, rarely whilst playing an mp3 etc?

On mine it's wmplayer.exe

System Idle Process

The Not Applicable thing just means you don't have a drive in that slot, which is okay.

Are you saying that Windows Media Player (mplayer2.exe on my machine) shows up as using 90%+ of CPU time when playing an mp3? What about when you don't have Windows Media Player open, what is using the CPU then?

What about the Not Applicable thing?

The only thing that's used is the program which is playing the mp3, whatever I use, be it WMP or Creative Mediasource.

It's CPU Usage is always around 90+

down wrote:
> My Secondary IDE Channel Device 1 is set to Current Transfer Mode -
> Not Applicable.
>
> Apart from that they are all set to DMA.
>
> Is this a problem?

No, DMA is good.

Okay, try the Task Manager thing. When you're playing an mp3 (when it's stuttering), what processes are using high amounts of CPU? What about when the computer is not doing anything?