Hi there, I have a trouble when I'm installing a program. I'm concurrently installing a large program and surfing the Internet and listening to music. All other tasks run really really slow and seem not responding. A similar case happens when I'm extracting gigabytes of files from a compressed file (.rar). Everything slows down a lot. I don't think my computer cannot handle this or will find this demanding. Here's the spec: Mobo: MSI 880GMA-E45 (6GB/s) CPU: Athlon II x4 635 (quad cores, 2.9GHz each) HDD: Hitachi 500GB sata II (7200rpm, 16MB) RAM: Kingston DDR3 1333MHz 2GB * 4 (8GB in total) Power: Antec 450W 80plus (No add-on graphics card) I hope the above info can help. Thanks for reading my question.
Installing a program (usually on larger apps) doesn't just copy files; it also does several modifications to system files. Extracting archives shouldn't use much CPU; HDD activity should be at stress here. Having said that it is considered normal for such operations to slow your computer down. Question is what your perception of 'slow' is. Regarding installations, you should shut down all programs before performing one. This is not a performance issue, rather than integrity issue as certain apps expect to find some files available for modification. And that ain't going to happen if you have those files open i.e. by running corresponding applications at the same time. You should also close AV / anti-Malware software as well, as they tend to apply restrictions to 'suspicious' installers. Regarding RARs, I would check that the process priority within WinRAR's settings is set to Normal. I am on a single-core P4, even I don't have a performance issue whilst extracting a big RAR. I can't watch a hi-def movie at the same time, but system is still relatively fast. So, your hardware specs are fine. If you have any software issues, I can't really know for sure...
Oh I see... I was merely thinking that my computer has 4 cores so I thought the each CPU would specialize 1 (or more) task(s). So when it's running 1 big task (e.g. installation), I guested the CPU would use 1 or 2 core(s) to get the task done. Therefore, my CPU should have 2 cores left. I had this idea because I was used to run Windows in VMware and I could specify how many cores and RAM used on the virtual OS. I wasn't sure if this was the truth. But anyway thanks for your info!!
Resource allocation / CPU split-core usage is system managed (usually beyond your control) and that takes many factors into consideration. As far as WinRAR is concerned, ensure you have Low Priority unchecked and that Multithreading is checked (these are the Defaults)
Like x86 said when you want to install something just shut down the other opened programs if it slows your pc. Personally i don´t have those issues when installing programs,sometimes i have many opened programs at once and it doesn´t slow down my pc or the programs. Set your Winrar to normal mode,i extract sometimes really big Rars when watching movies or playing games and don´t seem to have those isues. Could it be that your maybe downloading something in the meanwhile,if yes then that´s your problem. Otherwise don´t see a prob why you should have those problems,except it´s a Software issue
It's the disk access, the hard disk is the slowest component in your pc and the most used next to memory. You need an SSD to help out a bit when files are being dumped to disk or RAID your hard disks.
I think it's a mixture of a bit of everything. Increased disk access is the result of increased software / memory resident services running in the background (or that the HDD is old - which in our case, isn't). Meaning that even a state of the art system would noticeably slow down if you run multiple demanding applications. My guess for this case is that he's probably using a heavy AV / Security suite (e.g. KIS) and that usually is enough to deteriorate performance whilst performing multiple tasks. Not to mention if you try installing apps with KIS switch on and on default settings. It will bugger up performance and it will place apps (usually non-digitally signed) under restrictions Yes - computers are indeed multi-tasking, but you shouldn't need being constantly on the limit. Remove any unnecessary apps, safe-tweak some of those Windows services (i.e. indexing, hibernation) and always shut down apps that you are not currently using. That will help lowering CPU cycles, memory usage, power usage and increase overall system performance Regarding HDD performance in particular - make sure that Enable Write Caching on the Device policy (in Device Manager) is enabled. You could also check your BIOS setup for any performance related option that is switched off...
Dude, I think you really need an upgrade of your hardwares. Hey come on, it's the era of computers with multi-core processor!! BTW, thanks for all the valuable answers. You all let me learn a lot ;p
Seriously, if that old hardware covers my needs, why upgrade? I use the PC to perform typical, average-user type of tasks. And it does so perfectly and at a decent speed. The last upgrade I did was couple years ago when I bought my ATI 3650HD AGP (my mobo doesn't have PCIe). And I did that in order to enable smooth 1080p playback (as I watch movies / docs heavily). And it does so - just (can't run too many apps concurrently). Of course, I have done a lot of reading on performance optimisation over the years and I tend to put everything into practise. Ultimate goal is to squeeze every little bit of what my existing hardware can provide... Since this is a custom built PC which goes back more than 12 years (started off as a PIII), I have to consider many things if I am to upgrade something on it. At present time, next upgrade (whenever that happens!) will require definitely a new CPU and that will require a new mobo and that will also require new RAM modules and ... since the GPU (AGP) will become the bottleneck ... a new GPU as well. I also got two HDDs; one SATA2 (running at SATA speed) and one IDE. So you see, its a knock-on effect. Which I don't need to start at this moment So for the time being, I d rather spend any leisure money on my car
when it slows just press ctrl-alt-delete (task manager) and check cpu utilization, and which process occupies more resources ... also check memory utilization. god luck.