I am an IT student and have a pretty good feel for introductory hardware and software fundamentals. Not the best troubleshooter as far diagnostics are concerned. My newly purchased used Compaq with an AMD Turion 64 bit proce3ssor has not been running quite well. It is running on Vista and I noticed that the processor is constantly and I mean constantly pinned near 100% processing even when nothing is going on. I am guessing that the OS has something to do with it. Before I purchase a new OS does anyone have any suggestions that have experience in in such things. Applications are slow and I always have to restart my PC in order to function properly.

That's not normal.

Sounds like you may have too many things running in the background or something.

Perhaps malware?

Nothing's overheating or anything?

Most new computers come with limited memory, but a lot of crapware (my term lol) installed along with the OS.

I've never been a fan of Vista, but some people like it, so I'll reserve my opinion on it.

I would check to see how much memory is in it... (*should* have a minimum of 1gb... *might* only have 512mb)

Check what programs are installed and remove any that are not of interest to you...

If you are running any of the pre-installed Anti Virus programs, be aware that most of them (Norton appears to be the worst) are really *hogs* for CPU usage. I personally, recommend *any* of the free versions. Reason being is the way viruses are introduced to the internet, caught, updates developed and downloaded to you. In that period between them being introduced, and the update downloaded... you are wide open to the new one(s). So why waste money on *any* of them.

Good FREE versions are AVG free... Avast Free... and Microsoft Security Essentials

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-anti-virus-software.htm[url/]

Download, update, and run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to get most of the nasties off your computer.

Hope that helps,

Knight

AVG is horrible, don't know if they have improved any, but they were very bad with slowing systems.

As far as I know it is not but at max processing much of the time Id imagine it is a little warm...

Rusty... My hardware is sufficient actually it has a good amount of primary memory 2- 4 GB I think. And yeah alot of people do not like Vista but most do not know all the things that come with an OS. Not that I know all of the myself but in my software class it sounded as though Vista had some advantages most people will never put to use.Yes I use AVG myself the free version at least but I will check to see what Norton is running in the background and disable it. Since you mention the background programs I will see if I can find the start up programs folder in Vista and remove what I can. I have a feeling this will be of minimal help however unless a malicious software program came with it when I bought it.

Switch to Avast! AVG is probably causing the slow down, or at least one of the culprits.

I assumed at first that you meant the 'processor usage percentage' rather than the 'processor speed'. I'm still not clear on what you mean.

If its the 'processor usage percentage', then... wow! that's messed up. Take a look at your process list and see which processes are responsible. You might kill those processes on the spot, you might remove it from your start-up programs. A decade ago, when I used windows machines, I was infected with a poorly written virus that wrote itself into another program - that program tended to use 90% of my processor all the time.

If its the processor speed, this is no big deal. These days most of us normally expect this to dynamically adjust to the load, but we can also just set it to stay on maximum. In the old days, that's how things were done - the processor stayed on maximum the whole time. Changing this is probably under 'power management' settings.

1. never use anything Microsoft. The security essentials are based on Symantec which is Norton. Ok the Os u have to deal with go Win 7. Me I use PCLinuxOS for my clients and myself.

AVG is second rated to Bitdefender which has been number 1 for 12 years now. Based on judges around the world. Secondly, Avg doesn't and never has slowed down the system.

Get ccleaner and config it right .
libre office
Bitddefender.
Install all this after u format and install win or pclinuxos


contact me and i will help u out.

I would install Win7 Win Vista was/is a horrible OS.
If installing a new OS is not an option, I would make sure that the system is clean of virus\spyware. I would unistall anything Norton.
Yes Bit Defender is good. Make sure that you only have one antivirus program installed. for spyware I use Malaware bytes. I use Microsoft Security Essentials. As always make sure you have a backup of any important files.

Bitdefender is the best period, and covers the malware. and mickysoft crap is just that crap. Anybody suggesting that should get retrained in the IT field. Cant get an OS PCLINUX OS- getting a os needs just a cd/dvd . That is a option. Dam I could ship it to him. The link is right there:

http://www.pclinuxos.com/?page_id=180 - actual information and such.

http://distrib-coffee.ipsl.jussieu.fr/pub/linux/pclinuxos/live-cd/pclinuxos-kde-2012.02.iso live cd

... and that's your opinion, which by the way I respect. M$ may be crap, but still has a big share of the computer market. If the OP want to learn a new OS your way may be the best option, if he just wants to fix the issue with his current OS... well there are many ways to do that too, and again that's just my humble opinion.

Cheers.

I go by facts after going thru R&D. So thats why its facts. Actually PClinux Os isnt hard to learn at all . Its really easy alot more so then windos. A true fix as we both agree on is to loose pista and at least get Win 7 and thats harder especially if he doesn't have the cash or isnt an IT whiz. Which why the answer is PCLinuxOS. Lets just hope he can lose pista

Plus lets not forget CCleaner running that after a little config of about 5 min would fix alot.

http://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER