Why is it so slow?

[milly143]

Recently everything I do on my laptop takes forever. Such as loading web pages, switching from one window to another and when I type there is a delay of a couple of seconds between me pressing the keys and the words appearing on the screen. Occasionaly the cursor freezes up and then goes crazy when it starts working again, as it's catching up with me trying to move it around. I currently have open IE, Outlook and Quickbooks so nothing major although it was doing it yesterday when I only had IE open. I am running Windows Vista on a Dell Latitude. I tried doing a de-frag a couple of weeks ago which stopped the 'low on memory' pop up but everything still seems to be delayed. Any suggestions?

[chas2008]

anti virus maybe ? sounds like something running in the backround using up the memory/cpu...Tried 'task manager' when this is happening to see whats using the memory /cpu and by how much...

[milly143]

ok. Physical memory currently at 80% (with all the above programmes running). I ujust closed a PDF file and doing that the CPU usage shot up to something like 80%. Is that normal?

[ChuckFickens]

What model is it?

How much hard drive space do you have left on the C drive (right click on it in computer and select properties)

And how much RAM does it have (right click on the computer icon and select properties)

[milly143]

It's a E5500.

RAM - 2.00 GB
Free Space - 49.00 GB

[chas2008]

not an expert but i think 80% (assuming its continous ) is to high..can you see which programmes are causing this ? (under processes)...
i only mentioned this as i once had an issue wherby mine was running at 90-99% which made the pc unusable turned out to be an anti malware programme running, i just located it in the task manager highlighted it and ended the process, sorted !

[milly143]

The only programmes showing in th TM are the ones I've listed. That usage number does fluctuate from very high to very low but when the pc is working slowly, I can't open the task manager up in time to see what's causing it.

[ChuckFickens]

Leave the task manager open, click on the processes tab, then click on the CPU heading until it shows the highest at the top, wait until it throws a go slow and see what jumps to the top (or near to) of the CPU usage list.

[chas2008]

basically whatever is running is taking up so much of the CPU theres not enough left to open the task manager, it will eventually open just takes ages...
The PC im on now (company) has exactly the same problem from time to time the task manager shows internet explorer running at 100% ! which freezes everything, the old favourite of turning it off at the base & rebooting sorts it.I have never got to the bottom of why it does it, even out techies cant sus it..