Windows Performance is running high

[Nightjay0044]

 
Hi, I'm running windows 7

Toshiba Satellite Laptop
64 bit OS
4GB RAM
AMD Dual Core processor 2.20GHz
ATI Mobility Radeon 4200 Seris GPU

Here is also a screen shot of my performance meter, and as you can see I don't have much running on my OS.



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Do I really have no choice but to upgrade hardware pieces? I don't think tweaking it will fix it, unless firefox, is taking all my performance

thank you

[Transfusion]

Firefox is known to be an insane memory hog-with only 5 tabs open it can take up over 141,000 K of memory. At least that's what my computer says in Task Manager.
But even then... you have 4 GB of memory, which shouldn't be a problem. Have you done any virus scans recently? Are there any background processes which you have forgotten to close? Does the CPU usage rise to 100% only when you are in Firefox?
I noticed that you have a YouTube tab open. Flash is CPU intensive. Is your CPU usage still at 100% even if you are not on YouTube?
Try a different browser, such as Google Chrome or Opera, and see what happens...

[Nightjay0044]

I have norton and Microsoft security essentials. I haven't done a scan recently. The task manager fluctuates from 5% to 100% CPU Usage regardless where I'm at. I don't think there are any background programs running that I don't want. I could check again. I think i'll have to try a different browser.

[JJ 3000]

I have norton and Microsoft security essentials.

That could be your problem. Having two antivirus programs running on your computer can be just as bad, if not worse, than none at all. You need to uninstall one of those programs.

If you're still having this problem after uninstalling one of your av programs, you should visit Computer Hope's virus removal forum.

Read this:
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,46313.0.html

Start a new topic here:
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/board,53.0.html


If they give you a clean bill of health, come back here.

[Nightjay0044]

It looks like removing one of the virus software helped with the CPU Usage Percent. Now it' stays at a steady 10%-30% while using Google Chrome and other applications. Why do two installed virus software conflict with each other like that? Is it because the network can only handle one software messing with the CPU?

[JJ 3000]

Why do two installed virus software conflict with each other like that?

Antivirus programs have what they call real-time protection. That means they are always scanning in the background. Most will scan every file when you open it. Even if your computer is idle, the av program is still working in the background, monitoring your system. When you have two programs doing this, they will conflict with each other, bump heads. They will be constantly competing with each other. One may even see the other as a threat, since av  programs have some of the same characteristics of computer viruses. This can cause all sorts of problems, even crashing your system or letting viruses through while the two programs are fighting each other.

[Nightjay0044]

ok, that does make sense - I'm definitely familiar with Real time term. Now I know I'm not going to have two AV programs installed.  . Like you said, they'll compete with each other and may let a virus in.

Thanks.