CPU hitting 100% and seizing.

[Edge]

I have a reasonable Dell 6400 and a fairly basic Desktop.

 

The laptop is fine, but I'd like to be able to play/edit M2TS files on the Desktop.

The Desktop CPU also maxes and everything seizes when I'm multitasking sometimes.

 

Sometime soon I'll probably buy a new Desktop, but I wonder if it's worth upgrading the CPU.

 

Everything seems to function OK and it's got 2 x1 Gb RAM, which Crucial says is the max.

I don't want to buy another motherboard and RAM if I can help it.

 

Can anyone tell me if a new CPU would fix it and if so what am I looking for.

Thanks.

 

The specifications are:-

 

System Model: P4V8X-MX

Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.

Motherboard Model: P4V8X-MX

 

 

Maximum Memory Capacity: 8388608 MB

Currently Installed Memory: 1024 MB (now doubled)

Available Memory Slots: N.A.

Total Memory Slots: 2

Dual Channel Support: N.A.

CPU Manufacturer: GenuineIntel

CPU Family: Intel® Celeron® CPU 2.53GHz Model 4, Stepping 1

CPU Speed: 2534 MHz

[Tariq]

I do not think that a new CPU will make a difference. You would need a new CPU eventually though.

 

I think that your main issue is the integrated S3 graphic chipset. It is a weak graphic card, coupled with slow RAM, and a slow single core CPU. That is your main problem. I believe that a new desktop is overdue. You would need a new motherboard, CPU, some decent RAM, and a video card.

[praf974]

that system is really old .. the cpu passmark benchmark is only 320 vs a modern i7 benchmark of 5482 (17 times faster), you would have to replace motherboard/memory and cpu. But you could pickup a cheap AMD Phenom II bundle (cpu/memory/motherboard) for < £300 which would improve things by maybe a factor of 10!

 

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

[halleman]

any chance you are running AVG anti-virus ?

Remove AVG, it makes your processor "overload"...

With AVG no problem if you have a recent processor,

a less recent processor cannot handle the AVG workload.

[Mike Asia]

I would suggest you kill a few of the wild pigs running around your house, sell the meat in the market across from Wat Chai and then take the money and buy a new computer

[Edge]

I do not think that a new CPU will make a difference. You would need a new CPU eventually though.

I think that your main issue is the integrated S3 graphic chipset. It is a weak graphic card, coupled with slow RAM, and a slow single core CPU. That is your main problem. I believe that a new desktop is overdue. You would need a new motherboard, CPU, some decent RAM, and a video card.

that system is really old .. the cpu passmark benchmark is only 320 vs a modern i7 benchmark of 5482 (17 times faster), you would have to replace motherboard/memory and cpu. But you could pickup a cheap AMD Phenom II bundle (cpu/memory/motherboard) for < £300 which would improve things by maybe a factor of 10!

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

 

Putting those 2 thoughts and my situation together, I'll go to look in Tukcom first and look on the link and ebay to see if it's worth getting such as that brought out.

I'm not a geek by any stretch and an improvement of x10 would be a great result.

 

any chance you are running AVG anti-virus ?

.....................

 

I do run AVG on the Laptop with no problems, but the Desktop was loaded up here and has Eset Smart Security (no doubt pirate). It certainly does slow everything down when it updates on start up but generally seems OK and keeps me out of trouble most of the time..

 

Thanks for your comments and advice.

I was expecting the old girl to be lambasted. I should have said I'm in Pattaya, so an upgrade would depend what I could get out here unless I risked the post.

I also have a slow internet connection and the Desktop is handy to leave out grinding away downloading movies and such, which can take weeks sometimes. The laptop I tend to hide away when I go out.

I'm not sure what the future holds and if I could get loose I would do a lot more travelling and a Macbook/whatever might make a lot more sense than spending about 60k baht on a new Desktop setup, much as I would like one.

 

Thanks again.

[praf974]

bear in mind swapping out motherboard and cpu is not really a non-geek task! it probably makes sense to get a new machine, then you get new power supply/case, hard disk, dvd drive and the latest windows also for not much more.

[Boon]

get rid of it and start again, upgrades are really not worth the trouble. like everyone else has said new systems are cheap enough as it is these days.

[Edge]

bear in mind swapping out motherboard and cpu is not really a non-geek task! it probably makes sense to get a new machine, then you get new power supply/case, hard disk, dvd drive and the latest windows also for not much more.

get rid of it and start again, upgrades are really not worth the trouble. like everyone else has said new systems are cheap enough as it is these days.

 

I know you're both right and I know I'm being a Cheap Charley, but that is my situation and a new machine might just be something else to put in store. If it wasn't so annoying I ought to wait and see how things pan out.

 

Within the past 6 months I put 2x1 Gb new Ram in it (didn't help much) new hard discs (2 of 80 Gb + 500 GB) and new dvd drive. Despite the crackdown, software including Windows is not an issue here. I accept I'd probably need a new power supply.

A new case would look nice, but doesn't worry me much. Nothing is certain and nothing is insured out here. Sometimes it's better if it doesn't glitter too much.

 

A new machine which is reasonably future proof (i7) is not that cheap.

 

When I say I'm not a geek I mean on the user side. The mechanics of them don't worry me so much and I've been inside Desktops and had the Dell Laptop inside out a few times. If I got a bundle from Tukcom they'd stick it in within the price or I could get it done for 2-300 baht.

[Dr.Winston]

I would follow the advice of others and go for an upgrade rather start replacing major components. I also swear by re-installing windows from time to time, the only thing is that it's best have to make sure that you have all of your drivers, for your ethernet card, printer etc. handy before you do it. It takes a while to load the essential stuff back on but can often make a computer run like new again.

[praf974]

yeh i7's arent cheap .. i3's are more affordable, but AMD phenoms give you best desktop performance for the money, i just finished looking into upgrading my main machine. its very difficult to future proof , you can guarantee in 12 months a host of new motherboard/chip specs will come out which makes your stuff un-upgradeable. another factor is that windows can be very fussy about new hardware .. it often wont simply move from one machine to another, you more than likely need to re-install. power supplies can be a problem too if they arent right for the motherboard.

[Archer4]

You have a number of bottle necks in your system for the task you describe. Additionally, I would wager you have not cleaned or maintained your system since first purchase and have installed/uninstalled many programs since you bought it. You probably have a lot of processes running that are using system resources and your registry is likely to be clogged with entries for programs and system configurations that no longer exist. So reinstalling your O/S will likely speed up your system quite dramatically. The newer versions of AVG can hog a lot of system resource too.

 

The Celeron is a budget processor and can be very limited, especially if you want to multi-task. Your graphics may also be crippling you with anything involving rendering more than pictures or webpages. You don't mention what O/S you are running either or what graphics card?

 

To be honest that is a very old board and attempting to upgrade the CPU is not a viable option. Socket 478 CPU's can be hard to source now and are often more expensive than modern dual or quad core processors. Your RAM is also DDR, which is slow compared to more modern DDR2 and DDR3 RAM. DDR2 RAM is also cheaper than DDR most of the time. If you use eBay you will be surprised at how much your components will go for too. I buy and sell computer parts all the time and some of my old CPU's and RAM have sold in some cases for more than I paid for them! Espcially stuff you can no longer buy new.

 

You really need to buy a new system, it does not have to be an i series, there is still plenty of life left in cheaper dual and quad core systems. It's a good time right now too, with Windows 7 available, as Vista has finally been relegated to where it belongs... the scrap heap!

 

You would be amazed at the performance of a relatively cheap Windows 7 64bit system with a dual core processor and 4GB RAM. Upgrading what you have is not a sensible solution from either an economical or performance gain viewpoint.

Edited June 5, 2010 by Archer4

[Edge]

I would follow the advice of others and go for an upgrade rather start replacing major components. I also swear by re-installing windows from time to time, the only thing is that it's best have to make sure that you have all of your drivers, for your ethernet card, printer etc. handy before you do it. It takes a while to load the essential stuff back on but can often make a computer run like new again.

 

I have had it re-formatted twice - it only costs 200 baht. It's easier and it's a copy so I don't have an OS disc. I know what you mean but it doesn't solve this problem.

 

yeh i7's arent cheap .. i3's are more affordable, but AMD phenoms give you best desktop performance for the money, i just finished looking into upgrading my main machine. its very difficult to future proof , you can guarantee in 12 months a host of new motherboard/chip specs will come out which makes your stuff un-upgradeable. another factor is that windows can be very fussy about new hardware .. it often wont simply move from one machine to another, you more than likely need to re-install. power supplies can be a problem too if they arent right for the motherboard.

 

I'd love an i7, but if the conclusion is that I have to buy a new machine it will have to wait until my circumstances become clearer.

I know a new machine is the best way to go, but I'm not grasping why I can't utilise my existing Hard Drives and DVD and CD Drives.

 

You have a number of bottle necks in your system for the task you describe. Additionally, I would wager you have not cleaned or maintained your system since first purchase and have installed/uninstalled many programs /b] since you bought it. You probably have a lot of processes running that are using system resources and your So reinstalling your O/S will likely speed up your system quite dramatically. The newer versions of AVG can hog a lot of resources too.

 

The Celeron is a budget processor and can be very limited, especially if you want to multi-task. Your graphics may also be crippling you with anything involving rendering more than pictures or webpages. You don't mention what O/S you are running either or what graphics card?

 

To be honest that is a very old board and attempting to upgrade the CPU is not a viable option. Socket 478 CPU's can be hard to source now and are often more expensive than modern dual or quad core processors. Your RAM is also DDR, which is slow compared to more modern DDR2 and DDR3 RAM. DDR2 RAM is also cheaper than DDR most of the time. If you use eBay you will be surprised at how much your components will go for too. I buy and sell computer parts all the time and some of my old CPU's and RAM have sold in some cases for more than I paid for them! Espcially stuff you can no longer buy new.

 

You really need to buy a new system, it does not have to be an i series, there is still plenty of life left in cheaper dual and quad core systems. It's a good time right now too, with Windows 7 available, as Vista has finally been relegated to where it belongs... the scrap heap!

 

You would be amazed at the performance of a relatively cheap Windows 7 64bit system with a dual core processor and 4GB RAM. Upgrading what you have is not a sensible solution from either an economical or performance gain viewpoint.

 

Thanks for spending so much time on this.

I've put some of your answer in bold mainly as reminders.

Answering them in order:-

 

not cleaned - I think I'm not too bad. I use CCleaner very regularly and also Ad-Aware and Spybot. It has also been re-formatted twice.

installed/uninstalled - yes probably. I do have Registry Mechanic running.

lots of processes running - I think that may well be an issue and I haven't really got to grips with knocking them out. Re-installing, as I said to the Dr. is not much of a problem and I may do it soon anyway, because something is making Windows Explorer close down. If I take it to have it re-formatted I just back everything up onto the slave Hard Drive and then take it out - just in case.

AVG - No, I use AVG on the Laptop no probs (Core2Duo [email protected]) but the Desktop is on ESET Smart Security 4.0.417.0 which seems to work well.

OS and Graphics - It's on Windows XP Professional 2002 Service Pack 2 (Igot service Pack 3 on the Laptop but couldn't get through validation on the Desktop). I never did Vista. I do have a Windows 7 disc (copy) but they seem happier with XP here and Í get on OK with it. The card is the NVIDEA GeForce FX 5200 which I think is the highest spec for the board - not that I play video games, but presumably it's relevant to my problem playing M2TS files.

ebay - I do use it, but I live in Pattaya so that wouldn't be easy.

 

I know I ought to dump this (although the 2 HDs and the DVD Drive are good) and buy a new one, but if that's the conclusion, then as I've said, it won't happen until I know where I'm at and that could be a year or more and this is driving me nuts.

The AMD Phenom II bundle still has some appeal in my circumstances.

 

Thanks again everyone.

[Tariq]

A new machine which is reasonably future proof (i7) is not that cheap.

 

I would go for an i5 if I were you at this time. Good price/performance ratio IMO.

[praf974]

thats what id do also .. but i always upgrade bits rather than whole machines and it doesnt phase me, i always install windows from scratch!

 

you can do it for less than £200 if your power supply is ok ..

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MOTHERBOARD-BUNDLE-AMD-PHENOM-II-X2-550-BLACK-2GB-DDR3-/200473078661?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Motherboards_CPUs&hash=item2ead206b85

 

you can re-use your hard disks they are sata? if not sata disks are cheap. if you want to re-use ide disks you will need to choose a motherboard with more than one ide socket (your cd/dvd drive(s) are ide as well) , i think you can also buy ide->sata connectors.

[Archer4]

Of course one solution could be to upgrade just your board, CPU and RAM? Depends on how savvy you are though, simple for me to say. Some modern boards have very good GPU's built in, so you just need RAM and a dual core CPU. Windows XP still has plenty of life in it and Microsoft are going to support it until April 2014 (only SP3), but support for SP2 ends in July.

 

If you are in Pattaya then things won't be as simple I guess, but if you cleaned it up installed the OS again could you maybe sell it and put the money towards a new one?

 

I'm not grasping why I can't utilise my existing Hard Drives and DVD and CD Drives.

You can use your existing case, HDD's DVD etc. The power supply may be an issue, depending on what connector you have for the main plug that goes into the board.

Edited June 5, 2010 by Archer4

[Edge]

thats what id do also .. but i always upgrade bits rather than whole machines and it doesnt phase me, i always install windows from scratch!

you can do it for less than £200 if your power supply is ok ..

...................you can re-use your hard disks they are sata? ..........

 

Yes the Hard Discs are SATA.

I'm on ebay now that I have an idea what I'm looking for. I have a daughter coming out in July so she could probably bring it, but once I know what I'm looking for I'll check in Tukcom, Pattaya because they'll fit it for me free anyway.

 

Of course one solution could be to upgrade just your board, CPU and RAM? Depends on how savvy you are though, simple for me to say. Some modern boards have very good GPU's built in, so you just need RAM and a dual core CPU. Windows XP still has plenty of life in it and Microsoft are going to support it until April 2014 (only SP3), but support for SP2 ends in July.

If you are in Pattaya then things won't be as simple I guess, but if you cleaned it up installed the OS again could you maybe sell it and put the money towards a new one?

You can use your existing case, HDD's DVD etc. The power supply may be an issue, depending on what connector you have for the main plug that goes into the board.

 

ATM that's what I'm thinking. The OS is not such a big issue here. You can buy a Genuine copy if you want, but most setups are sold blank here and then they load it with whatever software you want for a few hundred baht.

Some things are easier in Pattaya.

I'm assuming I'd need a new power supply.

[Mike Asia]

stop trying to put a band aid on a broken condom and buy a new computer.

[lespaul5000]

there's no need to break the bank when you buy a new desktop

 

 

Gateway SX2800 Tower System (PT.G8102007)

 

Intel Core 2 Quad 8300 (2.5Ghz)

6GB DDR3 RAM

640GB SATA II Harddrive

nVidia GT220 1GB Video Card

DVD Super Multi Drive

Gigabit Lan

PS2 Keyboard/USB Mouse

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

 

 

...all for about 500 bucks

[dudebrah]

there's no need to break the bank when you buy a new desktop

 

 

Gateway SX2800 Tower System (PT.G8102007)

 

Intel Core 2 Quad 8300 (2.5Ghz)

6GB DDR3 RAM

640GB SATA II Harddrive

nVidia GT220 1GB Video Card

DVD Super Multi Drive

Gigabit Lan

PS2 Keyboard/USB Mouse

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

 

 

...all for about 500 bucks

 

 

Yours was way cheaper !

[lespaul5000]

Yours was way cheaper !

 

running like a dream now

[Edge]

stop trying to put a band aid on a broken condom and buy a new computer.

 

It ain't broke yet, so I'll just keep washing it out and using it again thanks.

 

 

there's no need to break the bank when you buy a new desktop

Gateway SX2800 Tower System (PT.G8102007)

Intel Core 2 Quad 8300 (2.5Ghz)...............

...all for about 500 bucks

 

If I buy a new one I'll go higher spec' than that.

It isn't the money it's my circumstances re where I live and where I want to live and how/if all that happens.

 

Thanks anyway. Of course, that's the price in Alberta or wherever.

 

I'll go to Tukcom and look, but I think Import Tax and the Exchange Rate makes them more than 15,000 baht here.

[Mike Asia]

not sure if you are thick or just cheap,

 

 

[Edge]

not sure if you are thick or just cheap,

 

If you can't work that out it's obvious which one you are.

 

 

Just because you specialise in one liners doesn't mean some of us don't put more information further down the post where you apparently don't go.

[Edge]

Of course one solution could be to upgrade just your board, CPU and RAM? ........................................If you are in Pattaya then things won't be as simple I guess, but if you cleaned it up installed the OS again could you maybe sell it and put the money towards a new one?

You can use your existing case, HDD's DVD etc. The power supply may be an issue, depending on what connector you have for the main plug that goes into the board.

 

If anyone is still listening after mike_asia thread fcuking me, these are some of the options at Tukcom.

 

I'm still thinking of upgrading the existing I'm afraid - budget 10-12k.

Constructive comments (i.e. not from The New or any other mike_asia) would be very welcome.

 

Sorry it's oversize but when I reduced it it wasn't legible.