Lock up, slow down, won't cooperate, acts like a 2 year old ...

[Washbush]

I just acquired a new video board with more grunt and I am looking forward to putting it in.  But, this same old problem is driving me nuts and I think it should be fixed first.  Here is what I know ... a.) the computer will not reboot.  When asked to reboot, it runs through the shut down process but, at some point, the monitor is shut off but the keyboard isn't.  There it sits.  I then shut down and restart by hand.  b.)  I get messages saying "Such-n-such is not responding".  It could be Firebird, it could be Pandora, it could be anything.  This morning it was Google Mail.  Sometimes it get's going on its own, but usually I have to Contol-Alt-Delete.  c.)  I think that there are problems in the services and whatever all is running in the background. d.)  When I check, I find that a lot of what is going on is related to the CPU running at 100%.  It somehow creeps up to 100% and gets stuck there.  I know that means that there is a problem but I have absolutely no idea what to look for.  I would like to shut down a lot of the services, but I have no idea what they are.  (Might be a need for a fix in this somewhere.  I can't find any help on which services to leave on and which to turn off.) 

I have tried all the common cures for slow, jumpy video, siezes, etc and nothing helps.  I have run test after test only to see "No problems found."  It seems that when I run System Mechanic Pro, it helps but the assist doesn't last long.  In two or three days I am back at the problem again.

Any suggestions?

John

[Shane]

You need to open the task manager and find out what program is using up the CPU so much.

Also there is a registry tweak you can do in Windows that tells it to auto kill hung programs and services during shutdown, otherwise it wont and it just sits there. My Simple System Tweaker has the registry tweak in it
http://www.tweaking.com/content/page/simple_system_tweaker.html

Make sure to find out what program is causing the CPU to stay at 100%

Shane

[Washbush]

I have developed a little routine to go through when it starts getting cranky.  I use Cont-Alt-Del until that is not so effective.  Then, I run both Big Tweek and Little Tweek.  When that starts to wear off, I start the Total Complete Do Everything from System Mechanic Pro with it set to shut down when finished.  Then, I go to bed.  In the morning I start all over and I get one good day, one pretty good day and one struggling and annoying day.  During those three days, I will have shut down and rebooted about 6 or 8 times. 

At the moment, the CPU is running between 60% and 75%.  It is bouncing around.  The two big hogs on the services list are Firefox and Thunderbird.  The third is CCC ... Creative Control Center.  That is ATI stuff for the video card.  The good news there is that I will change the video board later today and get rid of all of the ATI program files and drivers.  Maybe that by itself will help. 

Would it be possible that there is so little memory on the video board that it's need just backs up through the whole system?  Maybe it causes increased use of the virtual memory that is so darn slow?  Do you think that I should change the video board right away to see if that will help?  I was thinking that I should solve the issue before I stick in some more possibilities for new trouble.   

John

[Shane]

I use ATI cards and in my system the ccc.exe doesnt take any cpu and I barley see it move. So something is odd there if it is taking a lot of cpu. The ccc.exe does require .net so if .net is messed up it could cause a problem.

I say try the new video card as soon as you can and see how things go.

Shane