Computer running very slow

[Cincyboy513]

See at this thread, toward the end:

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,73131.0.html

OK, found the problem. 

I was in PCLOS and restarted (versus shutdown) the system, and booted into XP at the restart. I ran the Ruby benchmark and got the same slow times I was getting in Linux.  Immediately I knew what was happening.

I shutdown and booted into PCLOS this time, and went into the PCC and looked at hardware settings.  Sure enough, for the cpu settings, even though it has 2.8Ghz, the performance setting showed it was running at 699Mhz, i.e. 1/4 of its top speed, which corresponded to the slowdown seen in the Ruby/Python benchmarks I had been running, and explained completely the general slowdown of everything.

So then I went to System settings in PCC, and first stopped the cpufreq setting, but on reboot the clock was still slow. So then I turned off the acpid setting, rebooted, and the cpu was at full speed.  To check, I turned back on the cpufreq setting and the cpu remained at full speed.

So the problem wasn't the gcc compilation, or not reformatting /home, but the acpid settings which set my cpu speed at 1/4 full speed.

Make sure your cpu clock hasn't been slowed down by the acpid daemon.

I don't have any other OS running on this computer and when i checked the monitor as muungwana  suggested acpid is at 0% and the highest is firefox which said 11.50%.  So according to all of you all everything looks normal so luckily there is a computer shop within 20 miles of here that specializes in linux, i'll have to take it there.  Thanks for all of your help you guys are great but my lack of knowledge is probably the main problem here maybe next time before i buy something i should take time to learn about it 

[Old-Polack]

I don't have any other OS running on this computer and when i checked the monitor as muungwana  suggested acpid is at 0% and the highest is firefox which said 11.50%.  So according to all of you all everything looks normal so luckily there is a computer shop within 20 miles of here that specializes in linux, i'll have to take it there.  Thanks for all of your help you guys are great but my lack of knowledge is probably the main problem here maybe next time before i buy something i should take time to learn about it 

With regard to the statement in blue, I didn't agree with that. You show 99% CPU usage, and the combined total or the application usage is only about 10% of that, so again I ask, "What's eating all those cycles?" That's anything but normal. When my CPU usage is way up there, usually the top three applications combined account for at least 95% of the total. If one app is slowing down the whole shebang, I can kill it and get back to normal speeds on the machine, as a whole.

You also have as much swap being used as RAM, which is not normal for a Linux system, unless one app, showing heavy CPU and RAM usage is swapping something out to keep its process running, but you don't show any of that with the applications shown. 

[Ramchu]

Just a thought .

Try creating a new user account ( click on the circle with wrench & screwdriver ) PCC>system>manage users on system>add user

and see if it is still slow as the new user.

its worth a shot !

[Cincyboy513]

I don't have any other OS running on this computer and when i checked the monitor as muungwana  suggested acpid is at 0% and the highest is firefox which said 11.50%.  So according to all of you all everything looks normal so luckily there is a computer shop within 20 miles of here that specializes in linux, i'll have to take it there.  Thanks for all of your help you guys are great but my lack of knowledge is probably the main problem here maybe next time before i buy something i should take time to learn about it 

With regard to the statement in blue, I didn't agree with that. You show 99% CPU usage, and the combined total or the application usage is only about 10% of that, so again I ask, "What's eating all those cycles?" That's anything but normal. When my CPU usage is way up there, usually the top three applications combined account for at least 95% of the total. If one app is slowing down the whole shebang, I can kill it and get back to normal speeds on the machine, as a whole.

You also have as much swap being used as RAM, which is not normal for a Linux system, unless one app, showing heavy CPU and RAM usage is swapping something out to keep its process running, but you don't show any of that with the applications shown. 

Well what do you think it could be? where do you suggest i go from here?

Just a thought .

Try creating a new user account ( click on the circle with wrench & screwdriver ) PCC>system>manage users on system>add user

and see if it is still slow as the new user.

its worth a shot !

I have one other account for my brother and he has complained it runs very slow as well, so its the computer as a whole.

[smcs_steve]

Cincyboy513,
I suggest you install more RAM - at least increase to 1GB (2GB would be better)
The expense is minimal and won't be wasted regardless of the outcome.

Other issues that may relate to your problem could be CRC errors reading your HDD
For diagnosis I use GSmartControl - (Hard disk drive health inspection tool) or UBCD utils CD.
A RAM check may be worthwhile too - some of the LiveCD distros have RAM test on their boot menu.
(RAM test is also available on UBCD,  get it here> http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/  )
>>Steve

[Cincyboy513]

Thanks for the suggestion but i honestly can't see more RAM solving the issue because i haven't taken up little to none space on my computer since it started being slow.  It started this less than 2 months ago and in that time all i've done is work so all i do is browse online, do not do anything that takes up an anywhere near large or decent amount of space.

[smcs_steve]

Cincyboy513 ,
I am talking about system RAM - aka random access memory......   not HDD storage space. 
I make this suggestion based on my suspicion that a recent update has changed you RAM requirements.
Beyond that I'm just guessing.

BTW, maybe someone can shed light on one of your running apps>
27203 root      20   0  3528 1116  944 S  0.7  0.2   7:27.00 liveusb
Does this mean a Live distro running on a USB stick?  Forgive my ignorance, but I'm still entrenched in KDE 3.5.10 on 2009.1 and haven't done the leap to the new 2010 release yet. (I will when I get back to Australia)
>>Steve

[Texstar]

You might need to replace your hamster. 

[menotu]

You might need to replace your hamster.  

         

You mentioned running an anti-virus  scan - is that software still running as that can cause slowdowns.

Have you rebooted your pc recently? especially if you've updated your system.

And, as has been mentioned earlier, a ram increase WILL (everything being equal) make your system a lot snappier. Here in the UK ram prices for 512MB of memory would be approx £15.

IF, you do go for more, check your motherboard will accept another ram stick, and what type it takes. (I think crucial.com will scan your system and advise what type memory your board takes)