slow computer

[zip86]

I built my first computer as shown below. This would easily handle simple tasking without any hitch but unfortunately, this is not my case. My computer often gets very slow simply by opening a new firefox or explorer window. It uses up usually 70 to 90% of my cpu for about 3-5sec.

The computer also sometimes says its running out of virtual memory when doing simple tasking. 1Gig should be more than enough but im having problems.

Strange thing is, it doesn't seem to be slow in demanding games.

I've tried fragging but it didn't help much. Could it be because my HDs are shown as removeable storage? Can someone please explain why this is happening?


EDIT: Actually, a lot of things makes the CPU jump to 100% usage. Opening outlook, using TV tuner, opening wmplayer, etc. Everything makes it spike. I'm starting to think its a hardware problem. Or is it? HELP.

[rspassey]

Do you run virus and spyware and malware scans as well as disk clean ups often?
You might also have some processes that run constantly that shouldnt be running all the time, check your running processes and see if you have something running that doesnt need to be.

[freakitchen]

Give Ryan's fixes a try before anything else.

I've tried fragging but it didn't help much. Could it be because my HDs are shown as removeable storage? Can someone please explain why this is happening?

Your drives are shown as 'removable drives' because they're SATA, and thus hot-swappable. It wouldn't cause the issues you describe.

Your virtual memory is not your RAM, it's your windows swap file, acting as more memory. This should be set to at least the amout of RAM you have. It can also help to put it on a different drive to your OS. Check the MS knowlege base for details of how to do this.

Freakitchen

[Cricket]

Is your main hard drive (the 36GB Raptor?) almost full? The swap file is dynamic (expands or contracts as required by Windows) and if your hard drive doesn't have much room left the swap file can't do it's thing properly. Clean up the drive by removing all temp files and unnecessary or unused programs.

Cricket

[zip86]

I didn't have enough space on my second drive. My primary drive had enough space but my 120GB WD IDE drive was nearly full and slowed everything down. Now I have 20GB free on my 34.4GB and 28GB on my 111GB HD. It still kind of spikes but not nearly as much.

But there's something bothering me. I have one SATA drive and one IDE drive. My SATA is set as SATA primary and my IDE is set as IDE SLAVE drive but the IDE shows as a removeable storage. And also, the SATA RAPTOR shows under the IDE as a device component. Did I do something wrong?