Help: Task mangaer system idle process=99 and low resources message

Question

When I leave my 8200 Dell computer on and idle for a few hours and come back and click on an icon I get insufficient system resources to run. Nothing works. If I reboot all is OK for about 10-12 hours. When I reboot the windows shutting down screen is very small.

The only power setting I use is to shut the monitor nothing else) no hibernation etc.). Ran sfc/ scannow and chkdsk. Also did Dell system check with no errors found in hardware.Checked for spyware, viruses and adware. Changed the memory with new memory, no help.

I ran task manager in the background noticed only one thing. None of the processes take up excesisve memory. But the system idle process cpu always is 99. Is this normal? Could it be the problem? If yes is there a solution?

System is 2 gig 512 RAM and Windows XP home.

Any ideas? Thanks

Gerry

fjx1@aol.com

msgale · Answer

If you are doing nothing then you must be doing something else, the 'System Idle Process' is the something else.  99 percent is reasonable when doing nothing.

redwolfe_98 · Answer

look in task manager, under processes, and see if you can spot the dell support utility running.. if so, kill the process (in task manager, under processes), and then go to add/remove and uinstall the dell support utility. maybe the dell support utility is what is causing the problem. Message Edited by redwolfe_98 on 01-06-2004 04:55 AM

thanhvn · Answer

'insufficient system resources' usually refers to memory. check to see how much memory you're using when you have the insufficient system resources message. it looks like you have something automatically starts up with windows and slowly eats up memory (memory leak?). run msconfig and remove all unnecessary programs from automatic start-up and see if that help. if not, try shutting down as much unnecessary windows services (such as alerter, automatic updates, computer browser, icf, messenger, secondary logon, task scheduler, etc.) as possible, i.e. changing them from automatic to manual. Message Edited by thanhvn on 01-06-2004 01:39 AM

gerys · Answer

Could someone give me a list of all the services I can safely disable when running msconfig. There are some I'm not familiar with. Trying to figure out why my computer freezes or gives insufficient memory message after being idle for seeral hours and has to be rebooted. Already disabled uneeded startup items and changed memory cards, scanned hardware for problems, ran chkdsk, defrag, sfc/ scannow, check for viruses, spyware and adware and it still freezes.

Anything else I can try, short of reinstall. Tried to run repair windows with disk and couldn't get that option to appear on screen. Don't know why?

Thanks,

Gerry fjx1@aol.com

Dell 8200 512 RAM windows xp home.

msgale · Answer

I would leave the startup tasks and services alone.  I am running four PCs, three with XP Pro and one with Windows 2003 Enterprise Server.  I have no modified startup processes or services.  Machines work like clockwork.  I on the contrary feel that the more you improve your system the more problems you have.  About Blkviper, he gets an A+ for effort, but that’s all,  comments similar 'It appears to be', 'I'm not sure but it hasn't cause me any problems', does not give me a warm fuzzy feeling.  Considering the size and complexity, with out either the source code or internal documentation, I think our ability to understand any application or service is very limited.  I have seen some brilliant write ups on these forms with rational conclusions, however there premise was totally incorrect and therefore wrong and useless.

JRosenfeld · Answer

Look at these two sites for detailed informatiojn on XP services, what they do (so you can decide whether you need them for your setup), default and safe settings.

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm

Windows General

Help: Task mangaer system idle process=99 and low resources message

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