You are CPU limited. When you are out of memory, the HD light should be on solid and the CPU utilization will drop to near zero (the CPU is starved of data).

Check in task manager to see what is running and using the CPU. Also check to see how much of your memory is being used (Commit Charge). You can use more memory if Commit Charge is much greater than 1G.

You can use something like CPU-Z to check the actual clock rate the processor is running at to make sure it is what you expect.

Peter

If you have a quad core, I'd say you have a problem, if its a 386, you have a different problem. What is a long time? How often are you installing programs and what kind of programs.

You guys are talking above my pay grade. This is the CPU info: 2.80 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4 16 kilobyte primary memory cache 1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache I can't find the "Commit charge.

That CPU should perform well enough and the CPU utilization is not normal.

Open task manager (control-alt-delete). Commit Charge is show at the bottom. Look for the processes using the CPU resources. On the Performance tab look for the Total Physical Memory.

Peter

That is telling you that Windows is using 750M of your 1G. More memory might be useful, but it is not the key problem as I suspected.

You need to figure out what process is occupying the CPU.

Peter

Commit charge is 750 mb /2441 mb and the Physical memory is : 1038412

The only thing that is using the cpu in process is the System Idle Process. It seems to be using 90% %+ with 28K of memory.

Loaded the Works 2002 version of word 90%+. Downloaded an upgrade to open Office - swdsvc went to 100%. Loaded Corel Paint Shop Pro and it went to 90% plus.

Then you aren't at 100%. You need to check when you are at 100%.

Peter

So you are saying the CPU utilization goes to 100% for a brief time (how long) when loading those programs?

I just loaded Word and the CPU (one core) went to 100% for about 1 second.

Actually, here is a thought! It might be that your disk controller is operating in PIO mode which takes CPU cycles. Normally, they operate in DMA mode which is done independently of the CPU. This only applies if you have IDE drives or are operating in an IDE compatible mode (I believe ... my SATA controllers do not have this mode).

Check in Device Manager (right click on My Computer and select Manage and then Device Manager) to see what modes you are operating in. Look under the properties of the controllers. Somewhere it tells you what transfer mode is in effect.

You never said what machine you have, so it is hard to know what hardware you actually have.

Also make sure the Policies for your HD in the Device Manager is set for "Optimize for Performance".

Peter