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butchiesmom

10 Posts

8568

November 22nd, 2004 20:00

System Idle Process at 100% freezes computer momentarily

I have a Dell Dimension 4500 with Windows XP.  Now and then, more now lately, it freezes, meaning I can't enter anything but can move the mouse cursor.   After about 30 seconds, whatever I was doing, resumes and I have no trouble, until the next time.   I go into the Windows Task Manager and find the System Idle Process running at 98% or more.  System Idle Process is almost always the process taking up the resources. 
There's  no warning, it just happens.  It was running slower, but I redownloaded and installed AdAware and changed from Norton to McAfee Anti virus and it found trojans and a virus Norton didn't.  That helped with the speed a little, but I'm still having trouble with the freeze. 
Is this system supposed to run that way all the time?
Gail

Message Edited by butchiesmom on 11-22-2004 05:53 PM

Denny Denham

2 Intern

 • 

18.8K Posts

November 22nd, 2004 21:00

butchiesmom,

System idle should be running in the high 90% range under normal conditions. That is the "process" that accounts for everything not actually in use by an application or other process.

You are already using Ad-aware which is an excellent program. Just for completeness I'd recommend you download Spybot Search and Destroy from here. It can detect items that Ad-aware misses (and conversely).

Do you routinely run Disk Cleanup on the system?

butchiesmom

10 Posts

November 22nd, 2004 21:00

I usually run the disk clean up when I uninstall more than one program or have gotten rid of a lot of files.  I have IE set up so it deletes the temp files when I leave it.  I delete cookies and history less often, but I do it when I remember.  I just did a defrag yesterday and it found a lot of unused space.
 
I am still getting rid of some spyware, Fastclick being the latest one, so I will download Spybot and run it.  I've been running Adaware every day, since I reinstalled it.  I had not been scanning for spyware because of a corrupted reference file, but Norton wasn't finding anything.  I turned on McAfee and it found a virus, can't remember which one, and several trojans.  Adaware found over 100 items and it finds 20 to 30 each time I run it.  I can live with it not as fast as it used to be, I'm not going anywhere, but freezing for a few seconds, is a real pain, especially during downloads and other goings on.
 
I know enough about computers to fix easy to intermediate problems, but I know enough to know I don't know enough. 

Annie70

2 Intern

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2.7K Posts

November 23rd, 2004 10:00

Butchiemom, Did you uninstall Norton Antivirus before you installed Mcaffe?

butchiesmom

10 Posts

November 23rd, 2004 13:00

I uninstalled Norton before I installed McAfee.  That's one of the first lessons I learned about anti-virus programs when I bought my first computer and needed to upgrade the anti-virus program.

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