Whats my processor doing ?

Joco

Hi
My processor is busy beavering away, and I have no clue to what its actually
doing.
Is there a simple way of knowing what program is running, the task manager
does not help or give any clues. I have tried whats running, but this gives
me an endless list, prseumable created from the start program.
The sound from the processor would suggest a defragmentation program was
running, whilst I have O&O defragmentation it is not scheduled to run at this
time either by me setting a time or default.
Is there a simple utility programe which will give me the names of programes
actually running ? my operatingI system is windows XP SP2
Thanks Joco (London)

Daniel Crichton

Joco wrote on Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:48:01 -0700:

> Hi
> My processor is busy beavering away, and I have no clue to what its
> actually doing.
> Is there a simple way of knowing what program is running, the task manager
> does not help or give any clues. I have tried whats running, but this
> gives me an endless list, prseumable created from the start program.
> The sound from the processor would suggest a defragmentation program was
> running, whilst I have O&O defragmentation it is not scheduled to run at
> this time either by me setting a time or default.
> Is there a simple utility programe which will give me the names of
> programes actually running ? my operatingI system is windows XP SP2
> Thanks Joco (London)

Processors do not make a noise. That will be your hard disk.

It could just be an issue with fragmentation on the drive, especially if you
paging file is fragmented as when you have a lot of programs running chunks
of memory will be swapped out to disk into the paging file.

To see what's running, bring up Task Manager (right click on the taskbar and
choose Task Manager). Look for any programs with high CPU or memory usage.

You might want to run some malware scans (such as Spybot Destroyer and
Ad-Aware) and see what turns up.

It's also possible that your hard drive is on it's way out, I'd suggest
backing up anything you want to keep just in case. While I might be wrong,
there's nothing worse than having the hard drive suddenly break down due to
a mechanical failure and finding you'll have to pay through the nose to get
a data recovery company to get back files that you haven't backed up and
really need.

Dan

Daniel Crichton

Joco wrote on Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:48:01 -0700:

> Hi
> My processor is busy beavering away, and I have no clue to what its
> actually doing.
> Is there a simple way of knowing what program is running, the task manager
> does not help or give any clues. I have tried whats running, but this
> gives me an endless list, prseumable created from the start program.
> The sound from the processor would suggest a defragmentation program was
> running, whilst I have O&O defragmentation it is not scheduled to run at
> this time either by me setting a time or default.
> Is there a simple utility programe which will give me the names of
> programes actually running ? my operatingI system is windows XP SP2
> Thanks Joco (London)

Processors do not make a noise. That will be your hard disk.

It could just be an issue with fragmentation on the drive, especially if you
paging file is fragmented as when you have a lot of programs running chunks
of memory will be swapped out to disk into the paging file.

To see what's running, bring up Task Manager (right click on the taskbar and
choose Task Manager). Look for any programs with high CPU or memory usage.

You might want to run some malware scans (such as Spybot Destroyer and
Ad-Aware) and see what turns up.

It's also possible that your hard drive is on it's way out, I'd suggest
backing up anything you want to keep just in case. While I might be wrong,
there's nothing worse than having the hard drive suddenly break down due to
a mechanical failure and finding you'll have to pay through the nose to get
a data recovery company to get back files that you haven't backed up and
really need.

Dan

Daniel Crichton

Joco wrote on Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:48:01 -0700:

> Hi
> My processor is busy beavering away, and I have no clue to what its
> actually doing.
> Is there a simple way of knowing what program is running, the task manager
> does not help or give any clues. I have tried whats running, but this
> gives me an endless list, prseumable created from the start program.
> The sound from the processor would suggest a defragmentation program was
> running, whilst I have O&O defragmentation it is not scheduled to run at
> this time either by me setting a time or default.
> Is there a simple utility programe which will give me the names of
> programes actually running ? my operatingI system is windows XP SP2
> Thanks Joco (London)

Processors do not make a noise. That will be your hard disk.

It could just be an issue with fragmentation on the drive, especially if you
paging file is fragmented as when you have a lot of programs running chunks
of memory will be swapped out to disk into the paging file.

To see what's running, bring up Task Manager (right click on the taskbar and
choose Task Manager). Look for any programs with high CPU or memory usage.

You might want to run some malware scans (such as Spybot Destroyer and
Ad-Aware) and see what turns up.

It's also possible that your hard drive is on it's way out, I'd suggest
backing up anything you want to keep just in case. While I might be wrong,
there's nothing worse than having the hard drive suddenly break down due to
a mechanical failure and finding you'll have to pay through the nose to get
a data recovery company to get back files that you haven't backed up and
really need.

Dan

Joco

Daniel hi and thanks for your reply.
I have a WD 500GB My Book Premium 1C external drive which I use for backing
up my PC and Laptop.
I have already tried the Task Manager, that did not help.
I have installed and run reguarly "Windows Defender", "NoAdware",
"RegistryFix", and "Regseeker", however I will try the software you mentioned
(Spybot Destroyer and Ad-Aware)
Once again thanks for your assistance
Joco (London)

"Daniel Crichton" wrote:

> Joco wrote on Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:48:01 -0700:
>
> > Hi
> > My processor is busy beavering away, and I have no clue to what its
> > actually doing.
> > Is there a simple way of knowing what program is running, the task manager
> > does not help or give any clues. I have tried whats running, but this
> > gives me an endless list, prseumable created from the start program.
> > The sound from the processor would suggest a defragmentation program was
> > running, whilst I have O&O defragmentation it is not scheduled to run at
> > this time either by me setting a time or default.
> > Is there a simple utility programe which will give me the names of
> > programes actually running ? my operatingI system is windows XP SP2
> > Thanks Joco (London)
>
> Processors do not make a noise. That will be your hard disk.
>
> It could just be an issue with fragmentation on the drive, especially if you
> paging file is fragmented as when you have a lot of programs running chunks
> of memory will be swapped out to disk into the paging file.
>
> To see what's running, bring up Task Manager (right click on the taskbar and
> choose Task Manager). Look for any programs with high CPU or memory usage.
>
> You might want to run some malware scans (such as Spybot Destroyer and
> Ad-Aware) and see what turns up.
>
> It's also possible that your hard drive is on it's way out, I'd suggest
> backing up anything you want to keep just in case. While I might be wrong,
> there's nothing worse than having the hard drive suddenly break down due to
> a mechanical failure and finding you'll have to pay through the nose to get
> a data recovery company to get back files that you haven't backed up and
> really need.
>
> Dan
>
>
>

Joco

Daniel hi and thanks for your reply.
I have a WD 500GB My Book Premium 1C external drive which I use for backing
up my PC and Laptop.
I have already tried the Task Manager, that did not help.
I have installed and run reguarly "Windows Defender", "NoAdware",
"RegistryFix", and "Regseeker", however I will try the software you mentioned
(Spybot Destroyer and Ad-Aware)
Once again thanks for your assistance
Joco (London)

"Daniel Crichton" wrote:

> Joco wrote on Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:48:01 -0700:
>
> > Hi
> > My processor is busy beavering away, and I have no clue to what its
> > actually doing.
> > Is there a simple way of knowing what program is running, the task manager
> > does not help or give any clues. I have tried whats running, but this
> > gives me an endless list, prseumable created from the start program.
> > The sound from the processor would suggest a defragmentation program was
> > running, whilst I have O&O defragmentation it is not scheduled to run at
> > this time either by me setting a time or default.
> > Is there a simple utility programe which will give me the names of
> > programes actually running ? my operatingI system is windows XP SP2
> > Thanks Joco (London)
>
> Processors do not make a noise. That will be your hard disk.
>
> It could just be an issue with fragmentation on the drive, especially if you
> paging file is fragmented as when you have a lot of programs running chunks
> of memory will be swapped out to disk into the paging file.
>
> To see what's running, bring up Task Manager (right click on the taskbar and
> choose Task Manager). Look for any programs with high CPU or memory usage.
>
> You might want to run some malware scans (such as Spybot Destroyer and
> Ad-Aware) and see what turns up.
>
> It's also possible that your hard drive is on it's way out, I'd suggest
> backing up anything you want to keep just in case. While I might be wrong,
> there's nothing worse than having the hard drive suddenly break down due to
> a mechanical failure and finding you'll have to pay through the nose to get
> a data recovery company to get back files that you haven't backed up and
> really need.
>
> Dan
>
>
>

C.Joseph Drayton

Joco wrote:
> Daniel hi and thanks for your reply.
> I have a WD 500GB My Book Premium 1C external drive which I use for backing
> up my PC and Laptop.
> I have already tried the Task Manager, that did not help.
> I have installed and run reguarly "Windows Defender", "NoAdware",
> "RegistryFix", and "Regseeker", however I will try the software you mentioned
> (Spybot Destroyer and Ad-Aware)
> Once again thanks for your assistance
> Joco (London)
>
> "Daniel Crichton" wrote:
>
>> Joco wrote on Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:48:01 -0700:
>>
>>> Hi
>>> My processor is busy beavering away, and I have no clue to what its
>>> actually doing.
>>> Is there a simple way of knowing what program is running, the task manager
>>> does not help or give any clues. I have tried whats running, but this
>>> gives me an endless list, prseumable created from the start program.
>>> The sound from the processor would suggest a defragmentation program was
>>> running, whilst I have O&O defragmentation it is not scheduled to run at
>>> this time either by me setting a time or default.
>>> Is there a simple utility programe which will give me the names of
>>> programes actually running ? my operatingI system is windows XP SP2
>>> Thanks Joco (London)
>> Processors do not make a noise. That will be your hard disk.
>>
>> It could just be an issue with fragmentation on the drive, especially if you
>> paging file is fragmented as when you have a lot of programs running chunks
>> of memory will be swapped out to disk into the paging file.
>>
>> To see what's running, bring up Task Manager (right click on the taskbar and
>> choose Task Manager). Look for any programs with high CPU or memory usage.
>>
>> You might want to run some malware scans (such as Spybot Destroyer and
>> Ad-Aware) and see what turns up.
>>
>> It's also possible that your hard drive is on it's way out, I'd suggest
>> backing up anything you want to keep just in case. While I might be wrong,
>> there's nothing worse than having the hard drive suddenly break down due to
>> a mechanical failure and finding you'll have to pay through the nose to get
>> a data recovery company to get back files that you haven't backed up and
>> really need.
>>
>> Dan
>>
>>
>>

Hi Joco,

Both TaskManager and What's Running will answer your
question. I think the problem may be that you don't
understand 'what' the answer means.

In simplest terms, when you are not running any
applications, you may think that the computer is not doing
anything. In reality, it is doing quite a few things. That
is why you see that long list in What's Running. Just
waiting for the 'user' to tell the machine to do something
is doing something. If you have an Internet connection, than
the computer has to be in contact with the network. If you
are listening to music, the computer is reading the mp3 and
playing it. Your screen is being refreshed (even though you
haven't made any changes).

One of the things that you will notice in TaskManager is
that there are a couple of different tabs. The
'Applications' tab tells you what applications you are
running. If you click on the 'Processes' tab, you will see
all the things your computer is doing in the background. If
you have a lot of processes running, even though no
applications are running, you can be using the CPU and hard
disk.

Unfortunately these days, quite a few programs will install
processes without the user even knowing it. All the user
knows is that over a period of time there computer seems to
have gotten slower. Because I do a lot of software testing,
I try to check my computer at least once a month to see what
is actually going on, on my computer.

Not only does some software install processes, some
ill-behaved ones when you uninstall them don't remove
everything they installed.

If you are in the habit of downloading shareware & freeware,
that threat of 'unmentioned' processes increases.

Ciao . . . C.Joseph

"A promise is nothing more than an attempt,
to respond to an unreasonable request."

C.Joseph Drayton

Joco wrote:
> Daniel hi and thanks for your reply.
> I have a WD 500GB My Book Premium 1C external drive which I use for backing
> up my PC and Laptop.
> I have already tried the Task Manager, that did not help.
> I have installed and run reguarly "Windows Defender", "NoAdware",
> "RegistryFix", and "Regseeker", however I will try the software you mentioned
> (Spybot Destroyer and Ad-Aware)
> Once again thanks for your assistance
> Joco (London)
>
> "Daniel Crichton" wrote:
>
>> Joco wrote on Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:48:01 -0700:
>>
>>> Hi
>>> My processor is busy beavering away, and I have no clue to what its
>>> actually doing.
>>> Is there a simple way of knowing what program is running, the task manager
>>> does not help or give any clues. I have tried whats running, but this
>>> gives me an endless list, prseumable created from the start program.
>>> The sound from the processor would suggest a defragmentation program was
>>> running, whilst I have O&O defragmentation it is not scheduled to run at
>>> this time either by me setting a time or default.
>>> Is there a simple utility programe which will give me the names of
>>> programes actually running ? my operatingI system is windows XP SP2
>>> Thanks Joco (London)
>> Processors do not make a noise. That will be your hard disk.
>>
>> It could just be an issue with fragmentation on the drive, especially if you
>> paging file is fragmented as when you have a lot of programs running chunks
>> of memory will be swapped out to disk into the paging file.
>>
>> To see what's running, bring up Task Manager (right click on the taskbar and
>> choose Task Manager). Look for any programs with high CPU or memory usage.
>>
>> You might want to run some malware scans (such as Spybot Destroyer and
>> Ad-Aware) and see what turns up.
>>
>> It's also possible that your hard drive is on it's way out, I'd suggest
>> backing up anything you want to keep just in case. While I might be wrong,
>> there's nothing worse than having the hard drive suddenly break down due to
>> a mechanical failure and finding you'll have to pay through the nose to get
>> a data recovery company to get back files that you haven't backed up and
>> really need.
>>
>> Dan
>>
>>
>>

Hi Joco,

Both TaskManager and What's Running will answer your
question. I think the problem may be that you don't
understand 'what' the answer means.

In simplest terms, when you are not running any
applications, you may think that the computer is not doing
anything. In reality, it is doing quite a few things. That
is why you see that long list in What's Running. Just
waiting for the 'user' to tell the machine to do something
is doing something. If you have an Internet connection, than
the computer has to be in contact with the network. If you
are listening to music, the computer is reading the mp3 and
playing it. Your screen is being refreshed (even though you
haven't made any changes).

One of the things that you will notice in TaskManager is
that there are a couple of different tabs. The
'Applications' tab tells you what applications you are
running. If you click on the 'Processes' tab, you will see
all the things your computer is doing in the background. If
you have a lot of processes running, even though no
applications are running, you can be using the CPU and hard
disk.

Unfortunately these days, quite a few programs will install
processes without the user even knowing it. All the user
knows is that over a period of time there computer seems to
have gotten slower. Because I do a lot of software testing,
I try to check my computer at least once a month to see what
is actually going on, on my computer.

Not only does some software install processes, some
ill-behaved ones when you uninstall them don't remove
everything they installed.

If you are in the habit of downloading shareware & freeware,
that threat of 'unmentioned' processes increases.

Ciao . . . C.Joseph

"A promise is nothing more than an attempt,
to respond to an unreasonable request."