(For those wishing to skip the wordy stuff, I highlighted key issues in "bold"
OK, here's the problem in which little ol' me needs a big brainy nerdly guy or gal to help me with. <just imagine a helpless (clueless) damsel in distress clutching her laptop while tied to the railroad tracks as the train's whistle blows as it approaches, the noise drowning her cries.."O Heeelp me! Save me!" Heh>
Still here with me?
hope so
I have an ol' Gateway MX6424 AMD Turion 64 Mobile Laptop
Tech. ML-32 (I suppose it means 32-bit, eh?)
The microprocessor is 1.79 GHz, and has 960 MB of RAM.
It has Windows XP Pro (2002) with Service Pack 2
It is three years old, and certainly cannot use many of the new upgraded software apps and games and what-not on the market now. Yet I need it to run DRAGON (a voice activated microprocessor), and wish to play Sims 3 (can I store it on an external drive to play with the CD/ROM as well? Its a BIG game.)
It always freezes and wheezes (CPU 100%) on me when I run more than one app., usually I get it settled in a rocking chair to "sleep" awhile, I run Task manager and it seems that the % of CPU for running, lets say, Firefox, or IE 8 is nearly 98%!
What constitues a normal setting for available Ram in the Hardware Manager? AND, while in task manager, as Administrator, it will NOT allow me to change the base priority of each application for some reason (ex: some little-used apps are "high" while some that need more RAM to RUN is set at "low". And thar ain't nuthin' I kin do about it! Dagnabit! I AM the goshdurn Administrator!
I removed lots of apps at startup, and I do close down some unnessessary(sp?) apps under "processes" in the task manager.
Now, I heard that one can improve CPU performance by changing power management settings on the control panel, but I don't know which power scheme is best, and how many minutes do I allow for AC or battery? Since my hard drive suffered a massive coronary,(see below*if interested) I know that it will die as soon as my three year warrenty is up. So I don't wish TO BUY (nor know how to install) more RAM.
BTW, I HAVE removed tons of space-eating "junk" (pics music ect) over to my brand new sweet 1TB Seagate external hard drive, I've defragged and cleaned, although I need a good reputable app to clean temp files and registry files, I was looking at PC Pitstop's Optimize 3.0 to do this, I have the Credit card in hand, but don't want to download one of those bogus spyware (cr)apps. Anybody think I can trust PC pitstop? Anybody else have a better app for the job?
And finally, does anyone have the patience to explain simply (non-techy)to me of any other options I can use to improve my CPU? Thanks for your time for reading this very wordy question (I can't help it, I'm a writer) I know many of you are rolling your eyes thinkin "just the FACTS, Ma'am!"
Thanks, everyone, Evenstar
* A Horror Story: Several months back, I was toottling on-line, when the screen went black. "Huh?" I though. I hit the power button off, and sat still, both of us silent, for a few minutes. Then, I rebooted it back up. Suddenly I screamed and jumped back as the hard drive sounded like it was hitting my head with a mallet, KER-CHUNK, KER-CHUNK, KER-CHUNK! The screen remained dark. Recovering my fright, I realized it's microprossessin' heart was de-fillibrating. I rebooted it a coupla times,in vain, oh, it was horrible, hearing those last rattling gasps (ker-chunks) of Death! <bell tolling>
I stored it away, for several months, for I have no moolas ($$) for a new laptop. Time passes slowly, once one is severed from the Net. One day, I thought how to salvage parts from the old geezer for donation. I plugged it in to see if the battery was still working, when lo and behold, it was a miracle! <angels singing> It rose from the dead! Its ALIVE!!! But it is still quite constipated, it's arteries clogged with bits and bytes, it's only a matter of time, alas...
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