Computer Related -- CPU usage goes....

[footprintsinconc]

i use firefox for internet. at times, the CPU usage goes to 100% and stays at that speed until i close firefox and then on restart everything is fine. in the task manager, it shows that firefox is using the CPU at 100% or 99%. during this time, there is a split second when it comes down to 0%, but the temp nor the speed of the fan show it, all you see is a small spike in the task manager.

the temp of the chip runs between 35 and 42, but at full use, it goes to like 55 and stays around there.

the sites that i am on this site (w/ multiple tabs open), a bike site (w/ multiple tabs open), another window with yahoo mail tab, weather.com tab, grandcenteral tab. those are the only three windows open.

i think the culprit is the weather.com site, but why the **** would that site cause my CPU to go crazy all of a sudden. this happens like every few days, not all the time.

Does anyone know why this is happening and what i should do?

thanks in advance!

[jonmulzer]

How much RAM do you have? It could possibly be that you have too many tabs open with too little RAM. If so, Firefox is going to spend a lot of time playing musical chairs with the paging file and that eats up a ton of CPU cycles. Could you give us the general specs for your computer? RAM, CPU and such?

[footprintsinconc]

here the computer specs:
AMD 64 3400+
1.81 ghz, 640MB RAM

there are usually about 36 processes running. when this happened, the firefox mem usage was like 386,000k.

here is a shot of my task manager list looks like:

[footprintsinconc]

ooops, here is the pic:

[Mr__Bill]

here the computer specs:
AMD 64 3400+
1.81 ghz, 640MB RAM

there are usually about 36 processes running. when this happened, the firefox mem usage was like 386,000k.

here is a shot of my task manager list looks like:

There is your problem. Ram is cheap, but, the age of the motherboard is against you and prices for older ram is rising. You should upgrade to as much as you can or 4Gig. Fry on line has had some nice sales with rebates. If you visit Crucal.com and run the scan it will tell you how much and what type to get.

Bill

[LCHIEN]

you need RAM seriously bad. memory is swapping continuously i suspect.
Unload some of those (unneeded) processes you have running.
If you have video shared memory that's a load, too.

I don't think any of the current crop of browsers will run with less than a gig of memory. Use an old browser an it will freeze on the current day content.

[pelligrini]

Try ebay for the memory. You can get used stuff for a fraction of what it would be from a retailer.

[Mr__Bill]

Try ebay for the memory. You can get used stuff for a fraction of what it would be from a retailer.

new memory for that on sale should be about 15 - 20 bucks a gig. may even get free delivery

[master53yoda]

Is your OS XP or Vista Min for XP is 640 K MIN for Vista is 1 MEG Vista will show 100% Mem usage no matter how much Mem you have in, but with Vista you can use a USB thumb drive for ram to see if that is the problem.

If you have any high end graphic programs running 640 just isn't enough even with XP. My autocad would just really slow up (high cpu usage) until put in 2 gig of ram.

[just started]

You didn't say if you are using v2 or v3 of FF. I had that problem with v2 (on 2 gig ram) with a bunch of tabs that had flash running in them, but once it starts the only way to clear it up was reboot. Since I changed to v3 of FF I have had much less trouble with it, but still happens now and then.

P.S. I'm using XP-sp3.

[footprintsinconc]

i have xp home, dont know what service pack because i am at work right now. it is firefox 3 that i have. i dont have this problem.

interesting, so it is the memory. it only has two slots, so how do i know what memory to order? i think it sticker on it says ddr2, but how do i know how many pins? the stick also has a couple of notches, so without seeing the memory, how do i know it will fit?

thanks!

[RAFlorida]

Mr. Bill's reply:

"...If you visit Crucal.com and run the scan it will tell you how much and what type to get."
Here is the link for scan:

http://www.crucial.com/index.aspx?ov...20090122151759

[Mr__Bill]

"...If you visit Crucal.com and run the scan it will tell you how much and what type to get."
Here is the link for scan:

http://www.crucial.com/index.aspx?ov...20090122151759

thanks RA I should have included the link.

Bill

[footprintsinconc]

thanks RA for the link! will have to wait till i get home.

[Kristofor]

Adding RAM will help performance in general.

However, like "Just Started" I've seen that behavior from FF even with 3.5GB of usable RAM where some page animation pegs the CPU. There's a decent chance you can avoid the issue by installing a plug-in that blocks the flash/javascript/other Ad spam unless you explicitly allow it to run on a given page. This also helps page readability on a lot of marketing heavy sites in addition to shrinking the resource footprint but it can also be a bit of a nusiance on legitimate sites that are heavy users of those technologies.