[Baba booey]

So I got my Dell Studio 15 yesterday, major upgrade from my Gateway MX6445(oct. 06).
I installed Firefox, I got about 15 tabs open, and my CPU usage on it randomly fluctuates from anywhere between 300k and 1200k(which causes it to run REALLY slow).
I bought the comp refurbished from Dell Oulets. Why is this running like this??

 

[iriverdude]

Quote:

Why is this running like this??

System restore, defender, user protection thing and indexing. What is 300K/1200K for cpu usage mean? Please state in %

I don't like Vista tried several times post SP1 still don't like it, gone back to XP.

 

[Baba booey]

when you go to the task manager, you go to processes and look at memory.

 

[iriverdude]

That's memory not CPU usage. But as for memory usage, Vista gobbles most up and caches the os and applications to it. Good idea if you've got GB of RAM why is it sitting there empty? At least shove common system dll's and drivers in there, that's why Vista is fast as it's not loading stuff from HD when needed. Although smart ram clearing is needed.

 

[DanTheMiataMan]

Firefox tabs EAT CPU in either XP or Vista. Sorry bud.

 

[Nocturnal310]

one of my fav tweak guides for vista:

NBR Vista Tips and Tweaks Guide - Notebook Forums and Laptop Discussion

regarding the memory spike issue..which version of Firefox are u using? ..it is infamous for memory leaks...causing memory usage to spike upto 3 times.

i have screenshots of firefox consuming 1 GB of RAM.

 

[Baba booey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanTheMiataMan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Firefox tabs EAT CPU in either XP or Vista. Sorry bud.

Yea I know that but on my old comp I'd have like 20+ tabs and it would be running like 300k or so, which isn't that much...it's over 3 times that right now, and I got like 15 tabs open.

 

[DanTheMiataMan]

300k? CPU is not measured in K.

 

[Deathsnapper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nocturnal310 /img/forum/go_quote.gif one of my fav tweak guides for vista: NBR Vista Tips and Tweaks Guide - Notebook Forums and Laptop Discussion regarding the memory spike issue..which version of Firefox are u using? ..it is infamous for memory leaks...causing memory usage to spike upto 3 times. i have screenshots of firefox consuming 1 GB of RAM.

I haven't read the link, but I assume it's similar to other tweak guides. The biggest tweak will probably be disabling SuperFetch. It's a service that essentially loads your commonly used programs into RAM when you aren't using the RAM. Overall it's not a bad thing to have on, but it will make it seem like almost all of your RAM is being eaten up at any time.

One of the biggest problems with Vista is that it seems to be designed for much more powerful computers than those labelled Vista Ready. If you have 2-4gb of RAM (preferably the latter) and a very fast processor it ends up typically a bit faster than XP. But otherwise it's worse.

Another option might be worth trying the Windows 7 beta. I know I shouldn't be suggesting betas to people, but from what I've seen and read it's much better, especially on laptops. Plus it's a very stable beta, and I think most/all of vista's drivers work so there shouldn't be any compatibility problems.

That said you might be better off just sticking with Vista. If your willing to start fresh and have a copy of Vista around (<3 that my university gives me free copys

) formatting would probably help too. Always makes things nice and fast until the system gets bogged down again

 

[shigzeo]

i have noticed recently that firefox is slower and more bulky than before. i quit using ff for safari about 8 months ago and have had teething problems but the new safari beta is amazing. i had three windows and a total of 30 tabs open with memory usage of less than 500 megabytes when ff was using 300 with about 7 tabs.

but the safari beta will not work with flash like in wordpress yet... and im on osx though i have vista for fun stuff sometimes.

 

[Deathsnapper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shigzeo /img/forum/go_quote.gif i have noticed recently that firefox is slower and more bulky than before. i quit using ff for safari about 8 months ago and have had teething problems but the new safari beta is amazing. i had three windows and a total of 30 tabs open with memory usage of less than 500 megabytes when ff was using 300 with about 7 tabs. but the safari beta will not work with flash like in wordpress yet... and im on osx though i have vista for fun stuff sometimes.

Safari is (slowly) becoming an amazing browser. It has its ups and downs, the up being that it's currently the fastest web browser according to the new Futuremark Peacekeeper benchmark, and the down being some small security issues. Personally I would say that the security isn't really a big problem though.

Google Chrome is also worth checking out. It's still in beta, but there are some pretty cool ideas going on in there.

 

[Baba booey]

when I say 300k, I mean 300,000
and I guess it's kb?

 

[DanTheMiataMan]

... cpu is in %... sounds like you speaking of RAM.

 

[Baba booey]

my CPU % is up around 100, which is pretty bad considering I just got this think yesterday...
it's actually Memory (Private Working Set), so I guess it throws all the memory(3gb) into Firefox?
Can anyone give me a step-by-step thing so that I don't have to run up my CPU so much?

 

[Nocturnal310]

For the first few days/weeks...vista Indexes all the files & program locations for fast searching.... hence u r seeing those CPU spikes (if u are)

if u want u can disable indexing like me...or u can keep your comp switched on for a nite so the indexing finishes off.