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PC Trouble shooting

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7 replies

by chandrak

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On one of my PCs with Norton Utilities the CPU usage indicator is always high. Resources available 67%. I ran degragmentation nothing changed. The OS is Windows 98 SE. Only application open is AOL version 7.0. How can make the PC performance better.

7 replies

by makitel

Norton has been known to eat up resources in computer systems. For a quick fix... add RAM.

Or, figure out what you need to run in your backround and eliminate some of the processes that start-up when Windows starts. If you have a lot of those, that will bog you down also.
You can edit your start up file by running MSCONFIG from RUN in your START MENU.

by admin

and then check system resources.... I always do the bare minumum and launch componants as needed.... norton utilities are generally good, but the meters are resource hogs!

by jardinier

I recently had a "bug" in my system and couldn't locate its source. Thinking it might be in the registry, I installed an earlier version of Norton Utilites, which checks for errors in the registry. But it didn't find the bug.
However I subsequentlyfound that Norton had taken over my system so that I coulnd't run Windows defrag, because Norton had locked the hard drive. A pop-up screen appeared at regular intervals telling me my virus definitions were out of date, when I had just downloaded the latest.
So I got fed up and tried to get rid of Norton. As there was no uninstall facility, I deleted what I could manually. After all this, my computer was showing 200 MB less free disk space than before I installed Norton. I ended up doing a complete reformat.
What particularly annoys me about Peter Norton (or Symantec) is that he is so greedy. He sells each component of his software as a separate item, when many or all all of them could fit on a single CD.

by djent

High compared to what? If you had W2K and stated performance ratings from task manager we would have a standard for comparison.

by deadly ernest

Most often high CPU usage is due to one of these things:

1. Too low a level of RAM, yes Win98SE can run on 32MB, 64MB recommended, but 128MB is best.

2. Check the Virtual Memory (VM) settings, Win 98 usually defaults to a setting that is 1.5 or 2 times the amount of RAM. The system uses RAM to manage the VM, reducing the VM size (and hard setting it) will reduce the amount of RAM needed to manage the VM, thus freeing up more for the system. Too little available RAM for the system to use will cause the CPU to constantly be in use moving things in and out of the VM all the time.

3. Check for memory resident programs running in the background. A screen saver called 'After Dark' used to be a real bastard for tying up CPU, RAm and HDD space. Others can be just as bad.

4. Scan your system for a backdoor or trojan virus as they can also chew up system respources.

Another point to consider is improved RAM usage by installing a RAM management program like MemTurbo or its equivalents. As a general rule I do NOT run memory resident programs but I have found that using something like MemTurbo, set to auto activate when less than 10MB of RAM available, will greatly improve overall performance and reduce system lock ups. This is due to it counteracting the memory leakage problem with all the MS applications.

by guruofdos

You don't say how fast the CPU is or how much ram?

My wife runs only AOL7.0 over 98SE on a Cyrix6x86 PR200 with 32MB of ram, and you have more resources than she does!!!

Lose Norton!! It takes a huge overhead and should not be run as a matter of course. Install it to sort out problems, then once they are fixed, uninstall it again!!!

by johnk320

I must reiterate the replies from previous posts. I have used Norton's products as far back as the DOS days. While helpful, they have been the source of many problems for myself and clients over the years. Especially Norton Utilities! My advice is this: 1) Use Norton Utilities ONLY when you need to then unload it. 2) Make sure you don't have unnecessary utilities running in the background. The cleaner you keep your system, the better performance you'll get out of it. Finally, had we been given more info of your system we could have given more advice. Best to give a complete picture when posting a question like this. For example, one of the first responders suggested running out and buying more RAM. Under the right conditions this might have been good advice. It's not always the panacea people think it is, however. Good luck!

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