Loading...Loading...Loading

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support :

dirtybuck

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 9, 2008
Messages
1,114
Location
Springfield, MO
Because of a short windfall of money I came into, I decided to buy a new computer in mid-October. The computer is a display model I found at Office Depot. It's an Acer AX1430-UR12P. The processor is an AMD E-350 dual core, 500 GB hard drive, 4 GB of RAM (which can be upgraded to 8), and Windows 7. The total cost, including tax, came to $222.56. As stated, it was the last one on the shelf.

I opted to buy it due to the fact all the other computers I saw at that time had Windows 8. I've heard more than once it's not good to buy a new computer with an updated Windows operating system until the first Service Pack has come out, which usually takes a year. I've also heard quite a few horror stories about 8 not being very compatible with some various hardware.

So far, the computer has been GREAT, but I've noticed on some websites with video, it takes forever for them to load (and that's if they load at all). A tech from ATT U-Verse was here earlier to check the line and modem. He told me everything on those ends were fine. However, when he went to Task Manager and checked Processes, he found the CPU usage up around 60-85 (and sometimes hitting 100)%. He then proceeded to close some of them down.

After he left, I went back to the sites that were giving me loading problems, and the same thing is still happening.

I have a modem that will do wi-fi. A friend of mine has left his lap top here so he can come over from time to time and use it (gets him away from his partner when he's in one of his "moods"). When I checked to see if that was having any problems, the pages I was having the trouble on loaded with no difficulty whatsoever.

One of the things the ATT tech did tell me was to delete McAffee anti-virus, as it does tend to slow things down a bit when it runs in the background. I did that and will be downloading Avira later on to use as my new anti-virus.

I'm attaching screen shots so you all can see what's processing in the background. If any suggestions or solutions can be given so I can start loading these videos and pages in a shorter time period, I'd like to hear them.

Thanks!

dirtybuck++12-10-2012-11-23-56.jpg
 
Well there are lots of things that can cause those types of problems. There is a lot of crap loaded on any computer you buy, do a search for a program to remove most if not all of it, sorry cant recall the name. You have a decent amount of memory, but odds are its shared memory, most pre built computers use an on board video card that uses computer memory for its processing. This memory is slower than the type of memory used on true video cards. You might be able to go into the bios and allocate more memory to the video section, this helps, but often the best option is to just buy a good video card, abot $40 or so, and you will see much improved performance.

The only antivirus I use or recommend is MS security essentials. It work fine, is free, and does not impact system performance. If you go to very high risk sites this may not be the best option, Kaspersky might be better if you go to risky sites(porn...) but for the average person MS is fine.
 
Only thing that needed to be updated was Windows Silverlight. Can't do anything to adjust the memory usaage in BIOS (unless I'm totally missing something, but slightly doubt it).

Called Acer about the problem. I could barely make out what the girl was telling me (she hardly spoke with a Southern accent, if you know what I mean). She suggested reinstalling OES.

Avira is now installed, and update to SpyBot has been performed. As mentioned earlier, this only happens on "certain" sites (I'll just leave it at that), and when I want to try and view some news videos.
 
Optimize

<span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif;">You may want to adjust your computer for perfomance instead of cuteness.</span>

<span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif;"> </span>

<span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif;">Malcolm</span>

<span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif;"> </span>

mrb627++12-10-2012-14-31-18.jpg.png
 
 
Any 32-bit Windows can't make use of more than 4 GB of RAM, so upping to 8 GB won't have an effect.

64-bit Win7
Home Basic 8 GB
Home Premium 16 GB
Professional, Enterprise, & Ultimate 192 GB

I had trouble on my one Win7 system with Silverlite refusing to update.  Fetched the latest version via direct download but install of it required UNinstalling the old version first, which also failed.  I had to follow a manual uninstall procedure, then install the update.
 
@mattl

I would say that the point of shared memory isn't true.

Basically, since the computer doesn't have a video card, it "borrows" some system memory for video tasks. In many cases, this value is terribly too large, especially if you aren't doing graphically intensive stuff: Onboard graphics are pretty crap at this anyway. IN the BIOS, the option would be labelled "Video Memory Allocation" or something along those lines. Set it to something like 4-32mb, and see the results.

I would say that Windows 7 wouldn't be too fussy about that, and you wouldn't see much improvement in the speed department, but hey, anything is good, right? This tip was devised during the infancy days of Windows XP when computers only came with 256mb of RAM, and the onboard graphics stole 64mb+, leaving you with just 192mb or less of memory.

Best bet would be to remove Acer's bloatware off the computer, upgrade to a 64-bit OS, since your 4GB of memory is useless by 1GB in a 32-bit OS.
The bloatware would help speed things up massively, when removed. And I would recommend staying away from AVG Anti-Virus: When you remove it from the computer, parts of it are not removed, and still try to protect you... So make sure you get a program like CC-Cleaner to clean up your registry.

In the display department, rather than going back to Windows 9x/ME/2000 looks, try instead setting your display to Windows Basic, or still the Vista Style, but without Aero. (Vista Basic style - Google it), that will save some oomph inside your computer, but you'll still have the benefit of a schnitsy looking OS.

Good luck with these suggestions!
 
I've been building computers since '92, quite a few of them.  I only resort to on-board video when the client is really pinching pennies, it's always sub par.  The biggest improvement you can make to any computer using on-board video is to upgrade to a real video card.  Make sure it supports at least DirectX  11, has decent amount of memory and such.  If you check out New Egg and look for the slot your Motherboard supports, such as PCI Express 2.0 you will find lots of affordable cards.  The $40- $60 you spend will yield a significant improvement.

 

At this point my quad core AMD based computer has many dozens of things running in the background and I'm using 7% of my CPU and about half my physical memory.  I'm running Win 7 64 Bit.  I see no reason to turn off the various Aero themes, I like them  and I'm not getting a performance it using them.
 
Problem Solved and Fixed!

It's amazing how much cooperation you'll get from a computer when you show it a sledge hammer and throw in a few choice threatening words to get it to work properly. LOL!

Nah, all I did was used the repair mode in Windows 7 and it's working great now. However, I did try to use the recovery disks I made, and for some reason the first one isn't working (total of 4 all together). I followed the directions to a T in doing it.

Later on today, I'll be going out and buying some blank DVD R+W's, so in case it doesn't work again, all I'll have to do is reformat the DVD and hopefully start over. I'm also going to check out a better video card as some of you suggested and more RAM.

Thanks again for the comments and suggestions. I appreciate it!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top