Windows 7 Ridiculously High CPU Usage on Fresh Install

[defect]

Hi guys,
I have had XP Pro for a number of years now, and I know full well that after a while it had always deteriorated and I would have to format. This happened for around the third time where it became nearly unbareably slow. I figured since it keeps happening, and to generally get with the times I may aswell purchase Windows 7 and do a completely fresh install.

I initially only had only 600(and something)MB of RAM so I looked at Windows 7's required specifications and went out and purchased 2x 1GB RAM.

I have an Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz processor and from Windows recommendations this exceeded their requirements so I stuck with that.

Now, I literally installed the new OS, installed Firefox, Avast! and a couple of other programs to get me going. I then noticed that when viewing videos in Firefox that it was extremely slow, and I then added the Gadget to the desktop which tells you CPU usage and noticed that this seemed to spend more time at 100% than not! I proceeded to run Spybot S&D to see what it would pick up, while the scan was running it was near-impossible to use the computer and here are a couple of screenshots showing the usage:

After Spybot S&D completed it's search it then found 6 things, which were removed, all of the latest Windows Updates applied and restarted. It is now sitting at 100% again.

I removed the two smaller RAM sticks today, so I'm now left with the 2x 1GB in the machine now. I also put them in the correct slots for 'optimal performance'.

Here's a screenshot of playing a normal video through Firefox, which works absolutely perfectly on my laptop:

This is not merely down to the plugin, it's just whatever process is doing (what should be) a fairly simple task at the time.

 

[defect]

According to the following link, the d530 small form factor HP has the same motherboard:

Link Removed - Invalid URL

Here's HP's latest bios offered for that system, from August 2008:

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Thank you for that, I'm on my lunch break and just had time to update it but I have to head back to work now. Not ignoring the other responses but I figured I'd give a quick update.

The update acknowledged the previous version was outdated and seemed to perform the upgrade absolutely fine. Sadly once it had rebooted it was exactly the same as it was.

I think I'm going to try reinstalling Windows 7 tonight to see if that offers any improvement, I have barely anything installed so not really got much to lose!

 

[defect]

Can anyone tell me whether this computer would be more than capable of what is required?

Link Removed due to 404 Error

It looks good to me, but my knowledge is pretty minimal and I don't want to go on a spending spree to have the same issue again!

If not, could anyone please find me a suitable PC for sale in the UK that I could purchase.

Many thanks.

 

[kemical]

Hmm... do you live in the uk? If so I'd be prepared to let you have a chip for nothing and you'll need to buy the motherboard..

 

[defect]

Thank you for your kind offer, there seems to be some fantastic people on these forums.

The thing is I've had this pc for years now and I've slowly upgrades various bits but now I've realised its just time to upgrade to make life simpler.

If you were to buy the PC I listed would there be any downsides to any of the specs on it? Also would I be able to get a much better PC within that kind of price range?

Kind regards

 

[CommonTater]

I am using three AMD 64 X2 systems in my setup and win7 Professional seems to work just fine.

I had some unresolvable issues with "Ultimate" and returned a bunch of unopened copies, downgraded to Pro and things have been hunkey dorey ever since.

 

[defect]

I am using three AMD 64 X2 systems in my setup and win7 Professional seems to work just fine.

I had some unresolvable issues with "Ultimate" and returned a bunch of unopened copies, downgraded to Pro and things have been hunkey dorey ever since.

I also have Ultimate, maybe if I tried installing Pro before buying the new PC I could benefit from it?

Also, if you had £250 to spend, and didnt require anything except for a fully running PC (I have keyboard, mouse, monitor etc) would that be an ideal one to go for in that price range?

Thanks

 

[kemical]

Well I have a AMD X2 6400 which runs at 3.2GHz or a 2GHz model and you can have either one as I won't use them again. I'd rather see them being put to good use than sitting there doing nothing. So let's say you have £250 (going by the price of the pc on ebay)

Processor is free......................................................................................................................................£0.00

This motherboard would be perfect and is cheap too:
Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 AMD 770 (Socket AM3/AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard [GA-MA770-UD3] Motherboards AMD AM2+ (AMD Chipset) ..............................................................£63.99
RAM:
Kingston 2GB (1x2GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C5 667MHz Single Channel Memory Module [KVR667D2N5/2G] Memory DDR2 - PC2-5300 ..............£35.24
PSU:
Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-400CXUK) [CMPSU-400CXUK] Power Supplies Corsair .............................................................£29.99
Case:
Asus TA-B11 Midi Tower Case - Black [] Cases ...................£20.99
Graphics card:
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5750 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [HD-575X-YHFC] Graphics and Video ATI HD 5750 Series ..............£88.11

All that comes to £238.32 as I'm assuming you have your drives ect? Now that would be a very reasonable cheap gaming machine which you could still upgrade at a later date..

Plus you'll be DX11 capable and as long as you don't go playing huge resolutions you'll be able to pretty much everything at a reasonably high setting..

 

[defect]

Many thanks for your help once again, I really appreciate the time you put into that.

Now, please don't think I'm writing what you said off at all here, I'm strongly considering it. However I am not great with hardware, I've never once built my own computer and in the past I've endlessly had issues with my current one which a friend built for me.

If you were a newbie to it all, could you tell me what the gains are from what you have offered, (again, I am VERY grateful for your offer of the free processor) compared to another machine I have just found. It seems to suit my needs and would save me the time (which I'm very restricted on for the next 3 weeks) and hassle of building a machine. AMD Athlon II X4 630 Quad Core Desktop Computer PC with 2GB RAM, 250gb HDD, DVD | Performance | Buy Online Now!

Again, thank you endlessly for your help, I am just seeing if there are more convenient options out there.

 

[kemical]

That looks better than the last one you showed us.. The only bonus my route offers is that you get to build it yourself and you'll be DX11 ready. Also, apart from the re-used parts, you'll know the rest is brand new..
It does make sense however that if time is at a premium then buying ready built is a more attractive proposition.. The system offered looks fine and should take care of your needs no problem..

 

[CommonTater]

I also have Ultimate, maybe if I tried installing Pro before buying the new PC I could benefit from it?

I suppose you could try it, but it's still Win7 in a purely 32bit processor.

Also, if you had £250 to spend, and didnt require anything except for a fully running PC (I have keyboard, mouse, monitor etc) would that be an ideal one to go for in that price range?
Thanks

If it's just a groovy garble grabber with no high end gaming...
These are a very popular choice in my area...

ASRock > Products > Mini PC Series

I have an ION 330 that I use as an HTPC system, the ION 330 Pro is the "better version" of it, both within your price range... Both about the size of a tin lunchbox and very quiet.

If you're goin gaming... stay with your previous choice.