What processor type and speed do you have in your machine CC, and how much main memory? I would have thought from the symptoms that you are more likely just to be running out of CPU or memory, or possibly bus bandwidth.

The memory on a graphics card is really only to do with getting more resolution/colours per monitor.

Turn on the 'show kernel times' option in task manager, if the CPU time is shown as being used mainly in the kernel (red line) then you might be right, otherwise I don't think it's the card. What processes are using the CPU? Also look at memory usage.

Hi Kayak,

It's a 3.0 ghz pent 4 with 3 gig of ram.

The reason I think it's something to do with the graphics card is that today I turned off one of the monitors in screen properties reduced one of the monitors to 1600x1280 from 2056x1536, dropped the colour quality down to lowest and all my problems went away.

my ie7 windows running level2 from advfn dropped from using up to 35% cpu time to more like an average of 2%.

I would hazard an extra guess in that it's something to do with java as well. all the java updates over the last 6 months seem to have been more and more processor intensive and whilst 6 months ago my machine could absorb the deficiency in my graphics card now it struggles. It's been suggested I should use firefox instead of ie7. Going to give that a whirl over the next week.

Tomorrow I intend to turn the forth monitor back on but i'm going to run it at low resolution to see if my machine can cope.

CC

For a start, download C Cleaner (an apt name, eh?) from the following reliable site (I know these guys, so you won't get any funny cookies, etc):-

http://www.computerdoctors.uk.net/pages/links.htm

and then clean up your machine.

With C Cleaner I would run the following:-

Cleaner:

1. For a start just tick IE and the Temporary Internet Files boxes with also
2. A tick in the Windows Explorer and Recent Documents boxes and also
3. A tick in the System , empty Recycle Bin and Temporary File boxes.

Issues:

Fix all the Issues, one by one if you have to make a decision on things, but you should be OK doing all of them.

Then run Spybot Search & Destroy. If you don't have it, it is also available as a download from the same site.

Then finally, do a Defragmentation.

You should find your machine works much faster. Furthermore, your existing graphics card should work much better too.

As Kayak says, the amount of RAM you have is also important. These days 2GB of RAM is almost a must. The Crucial web site have tools to help you determine what sort of RAM you need to buy. Perhaps 1GB in each slot may be best.

Hope that helps. :-)

I think you're just getting caught up in the processor workload involved in calculating the pixel values for four displays running at fine resolution and high colour values. With simple non-graphics output this would be done in the CPU, not the graphics card.

To improve matters, run at the lowest resolution you're happy with and 16 bit colours (32K) rather than 24 or 32 bit, you're unlikely to see the difference unless you display a lot of pictures.

Changing to a more up to date system architecture might also help, particularly Pentium D or higher processors which can multi-thread.

Thinking about it CC, you might like to ensure that you are running separate instances of IE for each window, i.e. click on the internet explorer shortcut each time rather than using Ctrl-N. That should give you better scheduling.

yup - already doing that Kayak - turned off tabbing too.

"With simple non-graphics output this would be done in the CPU, not the graphics card." - ahha - that makes sense because when i changed to 16 bit mode today the performance was great. Of course I was one screen down as well but i'll find out tomorrow whether that was the contributing factor as it'll be running tomorrow.

thanks for the help - i'll let you know how I get on.

CC

If you have a spare computer running XP Pro you could run a remote desktop from the spare on one of your screens. Remote desktop uses fewer resources than IE or most streaming applications. And if it does go wrong, you should be able to activate the local screen on your spare computer.

thanks everyone - quick update - turned on the 4th monitor this morning and performance was appalling. Then realised one of the screens was set to 32 bit quality rather than 16bit and voila everything is perfect now.

need to find a better solution than this as my screens aren't at as high a resolution as i'd like but at least everything i can see is working properly.

My XP Pro laptop is taking an age to boot up, inevitably due to my protection software such as AVG, Diskeeper, etc.

I could live with the delay more easily if I could skip the sign in screen that comes up early in the sequence. Then I turn the machine on and go off and make a coffee!!

Can someone point me to a reliable URL of anything I can do - but preferably without a registry entry change which scares the heck of out me.

If it makes any difference I'll mention that this is a stand alone machine and not networked to anything.

Thanks in anticipation.

TP

TP

Go into Administrative Tools - Local Security Options. I think there is an option in there somewhere, but I can't remember what it is.

Thanks Opt,

I've had a look around there, but did not spot anything refering to that sign in box.

It's probably there - but I need a closer clue someone please.

TP

TP, Control Panel/Users and Passwords, uncheck "Users must enter a username and password" and enter your user details there.

Sorry K,

Not on my XP Pro.

I have User Accounts in my Control Panel. No ref to Passwords.

Is the fact that I have a user called ASP.net a clue to the problem. The XP Pro on my studio machine does not produce a login box and that machine only has two users, Myself and Guest.

TP

Sorry I have W2000 but there should be a similar option somewhere. The Help function in Windows while normally useless should actually be of use here.

TP re paswords, go to user accounts click on user name, that will open up the list on passwords on XP, alter from there. Hope that helps.
opto

Opt

" click on user name, that will open up the list on passwords on XP,"

Sadly not in my version of XP Pro.

I get the three user names. My own, guest and asp.net.

If I click on my own I can alter my password - which I have left blank anyway - but there is no direction towards altering the login screen....

K.

"The Help function in Windows "

Yes this was what made me think I could not have a third user. I have that ASP.NET and I can't remove it even if it was safe to do so as it is password protected and I think MS put it there in an upgrade.

TP

TP

I've just had another look but can't find the option yet. As a work around, you could put the computer into hibernate mode rather than shuting down. This makes restarting much quicker.

Opt,

" you could put the computer into hibernate mode rather than shuting down."

Brilliant. Why didn't I think of that.

But that's why I am here. Not to make money - never have. But my PC works wonderfully with all your help.

TP

.

I might even learn how not to triple post!!!