Aspire ES1-533 CPU at 100%, running painfully slow

Nia

This has been an ongoing issue since the day I opened the box. At first I thought it was getting warmed up because it was new. Then I didn't have time to be without my computer. Now it's causing me issues. The CPU has always ran in the high 90s to 100%. Reltek Audio is the only thing on startup (do I need this??). I just deleted Norton software tonight because I can't afford to have this thing freeze during another big lecture tomorrow while taking notes and uninstaling has worked WONDERS in the 1 hour it has been gone. My CPU is now down to running in the high 60s-80s but this is with only 1 tab in google chrome running actively. I have no games or anything else downloaded. Deleted all bloatware LONG ago. Nothing but microsoft office and "Your Phone" installed as any apps downloaded will render this thing unfunctional. Only files are microsoft word documents. Disk is 2% fragmented currently. Please tell me there is something that I can fix.

Blues

Nia said:

This has been an ongoing issue since the day I opened the box. At first I thought it was getting warmed up because it was new. Then I didn't have time to be without my computer. Now it's causing me issues. The CPU has always ran in the high 90s to 100%. Reltek Audio is the only thing on startup (do I need this??). I just deleted Norton software tonight because I can't afford to have this thing freeze during another big lecture tomorrow while taking notes and uninstaling has worked WONDERS in the 1 hour it has been gone. My CPU is now down to running in the high 60s-80s but this is with only 1 tab in google chrome running actively. I have no games or anything else downloaded. Deleted all bloatware LONG ago. Nothing but microsoft office and "Your Phone" installed as any apps downloaded will render this thing unfunctional. Only files are microsoft word documents. Disk is 2% fragmented currently. Please tell me there is something that I can fix.

try the below steps.. 
Increase the virtual memory.. 
next go to MSCONFIG and under boot go for advance options here select the number of processors from 1 to 4 and save the settings. Restart the device to take effect.

Also, try cleanmgr to delete unwanted files..

Nia

Blues said:

try the below steps.. 
Increase the virtual memory.. 
next go to MSCONFIG and under boot go for advance options here select the number of processors from 1 to 4 and save the settings. Restart the device to take effect.

Also, try cleanmgr to delete unwanted files..

Hey blue. Thanks for replying. My issue is not with booting. The issue is consistent. I changed it to 2 (which I knew wouldn't matter because it'll run the max amount of processors as long as the box is NOT checked) and it actually couldn't even load a single web page, CPU and disk both rode 100 and it took way longer to boot 🤔. So I changed it back to the default and it has booted up at normal but Im just waiting on this ice queen to start freezing. 

Nia

Also I don't have any unwanted files. Nothing but the basics of what I need and everything else gets put on a flash drive or one drive then deleted

brummyfan2

Hi @Nia
Could you please tell us whether you have any trial version of third party AV program running, like Norton or McAfee.

aphanic

I wonder... what's actually using the CPU? Let's see it in a bit more detail:

• Download a nightly build of Process Hacker from here: https://wj32.org/processhacker/nightly.php
• Don't worry about the name, it's just an advanced task manager
• After installation (and if it asks don't make it your default task manager) run it, you should see something like this:
  
  
  
  
• By default the view is tree-like, you see the processes running in your system and their parental relations (run the program as administrator by the way, you're able to access more things).
• Notice the CPU column, it should be the 3rd, it states more or less the % of CPU time each process is using. System Idle Process is just another way of saying "nothing is going on". In the screenshot I posted (right click, open image in a new tab for better view) for example the CPU is mostly idling, at 85% in System Idle Process only 15% of it is being used (at the top, the System information button opens up a dialog with a more global view).
• Now, if you scroll down you can find out who's using up all of your CPU time. I understand your antivirus of choice to be heavy on the system, but there ought to be more things misbehaving...
  
• If you post a screenshot here maybe we can tell you what's what (and yep, you do need the Realtek thing I'd say or the system wouldn't handle events when you plug in some headphones for example).
• You can also sort processes by CPU usage by clicking on that tab, which could be useful for your situation.

Nia

brummyfan2 said:

Hi @Nia
Could you please tell us whether you have any trial version of third party AV program running, like Norton or McAfee.

No they are not running. I do not have those installed on my laptop. 

Nia

aphanic said:

I wonder... what's actually using the CPU? Let's see it in a bit more detail:

• Download a nightly build of Process Hacker from here: https://wj32.org/processhacker/nightly.php
• Don't worry about the name, it's just an advanced task manager
• After installation (and if it asks don't make it your default task manager) run it, you should see something like this:
  
  
  
  
• By default the view is tree-like, you see the processes running in your system and their parental relations (run the program as administrator by the way, you're able to access more things).
• Notice the CPU column, it should be the 3rd, it states more or less the % of CPU time each process is using. System Idle Process is just another way of saying "nothing is going on". In the screenshot I posted (right click, open image in a new tab for better view) for example the CPU is mostly idling, at 85% in System Idle Process only 15% of it is being used (at the top, the System information button opens up a dialog with a more global view).
• Now, if you scroll down you can find out who's using up all of your CPU time. I understand your antivirus of choice to be heavy on the system, but there ought to be more things misbehaving...
  
• If you post a screenshot here maybe we can tell you what's what (and yep, you do need the Realtek thing I'd say or the system wouldn't handle events when you plug in some headphones for example).
• You can also sort processes by CPU usage by clicking on that tab, which could be useful for your situation.

Do I still need to download this even though the system task manager shows what's using CPU? For example with the chrome tab open to view your response and the task manager open it said "Task manager - 63%; Chrome 32%; Total 98%".

Nia

aphanic said:

I wonder... what's actually using the CPU? Let's see it in a bit more detail:

• Download a nightly build of Process Hacker from here: https://wj32.org/processhacker/nightly.php
• Don't worry about the name, it's just an advanced task manager
• After installation (and if it asks don't make it your default task manager) run it, you should see something like this:
  
  
  
  
• By default the view is tree-like, you see the processes running in your system and their parental relations (run the program as administrator by the way, you're able to access more things).
• Notice the CPU column, it should be the 3rd, it states more or less the % of CPU time each process is using. System Idle Process is just another way of saying "nothing is going on". In the screenshot I posted (right click, open image in a new tab for better view) for example the CPU is mostly idling, at 85% in System Idle Process only 15% of it is being used (at the top, the System information button opens up a dialog with a more global view).
• Now, if you scroll down you can find out who's using up all of your CPU time. I understand your antivirus of choice to be heavy on the system, but there ought to be more things misbehaving...
  
• If you post a screenshot here maybe we can tell you what's what (and yep, you do need the Realtek thing I'd say or the system wouldn't handle events when you plug in some headphones for example).
• You can also sort processes by CPU usage by clicking on that tab, which could be useful for your situation.

Do I still need to download this even though the system task manager shows what's using CPU? For example with the chrome tab open to view your response and the task manager open it said "Task manager - 63%; Chrome 32%; Total 98%".

aphanic

Nia said:

Do I still need to download this even though the system task manager shows what's using CPU? For example with the chrome tab open to view your response and the task manager open it said "Task manager - 63%; Chrome 32%; Total 98%".

Not at all, it was entirely up to you anyway ^^, I just fancied something a little bit more precise and among the different advanced task managers that one is my favorite, but it's not necessary.

I looked at the system specs of that model, does yours have an Intel N4200 for the processor and 8GB of RAM? While that processor is on the low end regarding performance the amount of RAM seems sufficient enough for many workloads nowadays.

Maybe what's making your system feel slow is the hard drive as well, the primary storage is usually the slower thing in a system and having a 5400 RPM mechanical drive doesn't help. Switching for an SSD would be an improvement, but I don't know if it'll help you lower the CPU usage. It'd be snappier, but that's it, the processor being not too powerful would still need to take its time to do the job.