my computer is getting slower and slower... help!

Wiles · #1 9th May 2007, 12:50 AM

over the course of a few months, I've noticed that my computer keeps getting slower and slower when doing things. I have a pretty decent computer: Athon64 3800+ 1 GIG DDR Ram, and a large less than half filled hard drive.

Normally I use openoffice and firefox, as well as thunderbird. Once in a while I use vmware player to run some programs that I can't normally use in linux. Now, when I use firefox, after some time, it just lags. I mean I'll be waiting nearly half a minute between clicks, then doing other tasks also lags. If I leave the computer on for more than a day, starting or stopping programs lags. turning on the computer is also getting slower....

I'm not complaining about FC's slowness, but I think there is something wrong with my computer, what can cause a computer to slow down over time? Has something happened to the OS? Is my hardware failing? What tools does FC have available for troubleshooting this?

JohnBailey · #2 9th May 2007, 08:22 AM

Open a terminal window and type "top" This should show what is active and what is using the most CPU cycles.

Wiles · #3 9th May 2007, 01:30 PM

I tried that, and also free.
I have the system load monitor displaying in xfce, so I can usually see how much memory, cpu, swap, and network is being used.
Normally cpu usage is at 0 unless I'm typing or clicking something. memory usage is normally less than 50%. But let's say I have been using firefox for three or four hours, browsing on several tabs, I have openoffice opened and editing a document or two, and the email client is running. Now, here's where the slow down begins. The swap hasn't been used yet, but things are slowing down. eventually firefox will crash, the printer will not be recognized by the computer, and the email client will lag, often taking more than 1 minute to close the receiving email box after it has already shown it finished downloading emails. openoffice may or may not begin to type slowly. If a program does get stuck, sometimes the cpu does go to 100%, so i open a terminal and killall thatprogram.

Oh yeah, for some reason, recently hal keeps failing to recognize a printer that has been hooked up to the computer for ages. nearly every time, i have to reinstall the printer... I don't know what's up with that.

offcenter77 · #4 9th May 2007, 02:50 PM

Shoot the dog.

See if beagle is running:

ps -ef | grep beagle

If it is, shut it down and uninstall it.

Wiles · #5 9th May 2007, 06:07 PM

beagle isn't running.

I notice that if a webpage such as yahoo has a flash advertisement, then the cpu is being used, but not at 100%. i've been on this computer about half a day now, and the slowness is picking up again. in the morning, opening a tab or starting a program takes the normal amount of time, but by midday, opening a webpage in a tab is lagging and seems to consume a lot of cpu. I would rather not have to restart the computer twice a day to keep a normal speed.

offcenter77 · #6 9th May 2007, 06:15 PM

So, you're saying the issue is primarily with Firefox? There are many websites that offer tips on tuning Firefox, all of which you can find from Google.

Or you may try Swiftfox, which can provide a specific compilation of Firefox for your hardware.

Bear in mind, though, that Firefox is notoriously CPU hungry when hitting websites with Flash content.

Wiles · #7 9th May 2007, 07:45 PM

I'm not sure it's exactly with firefox, as I also use opera and epiphany. I just give firefox as an example because i use it often. the thing that eventually consumes the most cpu is swriter.bin(openoffice) followed by xorg and then firefox.

when normally starting, all of the apps behave ok. but after a few hours, just having openoffice idling makes it consume up to 65% cpu ... then if I click on firefox, open nautilus, or click anything, the cpu usage can reach 100%