Re: Is there a cure to my {suspected} over-heating problem??
[ QUOTE ]
I've got 51 processes running although serveral (such as SVCHOST.EXE have multiple copies running)
[/ QUOTE ]
Spyware.
Definitely spyware.
Your computer should be fast enough...I've datamined 9 tables on UB w/ PT/PAHUD just fine w/ a lowly P4 2.4GHz and only 256MB RAM...and several IM clients open and a firefox browser gobbling up 200MB RAM w/ 20 tabs open, a porno paused in media player, a mem hungry image editor open, a few putty windows, WinSCP, a minimized Terminal Services session, adn AHK script or two, etc.
Granted, Party is a resource hog, but you've absolutely without a doubt got other problems not related to hardware.
As for the overheating....different laptops have different designs for cooling. Some are FAR superior to others. Inspirons are the budget line (not trying to insult...I realize you upped the specs to a point where it could have spanked some non-budget lines) and in my experience, their cooling is not that great. The good news is, once you remove your junkware and your CPU doesn't stay pegged at 50% capacity+, it will run cooler. Dell Latitudes have much better cooling than Inspirons (I've run them at 100% CPU for a week during a burn in test...and I've had my hands on may other laptops I couldn't run at full load for more than 5 minutes).
I guarantee your graphics card is fine. Any glitches you are experiencing are related to the system being overloaded (likely by rouge spyware processes)
[ QUOTE ]
Given that I've only got 512MB RAM, doesn't that mean I'm into virtual RAM territory constantly??
[/ QUOTE ]
No. I'm currently at 488MB "in use" on my lowly 256MB physical RAM machine. There will be a delay if I switch to an app that hasn't been used in a while which would be entirely in swapspace. If I'm mostly donking around in firefox or a poker site then I'm running from physical RAM. Windows will swap the least used junk to virtual memory. In your case, however, you likely are swapping WAY more than you should be...since it is the junkware that is constantly being used and staying "fresh" in physical RAM.
|