Hi, I dont know much about computers, but I recently purchased a new computer its a HP, Model Compaq Presario A900 Notebook PC, with a Intel Pentium Dual CPU T2390 @1.86GHz 1.87GHz, with 3 GB RAM, and a 32-bit operating system. Ive only had it for about four months now, and it is running extremely slow. I have tried uninstalling large programs, defragmenting the system, virus scans, ad-ware scans, etc..but nothing seems to bring my computer back to its original speed. I will note that my CPU usage is usaually around 50% or greater when running and opening programs. What can I do to speed up my computer?

Open your Task Manager and monitor what is using your CPU.

It might spike to 50% but should never run there constantly.

To open the Task Manager right click the Task Bar and click Task Manager then open the Processes tab and see who is running your CPU.

thank you for your reply, first off I have been watching my CPU usage, and when I am not using any programs and the computer is just running, the CPU is between 1-24%, when I open a program such as mozilla firefox, my CPU jumps to around 75-95%, how can I explain this?, on the processes tab there are many things and I don't know what they stand for. This is the extensive list;

ApMsgFwd.exe ApntEx.exe Apoint.exe CAGlobal.exe CAGlobalLight.exe capfasem.exe capfsem.exe cappactiveprotection.exe

cavrid.exe cctray.exe cfgmng32.exe conime.exe csrss.exe dwm.exe ehmsas.exe ehtray.exe explorer.exe firefox.exe

hkcmd.exe HpqSRmon.exe HpqToaster.exe HPWAMain.exe hpwuSchd2.exe IAAnotif.exe igfxpers.exe igfxsrvc.exe

igfxtray.exe mdmcls32.exe MSACui.exe QLBCTRL.exe QOELTRL.exe QOELoader.exe QPService.exe sidebar.exe taskeng.exe,

taskmgr.exe WiFiMsg.exe winlogon.exe wmpnscfg.exe wuauclt.exe

Doing nothing (idle) with only the Task Manager open you should have 1% CPU usage steady. That is the Task Manager running. You will see the reciprocal in System Idle Process @ 99%.

Can you pick out of your list any process that might be using your CPU when in an idle state?

You can or we can Google your entries to find out what they are. The only generic services are listed as svchost.exe which are generic system hosts. Everything else should come up in a Google.