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a casual description of my latest computer issue

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Mudcat
Hmm. If we're talking about the number in the CPU column, the highest number is clearly firefox.exe. I click to navigate somewhere on the internet and that number bounces around on an upward trend and gets as high as 95. Then once the page is done loading (6 days later), it settles into the 10-20 range (with sporadic hiccups outside that range).

I am only using this computer for the internet right now. Just for the hell of it, I looked at some Word and Excel files and those seemed to operate as crisply as any other computer. Now that is using files from a memory stick, not the computer memory itself - if that is significant.

But anyway I go back to internet navigation and it is still bogged right down and the pattern with the CPU number is as I described it before.
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It sounds like something is definitely up with firefox, it shouldn't be consuming 90% of CPU for any extended amount of time. I did a little research and found some other people with similar problems for a variety of reasons. Here are my suggestions, in order of what is easiest and most likely to work:

Try another browser. Google Chrome comes to mind.

Make sure you have the most recent firefox installed, and disable all of your extensions (Tools->Addons). If it behaves normally, enable extensions one at a time until you find the culprit.

Google "firefox high CPU" and read up until you find something that fixes the problem.
 
MrX
It sounds like something is definitely up with firefox, it shouldn't be consuming 90% of CPU for any extended amount of time. I did a little research and found some other people with similar problems for a variety of reasons. Here are my suggestions, in order of what is easiest and most likely to work:

Try another browser. Google Chrome comes to mind.

Make sure you have the most recent firefox installed, and disable all of your extensions (Tools->Addons). If it behaves normally, enable extensions one at a time until you find the culprit.

Google "firefox high CPU" and read up until you find something that fixes the problem.
Click to expand...

Yes Chrome uses far less of a the CPU.
 
Okay I'll follow up on this other stuff. I know I have the most recent version of Firefox because I took the computer into the shop for a tune-up when I brought it out of mothballs and they added a gig of memory and updated all the old crap.

I hear very little noise coming from the slow computer. I have another laptop running of the exact same make and model - which is operating fine - and when I put my ear right up to the keyboard, there is more going on inside. There is a soft but constant white noise coming from it. I don't know if that's a fan or what but it is definitely different, more vigorous.
 
Laptops tend to get less efficient with age (PCs also but laptops tend to have lower performance components) as a combination of age and filling the computer with different programs, generally sucking up more memory over time. If you can, I'd advise saving everything on the laptop and reformatting to make sure you remove everything and resource hogging, even the things you don't know are there. A change to Chrome as a browser is also a better idea. Also you might want to try and find some kind of external cooling device - I've seen ones that fit to the bottom of the laptop which are a set of fans powered by the USB port. I'm not sure how efficient they are but they should do at least something (and they also elevate the laptop from your table/desk which aids in cooling down by having at least some air circulation).
 
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