A Technical Question - Gasp! A technical question on this site?

[Pinnacle-Project]

Yes, seriously, I have a technical question.

I am trying to help my MIL with her laptop. It was behaving erratically, so I wiped the hard drive and reinstalled Windows. It is no longer erratic but it is performing slower than I would expect for this hardware. It is a Dell laptop with a Pentium dual core T4300 with 4 meg of RAM, running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

I do not have another computer here at home to compare with but Task Manager seems odd to me. Whenever I do anything with it, one core shows as virtually pegged while the other one is virtually idle. It would seem like they would be balanced. Should they be balanced or is this normal? Thanks.

By the way, sorry for the crummy picture but using the Snipping tool skewed Task Manager so I just took a picture with my camera.

[slgrieb]

Yes, seriously, I have a technical question.

I am trying to help my MIL with her laptop. It was behaving erratically, so I wiped the hard drive and reinstalled Windows. It is no longer erratic but it is performing slower than I would expect for this hardware. It is a Dell laptop with a Pentium dual core T4300 with 4 meg of RAM, running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

I do not have another computer here at home to compare with but Task Manager seems odd to me. Whenever I do anything with it, one core shows as virtually pegged while the other one is virtually idle. It would seem like they would be balanced. Should they be balanced or is this normal? Thanks.

By the way, sorry for the crummy picture but using the Snipping tool skewed Task Manager so I just took a picture with my camera.

I think that the computer has bad RAM. First off, I haven't had to deal with a defective CPU in a decade or so, and I tend to discount this as an issue. But, I would suggest downloading Memtest 86+, making a bootable CD, and then, of course booting from the CD and running the diagnostic for multiple passes, ideally, overnight.

Of all hardware diagnostics, I think memory tests are the least reliable, so that's why I advise multiple passes. Bad RAM may pass some memory diagnostics for a few passes. On the other hand, if you get a fail on a memory diagnostic, you can take that as absolutely correct.

Anyway, I might just go to you local Big Box store, and buy some compatible RAM, install it in place of the existing RAM and see what happens. If the new RAM doesn't fix the issue, return it for a refund.

[Pinnacle-Project]

Thanks. I will perform the test.

Here is an additional detail that supports your hypothesis. Prior to reloading Windows, I was experiencing erratic behavior with the previous build. The computer would crash often and I would need to use the System Restore utility to get it working again. One time, I started the memory diagnostics utility before I went to bed. When I checked it in the morning, the computer had crashed and rebooted during the night.

[Pinnacle-Project]

I let the memory tester run for a little over 12 hours. No errors. I went to the Dell web site and ran their full diagnostics. No errors.

I have noticed the unbalanced workload between the two cores only seems to happen when I am doing Windows Update. Maybe there is a good reason for this. I think I will install Office, migrate all the data back over and call it good. Dell shipped this laptop to my MIL on November 17, 2009. I think I have put more time into this laptop than it deserves given its age.

Thanks.

[slgrieb]

I let the memory tester run for a little over 12 hours. No errors. I went to the Dell web site and ran their full diagnostics. No errors.

I have noticed the unbalanced workload between the two cores only seems to happen when I am doing Windows Update. Maybe there is a good reason for this. I think I will install Office, migrate all the data back over and call it good. Dell shipped this laptop to my MIL on November 17, 2009. I think I have put more time into this laptop than it deserves given its age.

Thanks.

I'd say that's a good call. The problem does appear that it might be related to a CPU issue, but I still lean toward defective RAM (in spite of the diagnostics) or a bad motherboard. But, yeah, in any case fixing the computer almost certainly exceeds the value of the machine. Newer laptops are fairly easy to service (even if they are a bit weird) but older machines are generally a major pain in the ass.

[CeeBee]

So which process exactly is consuming the CPU? That's where you need to start. Also drivers for the storage controller may impact performance.
Bad memory will not cause constant high CPU usage - only random crashes.
The CPU load should be balanced *IF* the app using resources is multi-CPU aware *AND* it wasn't designed to behave differently. Older apps might only use one logical CPU. Some apps may be made to only use one logical CPU by design.
I would start by exploring the processes taking resources and the disk queues.

[Larommi]

The drive might be shitting on you. had a similar problem. I think I posted it here somewhere.

[74AD]

The drive might be shitting on you. had a similar problem. I think I posted it here somewhere.

it's possible, and for under $100 ($50 if you go 120GB) you can toss a SSD drive in there which will both eliminate and issue with a faulty drive and speed that thing up quite a bit.

[slgrieb]

So which process exactly is consuming the CPU? That's where you need to start. Also drivers for the storage controller may impact performance.
Bad memory will not cause constant high CPU usage - only random crashes.
The CPU load should be balanced *IF* the app using resources is multi-CPU aware *AND* it wasn't designed to behave differently. Older apps might only use one logical CPU. Some apps may be made to only use one logical CPU by design.
I would start by exploring the processes taking resources and the disk queues.

While you raise a couple of good points, I would say that bad memory doesn't always translate into random shutdowns and lockups. Sometimes, software can malfunction without a system crash. Still, you make a good point by suggesting that the application using a single core heavily should be investigated.

All the same, I would just slap some new RAM into the system and see what happens. I might be wrong about the root cause, but it might be worth a shot. Larommi is correct in pointing out that he had a performance issue related to a failing hard drive, and that certainly wouldn't have been my diagnosis.

But, these days you can find a decent laptop for around 300 bucks, so how much effort is it worth to try and fix an older machine? I have a laptop on hand right now that has a defective motherboard and a bad battery. The client could buy a new laptop and pay me to transfer his data for less money than what I estimate it would cost to fix his old, decrepit, antiquated machine. From my perspective, an act of silicon necromancy would put more money in my pocket, but would screw the customer. Most of my business is built on long term relationships and repeat business, so I'm not going to recommend fixing an antique laptop.

[CeeBee]

Sometimes, software can malfunction without a system crash.

While it is a possibility, it is very unlikely. And sooner or later that memory space will be allocated to a different process which will puke.

All the same, I would just slap some new RAM into the system and see what happens. I might be wrong about the root cause, but it might be worth a shot.

You'd then introduce a new variable which could in fact mask the real issue.

Larommi is correct in pointing out that he had a performance issue related to a failing hard drive, and that certainly wouldn't have been my diagnosis.

The disk queue performance counters can easily pinpoint a disk issue - read/write queues will increase while waiting for a response from the disk.
My initial guess is that wuauclt is holding the system, I have seen instances where it was a resource hog, and IIRC by design it does not take all available resources (which would explain the single core use)... But that's just intuition, like always I like to see hard data to draw a conclusion.