Thanks for all the tips. I tried the first one, "vmstat 1", and here is the output I received when opening Firefox:<br><br>procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu----<br> r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
<br> 1 0 0 534348 57332 240636 0 0 0 0 599 332 21 5 74 0<br> 0 1 0 532588 57348 241748 0 0 1156 0 652 2873 24 13 0 63<br> 0 1 0 531216 57376 242264 0 0 512 0 406 287 17 4 0 79
<br> 0 1 0 531096 57384 242360 0 0 108 0 439 221 14 3 0 83<br> 0 1 0 530852 57384 242472 0 0 112 0 146 222 14 5 0 81<br> 0 1 0 530792 57384 242572 0 0 100 0 965 774 15 7 0 78
<br> 0 3 0 530672 57392 242700 0 0 128 292 615 712 22 5 0 73<br> 0 3 0 530492 57400 242828 0 0 128 8 614 775 20 7 0 73<br> 2 1 0 530020 57408 243180 0 0 368 0 682 776 22 6 0 72
<br> 1 1 0 530008 57408 243188 0 0 0 0 600 704 23 4 0 73<br> 0 1 0 529972 57408 243268 0 0 88 0 644 732 20 9 0 71<br> 0 1 0 529364 57424 243892 0 0 640 0 628 754 21 6 0 73
<br> 0 1 0 528764 57428 244456 0 0 544 0 632 745 23 6 0 71<br> 1 2 0 528740 57444 244468 0 0 28 104 560 504 16 6 0 78<br>procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu----
<br> r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa<br> 1 1 0 526984 57468 245708 0 0 1264 0 695 657 22 6 0 72<br> 0 1 0 524812 57472 247036 0 0 1356 0 477 407 20 4 0 76
<br> 3 1 0 524068 57484 247784 0 0 720 0 181 364 17 7 0 76<br> 0 2 0 518848 57524 252132 0 0 4236 0 218 475 21 6 0 73<br> 0 2 0 517164 57552 252852 0 0 728 248 225 341 19 4 0 77
<br> 0 1 0 516796 57560 252984 0 0 120 232 128 166 16 5 0 79<br> 0 1 0 515772 57564 253888 0 0 916 0 173 186 17 3 0 80<br> 0 1 0 514500 57576 254816 0 0 932 0 162 230 22 4 0 74
<br> 0 1 0 512608 57580 255704 0 0 920 0 148 318 25 4 0 71<br> 0 1 0 512500 57580 255784 0 0 84 0 91 113 12 5 0 83<br> 0 1 0 511524 57596 256404 0 0 612 56 181 210 19 6 0 75
<br> 0 1 0 508384 57600 257776 0 0 1352 0 266 496 34 8 0 58<br> 0 2 0 505548 57608 259220 0 0 1456 0 211 286 27 5 0 68<br> 1 0 0 504524 57620 260092 0 0 904 0 170 265 28 5 0 67
<br> 0 1 0 502496 57624 260340 0 0 216 0 151 431 24 6 0 70<br> 0 2 0 502364 57632 260440 0 0 92 172 91 110 12 5 0 83<br> 0 1 0 502196 57640 260660 0 0 220 20 165 180 16 4 0 80
<br> 0 1 0 501584 57640 260828 0 0 104 0 161 293 31 5 0 64<br> 0 1 0 500464 57656 261308 0 0 196 0 552 2951 54 14 0 32<br> 0 1 0 500316 57656 261480 0 0 184 0 572 559 14 5 0 81
<br> 1 0 0 497348 57660 261736 0 0 260 0 652 1228 29 8 0 63<br>procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu----<br> r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
<br> 1 2 0 498036 57684 261928 0 0 160 252 794 1374 54 14 0 32<br> 3 0 0 494880 57704 262380 0 0 424 88 723 1020 66 8 0 26<br> 1 0 0 494704 57708 262444 0 0 68 0 720 983 77 8 9 6
<br> 1 0 0 491592 57712 262740 0 0 332 0 848 1006 79 9 0 12<br> 1 0 0 490408 57724 263012 0 0 16 0 813 932 80 8 4 8<br> 2 0 0 489976 57724 263016 0 0 4 0 912 794 90 8 0 2
<br> 1 0 0 489408 57744 263148 0 0 24 380 746 658 88 7 0 5<br> 3 0 0 488384 57744 263156 0 0 4 0 739 766 72 11 15 2<br> 0 0 0 488012 57744 263168 0 0 4 0 628 551 57 7 27 9
<br> 0 0 0 488012 57744 263168 0 0 0 0 547 320 7 6 87 0<br> 0 0 0 488012 57744 263168 0 0 0 0 590 337 17 4 79 0<br> 0 0 0 487888 57752 263168 0 0 0 200 588 455 17 5 77 1
<br><br>I believe the high waiting time (as indicated by the last column on the right) is the result of slow disk performance, not a slow CPU. As previously stated, I tried some disk utilities on the "Ultimate Boot CD", and no issues were found with the HDD. However, does anyone have a different disk utility program they recommend?
<br><br>Some other issues I noticed are:<br>1. extremely slow boot - 5 minutes!<br>2. the welcome music was interrupted (jerky) when logging in.<br><br>Is there anyway to determine if a new HDD would make a difference? Being the laptop is already 5-6 years old, if the issue is something other than the HDD, I prefer to just purchase a new laptop.
<br><br>Thanks again for the help!<br><br>Troy<br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br><div>
<div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br>Troy wrote:<br>> I'm running Ubuntu 7.10 on a HP Pavilion ze4125 laptop (AMD Athlon XP<br>> 1600+ [1.4Ghz] with 1 gig of RAM. However, I've experienced the issues<br>> described below with other versions of Ubuntu, and other distributions.
<br>><br>> Current symptoms:<br>> Mouse will jerk when moving - moves fine for awhile, then all of a<br>> sudden quickly stops for a brief second.<br>> CPU usage showing 100% spikes frequently, and I'm only running Top in
<br>> Terminal, Firefox, and System Monitor<br>> CPU temperature ranges from 40c-60c. Is this normal?<br>> Fan on laptop running 99% of the time.<br>> Overall slow response.<br>><br>> I originally thought I may have a HDD issue, but numerous diagnostic
<br>> utilities state HDD is fine. I now wonder if my CPU is the culprit. I<br>> searched the repositories for a diagnostic utility, but did not see<br>> any. Can anyone recommend a diagnostic utility for Linux? Any other
<br>> ideas as what might be the issue?<br>><br>> Here is what the first few lines in Top show<br>><br>> top - 13:35:25 up 1:21, 3 users, load average: 0.44, 0.49, 0.78<br>> Tasks: 102 total, 5 running, 97 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
<br>> Cpu(s): 31.6%us, 5.3%sy , 0.0%ni, 63.2%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si,<br>> 0.0%st<br>> Mem: 1002092k total, 526172k used, 475920k free, 16712k buffers<br>> Swap: 489972k total, 0k used, 489972k free, 310824k cached
<br>><br>> PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+<br>> COMMAND<br>> 6592 troy 15 0 17888 10m 7432 R 21.2 1.0 0:02.72<br>> metacity<br>> 6525 root 16 0 105m 19m 7548 R
15.9 2.0 0:33.10<br>> Xorg<br>> 6783 troy 15 0 210m 70m 22m R 5.3 7.2 2:46.20<br>> firefox-bin<br>> 1 root 18 0 2952 1856 532 S 0.0 0.2 0:01.30<br>> init<br>><br>><br>
><br>> Thanks,<br>><br>> Troy<br>><br>> --<br>> Website of the week:<br>> <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/" target="_blank">http://www.ubuntu.com/</a><br>><br>> The Free Alternative to M$ Office:
<br>> <a href="http://www.openoffice.org" target="_blank">http://www.openoffice.org</a><br>><br>> My Blog:<br>> <a href="http://troythetechguy.blogspot.com" target="_blank">http://troythetechguy.blogspot.com</a>
<br>><br>><br></div></div>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------<br><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c">><br>> _______________________________________________<br>> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
<br>> <a href="mailto:tclug-list@mn-linux.org">tclug-list@mn-linux.org</a><br>> <a href="http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list" target="_blank">http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list
</a><br><br></div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Website of the week: <br><a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">http://www.ubuntu.com/</a><br><br>The Free Alternative to M$ Office:<br><a href="http://www.openoffice.org">
http://www.openoffice.org</a><br><br>My Blog: <br><a href="http://troythetechguy.blogspot.com">http://troythetechguy.blogspot.com</a>