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Dragon0x40

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How to use Windows XP Task Manager to find system bottleneck

How can I use  the task manager in Windows XP?

Mostly concerned with the performance tab and what each value indicates and how to use that information to determine the bottleneck in my system.

I have never had much luck using task manager to determine if the bottleneck is a slow hard drive, insufficient or slow speed ram, hard drive dying, etc...

Asking for a  link to a good tutorial or some advice on how to use task manager.

Should the kernel memory be all non paged?

Should the commit charge be below the amount of physical memory?

Can I tell if my page file is too small or large by using task manager? Currently my page file is set to 1500 mb initial and maximum.

I would really like to master the use of the task manager.

Is task manager a good troubleshooting tool?

My laptop is a Sony Vaio Pent 4 2.80ghz processor with 512 ddr sdram and sometimes it is painfully slow.

I have had advice to upgrade to 1gb of ram and maybe get a faster hard drive.

Does task manager show that?
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Brian Pierce
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RANJINAP

Hello Drag,  I think your RAM memory problem actually solved by removing the running unnecessary programs in system backend, If you want something more feel free to comment
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I noticed your screenshot. There is nothing that really indicates a problem. The System Cache seems low but there are a wide variety of possible explanations for this. It is probably normal under the circumstances the screenshot was taken.
 
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thanks KCTS:, RANJINAP:, LMiller7: grtraders:, Bitbull:and akahan:,

I will spend some time reading the links and looking at the programs suggested.

I used to do desktop support and as stated above it is difficult to use task manager to isolate problems.

Think I will order that extra RAM (my laptop only supports to 1GB)

I will also try the suggested settings and report back.
I was hoping for an easy way to understand and use task manager but I don't think there is. Thanks for all the help and I will add more RAM.
To the author of the question-

Firstly, thank you for the points. Second as per your closing comment-
"I was hoping for an easy way to understand and use task manager but I don't think there is."

No offense to be undertaken-

I don't think so, You must have a pretty good idea of Processes, File Handles, System Memory Management, etc working at the CPU level which is a very advanced subject.

As per the posts of above experts, you may try to get a book on the above subject and have a good read at it.

But the links I gave you, should pretty much help you overcome a typical situation when you feel your PC to be sluggish due to heavy Processor and Virtual Memory Usage.

Regards,
Ravi.