steph53...
You state: "the other (a paid site) where I download music to works
fine until after an hour or so...After that, it seems that my pooter
gets very very slow..."
This is saying that your pooter is slowing when downloading songs.
You also say: "As I now have hundreds of tunes downloaded, it just
seems when I play them that my other programmmes are either frozen
or just soooo slooowww..........."
This is saying that when you play songs which you've already
downloaded, that your pooter is slow.
Both of these are likely to be true. Since, as I recall, you have
Windows 2000, you can hit 'Ctrl - Alt - Delete' and bring up the
Task Manager (or go to Start -> Run and type in 'taskmgr')
and click on the 'Performance' tab. This will let you see your
CPU usage as you are involved in these processes.
When downloading a large file, my CPU, which has a speed of
1667MHZ, is being used to the tune of 20-40%, which will
definitely be noticed in the speed of performance of other
programs.
Likewise, when playing an .mp3 file which is already downloaded
to my computer, my CPU usage is about 20%, which will also be
noticeable when 'multi-tasking'. This will be even more
pronounced if you are using a 'visualization' in Real Player,
which displays a graphic image along with the music.
Doing both at the same time - that is, playing a song you've
already downloaded while downloading another from a website,
will bring your CPU usage even higher. I would recommend
downloading first and listening later.
Downloading will have more of an effect on webpages loading in
your browser, since both activities utilize your internet
connection. Playing a song file you've already downloaded
should have less of an impact on the speed of your browser.
If you have a CPU with a speed lower than 1667MHZ, you will
use an even greater percentage of its resources. Whatever
the speed of your CPU, you can monitor its usage with
'taskmgr', under the Performance tab.
You may be able to see the speed of your CPU by right-clicking
on 'My Computer' on your desktop, and selecting 'Properties'.
If you have less than 256MB of RAM (also visible at the bottom
of the window from the last paragraph), you might benefit from
an increase.
Also, even though Windows 2000 is considerably more stable than
Windows 98, and will go much longer without the necessity to
reboot it, you may notice some benefit in rebooting from time
to time. This will return the various resources which Windows
uses to a pristine state, and may improve your performance for
a time.
Please do not rate this answer until you are satisfied that
the answer cannot be improved upon by means of a dialog
established through the "Request for Clarification" process.
sublime1-ga
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Request for Answer Clarification by steph53-ga
on 27 Apr 2003 08:29 PDT
Oops...
Please disregard the pevious numbers in the clarification. I made a
mistake.
When I go to My Computer I find my CPU has a speed of only 1000MHZ.
RAM is 256MB.
In Task Manager, while playing a tune, the speed is anywhere from 13%
to 21% and while downloading, the speed is 16% to 30% which is
noticeably slower than the numbers you have on yours.
This being the case, could the lower numbers be the cause of the
slowness?
Also, per the previous clarification, I found I can't move my
downloaded music from the paid site to my RealPlayer, so deleting that
is not an option.
Thank you kindly...
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Clarification of Answer by
sublime1-ga on 27 Apr 2003 10:52 PDT
steph53...
Thank you for the report on the CPU and RAM.
A CPU rated at 1000MHZ, or 1GHZ should be more than adequate
for the tasks you are attempting. The numbers you cite from
Task Manager are not the speed of the CPU, but the current
usage - that is, how 'tied up' your CPU is with the tasks
allotted. The fact that your numbers are lower is good. It
means that your CPU is only 20% (or so) 'occupied' with the
processes of downloading or playing the music. This can
still have a noticeable effect on the response of other
programs.
Since you do not name the paysite, and since I cannot
duplicate your results without joining, I can't be certain
about your experience with that site. However, it sounds
very much like the music from the paysite is not being
'downloaded', as such, to your computer, but is rather
being 'streamed', in which case, as noggywoggy-ga notes
in a comment, this may be using up your RAM. You can get
a look at RAM usage under the same Performance tab you
used in Task Manager to view your CPU performance.
Under 'Physical Memory', at the bottom right, you should
see figures for 'Total', 'Available' and 'System Cache'.
If, while listening to the 'streamed' music, your
'Available' memory is low, you might want to invest in
additional RAM, or simply re-start the player you use
with the paysite, as noted by noggywoggy-ga. I would
also recommend closing all browser windows when you do
so, and re-opening them to renew your connection to the
paysite. This will 'refresh' your browser's 'cache' of
memory, as well.
Please don't hesitate to ask for additional clarification,
as needed.
sublime1-ga
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