Thanks for all the tips. I tried the first one, "vmstat 1", and here is the output I received when opening Firefox: procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu---- r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa 1 0 0 534348 57332 240636 0 0 0 0 599 332 21 5 74 0 0 1 0 532588 57348 241748 0 0 1156 0 652 2873 24 13 0 63 0 1 0 531216 57376 242264 0 0 512 0 406 287 17 4 0 79 0 1 0 531096 57384 242360 0 0 108 0 439 221 14 3 0 83 0 1 0 530852 57384 242472 0 0 112 0 146 222 14 5 0 81 0 1 0 530792 57384 242572 0 0 100 0 965 774 15 7 0 78 0 3 0 530672 57392 242700 0 0 128 292 615 712 22 5 0 73 0 3 0 530492 57400 242828 0 0 128 8 614 775 20 7 0 73 2 1 0 530020 57408 243180 0 0 368 0 682 776 22 6 0 72 1 1 0 530008 57408 243188 0 0 0 0 600 704 23 4 0 73 0 1 0 529972 57408 243268 0 0 88 0 644 732 20 9 0 71 0 1 0 529364 57424 243892 0 0 640 0 628 754 21 6 0 73 0 1 0 528764 57428 244456 0 0 544 0 632 745 23 6 0 71 1 2 0 528740 57444 244468 0 0 28 104 560 504 16 6 0 78 procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu---- r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa 1 1 0 526984 57468 245708 0 0 1264 0 695 657 22 6 0 72 0 1 0 524812 57472 247036 0 0 1356 0 477 407 20 4 0 76 3 1 0 524068 57484 247784 0 0 720 0 181 364 17 7 0 76 0 2 0 518848 57524 252132 0 0 4236 0 218 475 21 6 0 73 0 2 0 517164 57552 252852 0 0 728 248 225 341 19 4 0 77 0 1 0 516796 57560 252984 0 0 120 232 128 166 16 5 0 79 0 1 0 515772 57564 253888 0 0 916 0 173 186 17 3 0 80 0 1 0 514500 57576 254816 0 0 932 0 162 230 22 4 0 74 0 1 0 512608 57580 255704 0 0 920 0 148 318 25 4 0 71 0 1 0 512500 57580 255784 0 0 84 0 91 113 12 5 0 83 0 1 0 511524 57596 256404 0 0 612 56 181 210 19 6 0 75 0 1 0 508384 57600 257776 0 0 1352 0 266 496 34 8 0 58 0 2 0 505548 57608 259220 0 0 1456 0 211 286 27 5 0 68 1 0 0 504524 57620 260092 0 0 904 0 170 265 28 5 0 67 0 1 0 502496 57624 260340 0 0 216 0 151 431 24 6 0 70 0 2 0 502364 57632 260440 0 0 92 172 91 110 12 5 0 83 0 1 0 502196 57640 260660 0 0 220 20 165 180 16 4 0 80 0 1 0 501584 57640 260828 0 0 104 0 161 293 31 5 0 64 0 1 0 500464 57656 261308 0 0 196 0 552 2951 54 14 0 32 0 1 0 500316 57656 261480 0 0 184 0 572 559 14 5 0 81 1 0 0 497348 57660 261736 0 0 260 0 652 1228 29 8 0 63 procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu---- r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa 1 2 0 498036 57684 261928 0 0 160 252 794 1374 54 14 0 32 3 0 0 494880 57704 262380 0 0 424 88 723 1020 66 8 0 26 1 0 0 494704 57708 262444 0 0 68 0 720 983 77 8 9 6 1 0 0 491592 57712 262740 0 0 332 0 848 1006 79 9 0 12 1 0 0 490408 57724 263012 0 0 16 0 813 932 80 8 4 8 2 0 0 489976 57724 263016 0 0 4 0 912 794 90 8 0 2 1 0 0 489408 57744 263148 0 0 24 380 746 658 88 7 0 5 3 0 0 488384 57744 263156 0 0 4 0 739 766 72 11 15 2 0 0 0 488012 57744 263168 0 0 4 0 628 551 57 7 27 9 0 0 0 488012 57744 263168 0 0 0 0 547 320 7 6 87 0 0 0 0 488012 57744 263168 0 0 0 0 590 337 17 4 79 0 0 0 0 487888 57752 263168 0 0 0 200 588 455 17 5 77 1 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? Some other issues I noticed are: 1. extremely slow boot - 5 minutes! 2. the welcome music was interrupted (jerky) when logging in. 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. Thanks again for the help! Troy > > Troy wrote: > > I'm running Ubuntu 7.10 on a HP Pavilion ze4125 laptop (AMD Athlon XP > > 1600+ [1.4Ghz] with 1 gig of RAM. However, I've experienced the issues > > described below with other versions of Ubuntu, and other distributions. > > > > Current symptoms: > > Mouse will jerk when moving - moves fine for awhile, then all of a > > sudden quickly stops for a brief second. > > CPU usage showing 100% spikes frequently, and I'm only running Top in > > Terminal, Firefox, and System Monitor > > CPU temperature ranges from 40c-60c. Is this normal? > > Fan on laptop running 99% of the time. > > Overall slow response. > > > > I originally thought I may have a HDD issue, but numerous diagnostic > > utilities state HDD is fine. I now wonder if my CPU is the culprit. I > > searched the repositories for a diagnostic utility, but did not see > > any. Can anyone recommend a diagnostic utility for Linux? Any other > > ideas as what might be the issue? > > > > Here is what the first few lines in Top show > > > > top - 13:35:25 up 1:21, 3 users, load average: 0.44, 0.49, 0.78 > > Tasks: 102 total, 5 running, 97 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie > > Cpu(s): 31.6%us, 5.3%sy , 0.0%ni, 63.2%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, > > 0.0%st > > Mem: 1002092k total, 526172k used, 475920k free, 16712k buffers > > Swap: 489972k total, 0k used, 489972k free, 310824k cached > > > > PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ > > COMMAND > > 6592 troy 15 0 17888 10m 7432 R 21.2 1.0 0:02.72 > > metacity > > 6525 root 16 0 105m 19m 7548 R 15.9 2.0 0:33.10 > > Xorg > > 6783 troy 15 0 210m 70m 22m R 5.3 7.2 2:46.20 > > firefox-bin > > 1 root 18 0 2952 1856 532 S 0.0 0.2 0:01.30 > > init > > > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > Troy > > > > -- > > Website of the week: > > http://www.ubuntu.com/ > > > > The Free Alternative to M$ Office: > > http://www.openoffice.org > > > > My Blog: > > http://troythetechguy.blogspot.com > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > > -- Website of the week: http://www.ubuntu.com/ The Free Alternative to M$ Office: http://www.openoffice.org My Blog: http://troythetechguy.blogspot.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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