strange CPU spikes that canot be identified?

Question

programs running:
zonealarm, avg antivirus free, miutorrent, msn messenger, maplestory, 1-2 webbrowsers, windows explorer

comp specs:
p4, 3.0ghz, 512ram, raedon X300/X550 series 128ram, adsl broadband, 80gb HDD which currently is abt 50% used

i am getting strange CPU usage spikes ~100% from windows task manager (performances); graphics laggy and sound stuttery. however usually i am in the game maplestory when it happens; im unable to see wat caused the spike, only that there was a spike in the history..

processes dont go above 20k Mem usage (viewed during non spike period) and all processes seem normal (not suspicious)

have run anti virus scan, and ad-aware, in fact just format my pc 2wks ago, and never had this problem until today; ie i was able to run all these applications previously, and even more on occasion without any problem at all

how can i stop this from happening or find out whats causing it???

thanks for the answers but

1) i dont think its too much programs cuz iv run more programs concurrently before without this problem at all

2) i am suspecting zonealarm too but i was using ZA before today and i dint get this problem too

3) i am using utorrent now i just spelt it out as 'miu' :s

4) how do i go about specifying vitrual mem? not sure what that is though

5) 20k is what i got off the processes tab, under 'Mem Usage' eg 35,164K for one IEEXPLORER.exe


as for increasing RAM..i'd like to stress that i have used more programs concurrently before and i never had this problem.. i really want to find out what happened..

Answer 1

Sadly though, it is caused by having too many programs running in your computer.

I suggest disabling the Zone Alarm application as well as changing your Bittorent client to utorrent as that bittorent client uses more memory as well as CPU power compared to utorrent.

Also, windows sometimes does those cpu spikes because it is readjusting its virtual memory settings. If you can, try specifying your virual memory settings though control panel, system.

Also, that 20k (20 thousand) memory usage is too much, my computer barely even reached one thousand memory usage.

Answer 2

properly, i think of you mean a million.5gb of ram, no longer giga hertz (Ghz) you will see that your internet site record utilization isn't finished, in fact i'm helpful you're no longer even utilising a million/3 of that ram. although, what]s occurring is you have maximum of methods working, that your cpu seems going slower because of the fact it has to do maximum of calculations, going over maximum of somewhat some issues. to call some trouble-free subject concerns, go forward and delete each and everything interior the folder named "startup."m this would not truly delete the classes, because it rather stops them from comming up immediately. Then, if that's XP, on the backside remarkable interior the taskbar, end and close al of the classes you do no longer want working on the time there as properly. Then, relish your swifter, acceptable working workstation.

Answer 3

Increase Ur Ram.