Cpu Useage with Dail-up

Hello, I have a hp-pavilion xe743 desktop and Im useing win98se with 64 MB
ram, When I run the system monitor right after start up the kernal: processer
useage goes up and down like normal, but when I sign on it goes up to 100% for
a few mins then starts going up and down, but when I sign off it goes back up
to 100% and stays, what could be causeing this? I have ran an online virus scan
with Mcafee and it found nothing, Also I have everything off the start-up
useing msconfig except system tray and scan registry. Any advice is welcome!


T.I.A.

Greg

"WildViper1978" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hello, I have a hp-pavilion xe743 desktop and Im useing win98se with 64 MB
> ram, When I run the system monitor right after start up the kernal:
processer
> useage goes up and down like normal, but when I sign on it goes up to 100%
for
> a few mins then starts going up and down, but when I sign off it goes back
up
> to 100% and stays, what could be causeing this? I have ran an online virus
scan
> with Mcafee and it found nothing, Also I have everything off the start-up
> useing msconfig except system tray and scan registry. Any advice is
welcome!

You are probably running with a WinModem.

A WinModem is actually half a modem. A very significant amount of the
processing work a full modem would normally do is handed off to the CPU. The
result: higher CPU utilization and overall lower modem performance. The
benefit: WinModems are very, very inexpensive. (It's not as though full
modems are all that expensive these days to begin with.)

There is an off chance you have some spy-ware on your system. Grab a free
download of AdAware to purge yourself of most of it.

AFAIK, all HP desktops ship with software based modems (winmodems)...
One of the first things I did when I purchased my HP was to buy a
proper hardware based modem.... It was not that expensive, and the
overall increase in performance is well worth it.

JM

On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 20:16:26 GMT, "MyndPhlyp" <>
wrote:

>You are probably running with a WinModem.
>
>A WinModem is actually half a modem. A very significant amount of the
>processing work a full modem would normally do is handed off to the CPU. The
>result: higher CPU utilization and overall lower modem performance. The
>benefit: WinModems are very, very inexpensive. (It's not as though full
>modems are all that expensive these days to begin with.)
>
>There is an off chance you have some spy-ware on your system. Grab a free
>download of AdAware to purge yourself of most of it.
>

By WinModem what do you mean, In the documentation it says theres a Rockwell
Chameleon combo card
(supports V.90 K56 Flex protocols)

Thanks again for any help,
Greg

"WildViper1978" <> wrote in message
news:...
> By WinModem what do you mean, In the documentation it says theres a
Rockwell
> Chameleon combo card
> (supports V.90 K56 Flex protocols)

You'll have to be more specific on which modem you have. One thing you could
do is head on over to HP's web site and surf through their support pages to
find out what the original factory configuration was for your system.
Somewhere in there, it should mention the make and model of the modem. From
there, you can find the actual modem manufacturers web site and locate the
specifications.

Based on what I've seen over time with HP PCs, it's a pretty good bet you
have a winmodem.

"MyndPhlyp" <> wrote in message
news:PhGjb.10083$ ink.net...
>
> "WildViper1978" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> > By WinModem what do you mean, In the documentation it says theres a
> Rockwell
> > Chameleon combo card
> > (supports V.90 K56 Flex protocols)
>
> You'll have to be more specific on which modem you have. One thing you
could
> do is head on over to HP's web site and surf through their support pages
to
> find out what the original factory configuration was for your system.
> Somewhere in there, it should mention the make and model of the modem.
From
> there, you can find the actual modem manufacturers web site and locate the
> specifications.
>
> Based on what I've seen over time with HP PCs, it's a pretty good bet you
> have a winmodem.
>
>
>

Yes, that's a WinModem.

A (real) modem has hardware to process digital signals to and from sounds.
This can be a special purpose circuitry or a custom DSP. However, that
circuitry costs a few dollars.

Since PCs have rather powerful CPUs, much of the signal processing done on a
modem can be done in software on the PC's processor. Thus, winmodems were
born. The modem card contains only the minimal circuitry to handle the
interface to the phone line. Everything else is done by the software in the
PCs processors.

Advantages: cheaper, easier to upgrade (just replace the driver).

Disadvantages: Eats up CPU processing power. Generally has poorer
performance in terms of connection speeds and dropping connections. Annoying
for most users, especially if the phone line is less than ideal.

BTW, using the task manager to determine the amount of CPU cycles being used
by the winmodem can be misleading. If the PC isn't doing much (lots of idle
time) any single task, when it runs, will show very high CPU usage. This is
an artifact of the way the CPU performance is measured.

Hope this helps.

craig