Ubuntu – Computer slow and Ubuntu not using Exchange Ram

cpuram

I'am using Ubuntu Mate 14.04.2 on my Compaq mini and on certain websites it becomes extreemly low, and at that time looking at the system monitor CPU is always at 100%. (see picture attached) I extended Ram from 1GB to 2Gb but it stays always below 40% (see picture attached) so it might not be of any use?
And it looks like that the exchange is never used at it stays always at 0% (see picture attached).
What can I do? Thank you!

CPU and Ram

when facebook open I have this, otherwise CPu stays at 20%:

 PID USUARIO   PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     HORA+ ORDEN
 2237 yasmich   20   0 1390284 466108  91592 R 141,3 22,6  87:07.11 firefox
 5367 yasmich   20   0  240736  62184  48520 S  26,4  3,0   0:01.38 Web Content
 1292 root      20   0  127644  50968  36176 S  11,2  2,5   8:22.74 Xorg
 1846 yasmich   20   0  168012  24108  20896 S   3,3  1,2   0:19.06 wnck-applet
 5345 yasmich   20   0  176852  30028  22424 R   2,3  1,5   0:00.94 mate-terminal
 1217 nobody    20   0    6836   3100   2892 S   1,0  0,2   0:06.93 dnsmasq
 2234 yasmich   20   0  231320  75068  49424 S   0,7  3,6   2:25.33 vlc

Best Answer

I'd installed a copy of Ubuntu on an older test box at home. I'd wanted to see how it ran on older hardware. Anyhow, had similar issues. I did a combination of three things and it worked for me.

First, I set it to use the "performance" setting in the governor to stop it throttling the CPU. You can do that by following this information: How I can disable CPU frequency scaling and set the system to performance?

Second, I set it to use more RAM (this is what I think may be your biggest help or will best address your question). You can learn how to do this here: How to make ubuntu use more RAM to cache a specific set of binaries?

Finally, as strange as it sounds, I tend to leave a text editor open as I take a lot of notes. For some reason (and I know not why) Gedit was really problematic - it wasn't eating a lot of RAM or CPU but somehow was making my typing (even in other applications) slow. I have no idea even how that would happen but I do know that I can replicate the process time and time again by simply opening the application up and leaving it open with a few tabs available. This is not to suggest that the behavior is the same at your end but you may find that closing applications and then opening them up individually may help.

In other words, is your system speedy/responsive when you have just started it or does it slow down after you have a few applications open? If so then take a look at some alternative applications.

I can't be certain but that is what got my system squared away.

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