up vote 0 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

There seems to be a whole host of different software to use, but what would you recommend ?

I want something which would record process cpu and memory over a 24hr period.

Ideally if the result can be in a chart format that would be ideal.

One of my user's laptop is slowing down so much its needs to be rebooted everyday.

I've ask for the process name causing the problem but Task Manager forever to load. The user has to manually power off the system and restart as its quicker.

But I can only remote support it. Everything i do log on, everything seems to be running normally.

Thanks people!

link|improve this question
feedback

3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

You didn't say which Windows, so I will assume XP.

Look into Performance logging as opposed to just using Perfmon's live graph tool. In this way, Perfmon will create a binary file of all the data it logs, at whatever sample interval you like, for as long as you like. You later open it with the graphical viewer: alt text

But maybe what you really want is Perfmon's Alerts tool. Here you can define a perfmon counter, and then when it goes over or under a value you determine, it can do something you define. Like run a little cmd script to log all current process names to a file:

@echo off
echo. >> c:\proclog.txt
date /t >> c:\proclog.txt
time /t >> c:\proclog.txt
tasklist >> c:\proclog.txt

If you were to go with this, I'd suggest the following counters:

  • System\Processor Queue Length (trigger on values greater than, say, 20)
  • PhysicalDisk\Current Disk Queue Length\driveletter (trigger on values greater than 10)

I didn't bother with any memory counter, because when you're memory-bound, you'll be thrashing the hard disk anyway. If the system has multiple CPUs or cores, trigger on CPU queues greater than 20 * numberofcores.

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

I'm assuming your operating system is Windows. If that's the case you can use PerfMon:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305610

You might also want to take a look at this:

http://www.microsoft.com/DOWNLOADS/details.aspx?FamilyID=31fccd98-c3a1-4644-9622-faa046d69214&displaylang=en

link|improve this answer
yep its windows.. sorry is there anything else apart from PerfMon ? – chrisc Jul 18 '09 at 18:03
Perhaps a better question is, what are you trying to do that PerfMon won't do for you? :-) – KPWINC Jul 18 '09 at 18:06
I find Perfmon fiddly in setting up, i thought they may be a another app which would simplify this. If PerfMon is the best utility for this type of monitoring then so be it. I really think user has installed something which is causing this, but never shows up when im looking at it. – chrisc Jul 18 '09 at 18:18
i've setup perfmon, but it can only monitor a sample of 1000sec. Can this be logged to a file so it can continue with the next 1000 seconds ? – chrisc Jul 18 '09 at 20:05
Absolutely. You can do performance logging for extended periods of time. Set it all up the way you need it then run it in the background. – KPWINC Jul 19 '09 at 3:02
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

Slowdown and task manager not responding are not necessary some other process hogging cpu or memory (though, I have seen firefox notoriously doing just that -- but, then I do load it up with extensions too).

I'd suggest running PageDefrag once to check if the page file has fragmented too much.
Also check to see if the primary drive (C:\ ?) is almost full.

link|improve this answer
i havent run pagedefrag, but have run the built in defrag. C: drive has lots of spare capacity – chrisc Jul 18 '09 at 18:14
@chrisc, I don't think the regular windows defrag tool does page files. You could download PageDefrag and run it once to check if page file is fragmented -- it comes from Mark Russinovich who is now Microsoft employee (liked him even before that). howtogeek.com/howto/windows/… – nik Jul 18 '09 at 19:00
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard