Many of you are complaining of having problems with this site where the smileys are not loading. Some of you are complaining of assorted other issues with the video not loading or playing and so on.
First, I can tell you that this is one of the best managed sites and that I have never had a problem even though there are many images being loaded. I do recognize your complaints as being legitimate as I can reproduce them under a system that is handicapped.
A handicapped system is one where:
- The hard drive is not up to performance due to being highly fragmented
- The system is defective due to corrupt files or a marginal hard drive.
- Not enough memory for the amount of programs being pre-loaded / loaded.
- A system infested with spam-ware, trojans, worms, etc.
- A system that does not meet the minimum specs.
- Internet bandwidth that is not up to par
I run a very minimalistic non-gamer PC with only 1 GB of RAM, and I am using a
plug-in video card to ensure video viewing without any problems.
(GEFORCE Nvidia 7300 SE 256 MB)
CPU Performance
For those of you that are having problems, I strongly urge you to measure the performance of your system not only to benchmark your baseline performance, but also to reveal what some of your issues might be.
Here are my performance graphs. How does your system stack up?
First, monitor your CPU usage. If your system is banging into the 100% area, then that means either that you have an under performing system or you have an overloaded system running extraneous programs.
Notice that in my system, the idle state of my CPU is under 10% and that when I watch an HD video that my CPU runs in the 75% CPU utilization area. Notice the difference between viewing a Normal Quality video versus HD. Notice that when I clear the cache on FireFox, and then reload the HotForWords.com Coconut comments page, I barely go up to the 50% mark.
One caveat. It is possible for your CPU performance graphs to show that you have plenty of CPU reserves, and you could still have problems as other issues will not show up here, especially when certain programs are cached or your hard drive is heavily fragmented.
To view your performance graph, press Ctrl-Alt-Del, then click Task Manager, then click the Performance tab.
Internet Performance
The next two graphs show the bitrate of my connection to the Internet. I use a very small program called NetPerSec I have a 3 Mb/s DSL connection from AT&T and I am about 3 miles from the Central Office, but with repeaters and fiber optics today, that should no longer be an issue, but, your geographic area may not be up to par.
Do you know what kind of DSL speed you are paying for?
Most people that I ask the question of do NOT know. Many think they have a 1.5 Mb/s connections when in fact they are only paying for a 750 Kb/s or 375 Kb/s connection.
Notice that when I refresh a HotForWords.com page, it peaks around 2 Mb/s which means that I have plenty of reserve as my limit is 3.0 Mb/sec. If you only have a 1.5 Mb/s connection or less, then you may have page loading issues.
In the next graph I demonstrate that it requires about 2.6 Mb/s of bandwidth to view the HD videos. With a 3.0 Mb/sec connection, I have some reserve bandwidth when needed. You may be paying for 3 Mb/s connection, but you might only be seeing 2.5 Mb/s or less due to your geographic telephone/cable infrastructure, ISP and other factors.
Summary:
I run a clean and low cost system that anyone can afford.
I recommend that you take some performance measurements
and report them when you have issues pertaining to performance.
You don't need to post a screen shot of your performance numbers.
Approximate percentage numbers is a start. If your system is operating
in the 75% - 100% of CPU utilization, then the system is not up to
today's specs, or is being overloaded or has defects such as corrupt
files or is not de-fragmented properly.
