Hey Volente, of all the things you have listed, the only one I haven't done is rebooting the system in safe mode which I will do. Everything else has been done. Thanks again for the help.
Check your Task Manager. Installing lots more RAM that you'd use at any one time is simply a waste of $$$. Your problems are highly likely to be caused by a software app. Have you tried turning them on one at a time to see if you can identify the culprit? Have you recently installed an upgrade to one of your data/charting/order exection apps? Your problem *could* be some sort of malware, but more likely an application which needs a fix.
Thanks Bernard, yes, I know which app. is using most of my CPU. I was told that if I have a bunch of charts open at any one time, that I might not have enough memory to handle it. That is why I was asking about the memory. As it stands I have 1GB. Thanks.
Check your Task Manager for RAM usage so that you know for sure. The issue of "too many charts open" may NOT be a RAM issue at all, but rather "Resources"... if that's the case, there's nothing you can do except replace the app, get it fixed, or divide your trading rig load over 2 or more computer..... each computer has its own Resources, so 2 computers have twice as much as 1, regardless of the RAM involved.
That is kind of high and will make the machine hunt and search while doing routine tasks which in turn will take more cpu but not 40-50 %. Has the charting always taken that much or have you just upgraded it recently ? I only run 512 ram and have never had a problem running multiple java based programs at one time.