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The Missing Manual
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All topics / Processes, Memory & the CPU - Diagnosing a Slow or Stuck Machine

Processes, Memory & the CPU - Diagnosing a Slow or Stuck Machine

What '100% CPU' and 'out of memory' actually mean, and how to find the one process that's the culprit - using top and Task Manager you already have.

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  1. Processes, Up Close A process has an ID (PID) and a parent, runs in the foreground or background, sits in a state (running, sleeping, zombie), and is stopped by signals - which is all Ctrl-C, kill, and 'End task' really send.
  2. What '100% CPU' Really Means Your CPU has several cores; the scheduler gives processes rapid turns. '100% CPU' usually means one runaway process pinning a core - find it by sorting top / Task Manager by CPU.
  3. What 'Out of Memory' Really Means RAM is the fast desk; when it fills, the OS pages cold data to slow disk (swap), which is why a low-memory machine crawls - and if even that isn't enough, the OOM killer ends a process to survive.