Verified answer

For the RAM, I can tell you, it's probably Vista.

If you have around 1-2 GB of RAM, Vista will do that. It's a special component of Vista called SuperFetch, and although it looks like it takes up RAM, it's only reserving it for the next time you start a program so that your program loads faster.

The RAM cannot become "full", the computer's memory will go into the paging file on the hard disk (virtual memory).

The CPU though, I dunno. Does it spike when you start programs? That's normal. If it spikes when you're not doing anything...that's odd.

Do a reboot.

If you still have problems, open task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete, Start Task Manager), and go to the Processes tab, and click "Show processes from all users".

Allow it through the UAC and scroll to the right.

Click "CPU" at the top to organize the processes by CPU usage.

Ignore anything that says "System Idle Process". This will always look like it's taking up a lot of CPU. It's not.

Look for anything abnormal, then search on Google for what your problem might be. (Or come back here.)

Ouch... 1.3Ghz? Unfortunately with Minecraft you are going to be maxing that out more often than not. Minecraft is very CPU intensive because it is a Java application. Basically your PC is running it through a virtual machine and Java isn't optimized for any one system... it's basically a "happy medium" type language. I don't see any way of avoiding that issue with that CPU. Low RAM usage is about right as well... Minecraft isn't graphically intensive or anything and it is a small program.

Vista is a resource hog.. Go to task manager and find out which processes are using the most RAM and CPU.. Vista has an update process that runs a lot and may be causing your issue..

Google the processes that are using high RAM/CPU..

Dump Vista and go back to XP Pro..

Your problem is directly related to the fact that you are running Windows Vista.

Vista is a resource hog, and will use up almost 1.5 gigs of ram at points simply for it's own use.

This can be a big issue, because many companies are shipping computers with less than 2gigs of ram installed in order to keep prices down.

More details are needed to further diagnose the issue. We would need to know the brand and model number of the computer, and any upgrades you may have done to it.

Ctrl+Alt+Del processes tab, end as many processes as possible, if the RAM/CPU usage is 100% it's fine, if it needs to be above that, it will slow down.

I have the same prob too on my vista.

But it's normal.

As long as your com does not lag, it is ok.