Heavy CPU usage on a 1.6Ghz machine??
 

So I have a lenovo laptop Running Xubuntu 8.10 and upgraded to 1GB of RAM

My problem started when I noticed it going slower then a desktop with the same clock speed that runs windblows XP

So I installed a few things that report CPU usage on my linux laptop... The result? Its constantly spiking up to 100% CPU for the smallest requests like opening up firefox takes like 30 seconds at 100% CPU....

The same program also reports RAM usage and the results of that show that it barely even touches my RAM for anything....

Now I ask... Can this be tweaked just like all other things linux??? If so how?

Use the system guard utility to check which application is consuming most CPU cycles. The "top" command at the command line can also show the list of processes running. This should help identify the delinquent process.
Is there frequent hard disk access as well?

I've found htop even more useful than top -- it's interactive.

Ah pinpointed the problem.... the desklet monitor wasn't accurate!