That's an interesting aspect of dual core processors - worth looking into,
and thanks. However, I'm still baffled by the variability of the speed.

Philip

"Scott" wrote:

I'm not 100% sure but since you have a dual core processor I think the reason
why you don't get above 54% use is because of the two processors. i don't
think Excel 2003 has hyperthreading technology which would allow for both
processors to be used at the same time. So, next time you try running it,
check your CPU usage history. If one side is up near 100 and it's only
giving you 54% then it's because the other processor is doing little but
background stuff. I just tried running a test on my computer, dual processor
as well, and unless I'm running several programs at the same time I can see
that one processor is working much harder than the other.

Just a thing to check up on.

Cheers,
Scott

"Gesualdo" wrote:

I have a system with a complex Excel interface, running under VBA, storing
lots of data in Access via ADO. Some processes take several minutes to
complete, but the actual speed varies a lot, and at the moment things are
running very slowly. I'm using Office 2003, on a 1.86Ghz Core Duo machine
with 1Gb RAM. The processor doesn't run at more than 54% speed, suggesting
there's some form of bottleneck somewhere, but it's the variable nature of
the problem that's baffling. Sometimes I can get it to speed up, but it then
settles down to a slow speed again. Any ideas?