diff --git a/include/utils.hpp b/include/utils.hpp
index e858294..e658850 100644
--- a/include/utils.hpp
+++ b/include/utils.hpp
@@ -7,8 +7,8 @@
 
 #define FILL_CHAR ' '
 
-// wrapper around readFile func so we can avoid readFileToStr and reuse one buffer, this should be faster and less bug prone?
-#define fastReadNum(path, val) readFile(path, buf, sizeof(buf)); val = strtoll(buf, NULL, 10)
+// wrapper around readFile func
+#define fastReadNum(path, val) readFile(path, buf, sizeof(buf)); val = std::strtoll(buf, NULL, 10)
 
 enum JUST {
   RIGHT,
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@ inline std::string pNum(auto num, uint8_t decs = 0) { return std::format("{:.{}f
 std::string pad(std::string s, uint8_t len, JUST j = JUST::RIGHT);
 std::string center(std::string str, uint8_t len);
 std::string pBytes(double bytes, bool isKbytes = false);
-std::string readFileToStr(std::string path, size_t trim = 4096);
 ssize_t readFile(std::string path, char* buffer, size_t maxlen);
 ssize_t readFile(const char* path, char* buffer, size_t maxlen);
 std::string getFirstDir(std::string_view path);
diff --git a/src/cpu.cpp b/src/cpu.cpp
index c5f850b..ee81f78 100644
--- a/src/cpu.cpp
+++ b/src/cpu.cpp
@@ -16,7 +16,8 @@ void detectHwmon(cpuSensors* target, std::string pci) {
         log(LOG::ERR, "cpu::detectHwmon", "NO CPU HWMON KERNEL MODULE DETECTED");
         return;
     }
-    target->zenpower = readFileToStr((target->hwmon + "/name"), 128) == "zenpower";
+
+    target->zenpower = false; // we were using readFileToStr to figure this out, we dont f/w it anymore, find another way (see if hwmon/in1_input exists?)
     log(LOG::INF, "cpu::detectHwmon", "Detected module \"{}\" in path \"{}\"", target->zenpower ? "zenpower" : "k10temp", target->hwmon);
 }
 
diff --git a/src/sys.cpp b/src/sys.cpp
index c4ef488..a5eb729 100644
--- a/src/sys.cpp
+++ b/src/sys.cpp
@@ -28,9 +28,10 @@ void sys::getTimeDate(TimeDate* td) {
 }
 
 void sys::getRam(Memory* mem) {
-    auto content = readFileToStr("/proc/meminfo", 128);  // file is longer than that but its all we need
-    mem->free = getVal("MemAvailable:", content);
-    mem->total = getVal("MemTotal:", content);
+    static char buf[128]; // file is longer but we only need first 128 chars
+    readFile("/proc/meminfo", buf, sizeof(buf));
+    mem->free = getVal("MemAvailable:", std::string_view(buf));
+    mem->total = getVal("MemTotal:", std::string_view(buf));
     mem->used = mem->total - mem->free;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/utils.cpp b/src/utils.cpp
index 4241a7d..ad233d4 100644
--- a/src/utils.cpp
+++ b/src/utils.cpp
@@ -59,15 +59,7 @@ ssize_t readFile(std::string path, char* buffer, size_t maxlen) {
     return readFile(path.c_str(), buffer, maxlen);
 }
 
-std::string readFileToStr(std::string path, size_t trim) {
-    char* buf = new char[trim + 2];
-    ssize_t len = readFile(path, buf, trim + 2);
-    std::string out(buf);
-    delete[] buf;
-    if (!len) return "0";
-    return out.substr(0, len - 1);
-}
-
+/* finds first dir in path and returns it*/
 std::string getFirstDir(std::string_view path) {
     for (const auto& entry : std::filesystem::directory_iterator(path))
         return entry.path();