How do I diagnose a slow Vista Home Basic machine?

[M Skabialka]

A friend found out that I have a Vista computer so he brought me his wife's
computer to find out why it is so slow. I have no problems with mine but
this Vista Home Basic PC is ungodly slow. Just to open an Explorer window
takes over 90 seconds. I scheduled a checkdisk and ran it on the next
reboot. I defragged and ran the disk cleanup wizard. I downloaded and
reinstalled the ATI video drivers after seeing an eror message about ATI.
It is slightly faster but not enough to make any difference to the user.
Where do I find the diagnostics, or logs or something that can tell me what
is slowing it down so that I can fix it? I couldn't find a diagnostic on
the eMachine site. My last option will be to reformat and start over but
I'd rather not do that if there is a way to fix it instead. It's an
eMachine with only 512 MB RAM, but it did run much faster when new. Intel
Pentium 3.0 GHz, 160 GB HDD. Also the wireless card is very slow, but the
wired connection is pretty fast for downloading.
Mich

 

[Malke]

A friend found out that I have a Vista computer so he brought me his
wife's
computer to find out why it is so slow. I have no problems with mine but
this Vista Home Basic PC is ungodly slow. Just to open an Explorer window
takes over 90 seconds. I scheduled a checkdisk and ran it on the next
reboot. I defragged and ran the disk cleanup wizard. I downloaded and
reinstalled the ATI video drivers after seeing an eror message about ATI.
It is slightly faster but not enough to make any difference to the user.
Where do I find the diagnostics, or logs or something that can tell me
what
is slowing it down so that I can fix it? I couldn't find a diagnostic on
the eMachine site. My last option will be to reformat and start over but
I'd rather not do that if there is a way to fix it instead. It's an
eMachine with only 512 MB RAM, but it did run much faster when new. Intel
Pentium 3.0 GHz, 160 GB HDD. Also the wireless card is very slow, but the
wired connection is pretty fast for downloading.
Mich

First of all, Vista will be slow but not unbearably slow with 1GB of RAM. I
consider the minimum RAM for Vista to be 2GB. So up her RAM. Crucial.com is
the source I use for memory purchases and this is a fairly inexpensive but
important upgrade.

After you've installed the new RAM (because frankly I wouldn't even work on
this box with only 512MB, it will be unbearable) then:

1. Make sure the computer is completely virus/malware-free:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

2. Uninstall any preloaded and unnecessary OEM programs, trial programs,
etc. Make sure no extraneous services or programs are running in the
background (Adobe "speed" launcher, third-party program updaters, etc.). If
your friend has a bloated and invasive antivirus such as Norton, McAfee,
TrendMicro, Panda - install a better one. I recommend NOD32 (commercial) or
Avast (free version).

After you've done that, please come back and report the results. If the
computer is still slow, we can continue troubleshooting.

Malke

 

[Saucy]

A friend found out that I have a Vista computer so he brought me his wife's
computer to find out why it is so slow. I have no problems with mine but
this Vista Home Basic PC is ungodly slow. Just to open an Explorer window
takes over 90 seconds. I scheduled a checkdisk and ran it on the next
reboot. I defragged and ran the disk cleanup wizard. I downloaded and
reinstalled the ATI video drivers after seeing an eror message about ATI.
It is slightly faster but not enough to make any difference to the user.
Where do I find the diagnostics, or logs or something that can tell me
what is slowing it down so that I can fix it? I couldn't find a
diagnostic on the eMachine site. My last option will be to reformat and
start over but I'd rather not do that if there is a way to fix it instead.
It's an eMachine with only 512 MB RAM, but it did run much faster when
new. Intel Pentium 3.0 GHz, 160 GB HDD. Also the wireless card is very
slow, but the wired connection is pretty fast for downloading.
Mich

The computer doesn't really have enough RAM. That said:

There's more than one possible reason for a slow down. Malware ( virus,
spyware etc. etc. ) is a common cause of slow down. Do a virus and spyware
scans.

Another cause is that there might be too many programs running in the
background. You can use msconfig to stop some of these programs from
running. Requires a reboot:

Start > in the "Start Search" edit box type in "msconfig" when it appears at
the top of the Start menu click on it > go to the "Startup" tab > uncheck
any unneeded programs (if you aren't sure use a web search engine to
discover what they are) > click any OKs > the computer will have to be
rebooted for the new settings to take effect.

Note: A technician can also edit the "Run" key in the registry to stop
programs from running when the computer boots up. As well, there are third
party programs that can be used to 'tweak' Windows. One program in
particular that focuses on "junk" programs is:

[The PC Decrapifier]
http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/home

Also note: These days, 512MB of RAM is substantially insufficient. The
computer should have at least 1GB RAM for running Windows Vista and
programs. The "sweet spot" is 2GB RAM. My laptop (running Vista) felt slow
with 1GB of RAM. After I switch out to 2GB RAM it ran much better.

Saucy

 

[Tyro]

You can control the running all of startup programs easily with sysinternals
autoruns available at MS.

Tyro

A friend found out that I have a Vista computer so he brought me his
wife's computer to find out why it is so slow. I have no problems with
mine but this Vista Home Basic PC is ungodly slow. Just to open an
Explorer window takes over 90 seconds. I scheduled a checkdisk and ran it
on the next reboot. I defragged and ran the disk cleanup wizard. I
downloaded and reinstalled the ATI video drivers after seeing an eror
message about ATI.
It is slightly faster but not enough to make any difference to the user.
Where do I find the diagnostics, or logs or something that can tell me
what is slowing it down so that I can fix it? I couldn't find a
diagnostic on the eMachine site. My last option will be to reformat and
start over but I'd rather not do that if there is a way to fix it
instead. It's an eMachine with only 512 MB RAM, but it did run much
faster when new. Intel Pentium 3.0 GHz, 160 GB HDD. Also the wireless
card is very slow, but the wired connection is pretty fast for
downloading.
Mich

The computer doesn't really have enough RAM. That said:

There's more than one possible reason for a slow down. Malware ( virus,
spyware etc. etc. ) is a common cause of slow down. Do a virus and spyware
scans.

Another cause is that there might be too many programs running in the
background. You can use msconfig to stop some of these programs from
running. Requires a reboot:

Start > in the "Start Search" edit box type in "msconfig" when it appears
at the top of the Start menu click on it > go to the "Startup" tab >
uncheck any unneeded programs (if you aren't sure use a web search engine
to discover what they are) > click any OKs > the computer will have to be
rebooted for the new settings to take effect.

Note: A technician can also edit the "Run" key in the registry to stop
programs from running when the computer boots up. As well, there are third
party programs that can be used to 'tweak' Windows. One program in
particular that focuses on "junk" programs is:

[The PC Decrapifier]
http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/home

Also note: These days, 512MB of RAM is substantially insufficient. The
computer should have at least 1GB RAM for running Windows Vista and
programs. The "sweet spot" is 2GB RAM. My laptop (running Vista) felt slow
with 1GB of RAM. After I switch out to 2GB RAM it ran much better.

Saucy

 

[M Skabialka]

But how would I know what to turn off? Some applications have very obscure
names - I might end up shutting down something essential. Same with
msconfig - I've never seen this computer before so don't really know what
should be there vs junk that was added by the manufacturer or downloaded
from an email or something. And the owner doesn't really know either.
However I will start with the malware scan and see what that picks up...

You can control the running all of startup programs easily with
sysinternals autoruns available at MS.

Tyro

A friend found out that I have a Vista computer so he brought me his
wife's computer to find out why it is so slow. I have no problems with
mine but this Vista Home Basic PC is ungodly slow. Just to open an
Explorer window takes over 90 seconds. I scheduled a checkdisk and ran
it on the next reboot. I defragged and ran the disk cleanup wizard. I
downloaded and reinstalled the ATI video drivers after seeing an eror
message about ATI.
It is slightly faster but not enough to make any difference to the user.
Where do I find the diagnostics, or logs or something that can tell me
what is slowing it down so that I can fix it? I couldn't find a
diagnostic on the eMachine site. My last option will be to reformat and
start over but I'd rather not do that if there is a way to fix it
instead. It's an eMachine with only 512 MB RAM, but it did run much
faster when new. Intel Pentium 3.0 GHz, 160 GB HDD. Also the wireless
card is very slow, but the wired connection is pretty fast for
downloading.
Mich

The computer doesn't really have enough RAM. That said:

There's more than one possible reason for a slow down. Malware ( virus,
spyware etc. etc. ) is a common cause of slow down. Do a virus and
spyware scans.

Another cause is that there might be too many programs running in the
background. You can use msconfig to stop some of these programs from
running. Requires a reboot:

Start > in the "Start Search" edit box type in "msconfig" when it appears
at the top of the Start menu click on it > go to the "Startup" tab >
uncheck any unneeded programs (if you aren't sure use a web search engine
to discover what they are) > click any OKs > the computer will have to be
rebooted for the new settings to take effect.

Note: A technician can also edit the "Run" key in the registry to stop
programs from running when the computer boots up. As well, there are
third party programs that can be used to 'tweak' Windows. One program in
particular that focuses on "junk" programs is:

[The PC Decrapifier]
http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/home

Also note: These days, 512MB of RAM is substantially insufficient. The
computer should have at least 1GB RAM for running Windows Vista and
programs. The "sweet spot" is 2GB RAM. My laptop (running Vista) felt
slow with 1GB of RAM. After I switch out to 2GB RAM it ran much better.

Saucy

 

[Saucy]

Same with msconfig - I've never seen this computer before so don't really
know what should be there vs junk that was added by the manufacturer or
downloaded from an email or something. And the owner doesn't really know
either. However I will start with the malware scan and see what that picks
up...

Enter the various item names into a search engine and check with the
results. If you cannot determine whether an item can be safely unchecked
after that then leave it.

Note: Before playing with settings create a Restore Point. You might also
consider creating a backup.

Saucy

 

[+Bob+]

But how would I know what to turn off? Some applications have very obscure
names - I might end up shutting down something essential. Same with
msconfig - I've never seen this computer before so don't really know what
should be there vs junk that was added by the manufacturer or downloaded
from an email or something. And the owner doesn't really know either.
However I will start with the malware scan and see what that picks up...

Try downloading "process explorer" from sysinternals.com (MS
approved).

Run it and see what is taking up the CPU, memory, or disk performance.
Report back on what is hitting the top of the charts. If it's that
slow, then there is something working hard.

FWIW - 512K is way too little memory. You can at least get another
512K chip dirt cheap. Do it.

 

[Malke]

But how would I know what to turn off? Some applications have very
obscure
names - I might end up shutting down something essential. Same with
msconfig - I've never seen this computer before so don't really know what
should be there vs junk that was added by the manufacturer or downloaded
from an email or something. And the owner doesn't really know either.
However I will start with the malware scan and see what that picks up...

Very good question. You either Google the names, spend a *lot* of time
diagnosing this, or make the better choice: tell your friend to take the
machine to a competent local computer tech and have *them* do it. If you go
this route, I don't recommend using a BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of
place.

Best of luck,

Malke

 

[M Skabialka]

They consider me the "competent local computer tech" as I have been setting
up their computers and transferring files to new ones for years. However my
Vista Ultimate computer that I built myself works like a dream, so I have no
experience in diagnosing Vista Home Basic problems.

 

[Malke]

They consider me the "competent local computer tech" as I have been
setting
up their computers and transferring files to new ones for years. However
my Vista Ultimate computer that I built myself works like a dream, so I
have no experience in diagnosing Vista Home Basic problems.

It's no different than diagnosing any other Windows operating system
slowness issues. Check for malware, optimize the system, make sure the
hardware is good (enough RAM), etc.

Malke

 

[M Skabialka]

This is what I was looking for - a great list of options to tweak.
So far I have defragged, run chkdsk, scanned for malware and viruses,
removed some progrmas, found more up to date drivers for NIC, net and video
cards, done the Windows updates, done some suggested control panel tweaks
and run some diagnostics. The wireless card card now works, no more ATI
video errors. The consensus is that RAM is the major issue, so will order
some online and see if that fixes the slowness issue. I will also try the
other suggestions on the website for further tweaking.
Thanks,
Mich

 

[M Skabialka]

I bought 2 GB RAM but when installed as a pair the monitor showed nothing on
the screen - not even BIOS info. However one old plus one new memory chip
worked and was much faster.The new RAM was not 4200 speed but said it was
compatible. So I will have to return them since I can't use the pair and
find some slower RAM.

 

[Ryan]

I would almost guarantee if you up the ram it will fix the problem. I have a
toshiba laptop that only had 512mb when I got it and it was extremely slow.
I now have it upgraded to 2gb and it runs much faster like the difference
between night and day.

--
Ryan MCTS

A friend found out that I have a Vista computer so he brought me his
wife's computer to find out why it is so slow. I have no problems with
mine but this Vista Home Basic PC is ungodly slow. Just to open an
Explorer window takes over 90 seconds. I scheduled a checkdisk and ran it
on the next reboot. I defragged and ran the disk cleanup wizard. I
downloaded and reinstalled the ATI video drivers after seeing an eror
message about ATI.
It is slightly faster but not enough to make any difference to the user.
Where do I find the diagnostics, or logs or something that can tell me
what is slowing it down so that I can fix it? I couldn't find a
diagnostic on the eMachine site. My last option will be to reformat and
start over but I'd rather not do that if there is a way to fix it
instead. It's an eMachine with only 512 MB RAM, but it did run much
faster when new. Intel Pentium 3.0 GHz, 160 GB HDD. Also the wireless
card is very slow, but the wired connection is pretty fast for
downloading.
Mich

The computer doesn't really have enough RAM. That said:

There's more than one possible reason for a slow down. Malware ( virus,
spyware etc. etc. ) is a common cause of slow down. Do a virus and spyware
scans.

Another cause is that there might be too many programs running in the
background. You can use msconfig to stop some of these programs from
running. Requires a reboot:

Start > in the "Start Search" edit box type in "msconfig" when it appears
at the top of the Start menu click on it > go to the "Startup" tab >
uncheck any unneeded programs (if you aren't sure use a web search engine
to discover what they are) > click any OKs > the computer will have to be
rebooted for the new settings to take effect.

Note: A technician can also edit the "Run" key in the registry to stop
programs from running when the computer boots up. As well, there are third
party programs that can be used to 'tweak' Windows. One program in
particular that focuses on "junk" programs is:

[The PC Decrapifier]
http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/home

Also note: These days, 512MB of RAM is substantially insufficient. The
computer should have at least 1GB RAM for running Windows Vista and
programs. The "sweet spot" is 2GB RAM. My laptop (running Vista) felt slow
with 1GB of RAM. After I switch out to 2GB RAM it ran much better.

Saucy

 

[M Skabialka]

Update:
Ran antivirus, removed Office 2007 Trial and Napster, defragged, run chkdsk,
ran a check at PCPitstop that said the NIC, net and video card drivers were
out of date so got updated drivers from the manufacturers, (now the wireless
card works which it wasn't), did the Windows updates, some suggested control
panel tweaks and run some diagnostics. Finally removed the 512MB RAM and
installed 2GB faster RAM.
It's like a new machine! Instead of almost 90 seconds to open Windows
Explorer it's one or two seconds. I think the major improvements came from
the device drivers and the RAM.
Thanks for all suggestions.
Mich