PC reeaall sllooooooww

[J Lunis]

XP SR2
Recently had trouble getting my PC to communicate to my Tivo DVR through
my wireless network. Some people on a newsgroup told me to disable my
antivirus and firewall (both Norton) and see if I could reach Tivo.
Disabling did not help so I uninstalled both. Still didn't help. But
this is not about a network communication problem.
My PC is slow. It took 6 hours to uninstall Norton Firewall. It took
15 hours to reinstall and another 18 hours to reinstall Norton Firewall.
The little I watched the installation process, install would proceed for
a while but freeze at some point (one freeze was during 'copying files)
for hours.
But the problem is not just install/uninstall. If I open Windows
Explorer, it takes about a minute to appear. Takes another minute for
the left panel to fill. And when I click on 'My Computer,' it take 3-5
minutes fot the list of drives to appear.
I have 512 RAM and, best I can tell, RAM usage never exceeded 300.
Advice please.

 

[Malke]

XP SR2
Recently had trouble getting my PC to communicate to my Tivo DVR
through
my wireless network. Some people on a newsgroup told me to disable my
antivirus and firewall (both Norton) and see if I could reach Tivo.
Disabling did not help so I uninstalled both. Still didn't help. But
this is not about a network communication problem.
My PC is slow. It took 6 hours to uninstall Norton Firewall. It took
15 hours to reinstall and another 18 hours to reinstall Norton
Firewall. The little I watched the installation process, install would
proceed for a while but freeze at some point (one freeze was during
'copying files) for hours.
But the problem is not just install/uninstall. If I open Windows
Explorer, it takes about a minute to appear. Takes another minute for
the left panel to fill. And when I click on 'My Computer,' it take
3-5 minutes fot the list of drives to appear.
I have 512 RAM and, best I can tell, RAM usage never exceeded 300.
Advice please.

I certainly hope you weren't connected to the Internet when you got rid
of your firewall and antivirus.

The slowness you describe sounds like your hard drive is in PIO mode
instead of DMA as it should be. This can be caused by a software glitch
or hardware problems. Here is information about the issue by MVP
Hans-Georg Michna:

http://www.michna.com/kb/WxDMA.htm

If Mr. Michna's fix works for you, great. Start scanning for viruses and
malware if you were exposed without protection. If the fix doesn't
work, you have hardware failure and here are some general hardware
troubleshooting steps:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

Testing hardware failures often involves swapping out suspected parts
with known-good parts. If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are
uncomfortable opening your computer, take the machine to a professional
computer repair shop (not your local equivalent of BigStoreUSA).

Malke

 

[Keith Manning]

XP SR2
Recently had trouble getting my PC to communicate to my Tivo DVR through
my wireless network. Some people on a newsgroup told me to disable my
antivirus and firewall (both Norton) and see if I could reach Tivo.
Disabling did not help so I uninstalled both. Still didn't help. But
this is not about a network communication problem.
My PC is slow. It took 6 hours to uninstall Norton Firewall. It took 15
hours to reinstall and another 18 hours to reinstall Norton Firewall.
The little I watched the installation process, install would proceed for a
while but freeze at some point (one freeze was during 'copying files) for
hours.
But the problem is not just install/uninstall. If I open Windows
Explorer, it takes about a minute to appear. Takes another minute for the
left panel to fill. And when I click on 'My Computer,' it take 3-5
minutes fot the list of drives to appear.
I have 512 RAM and, best I can tell, RAM usage never exceeded 300.
Advice please.

You probably have a virus. Best thing to do is reinstall XP then load your
anti-virus software BEFORE you connect your PC to the internet. Also don't
install anything Norton, it's crap. Download and install this
http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html It's excellent and free!

Keith Manning (nMVP)

 

[DatabaseBen]

as part of having a tivo subscription/service, information about
about what you are viewing and other data are being sent back
out by your equipment.....

this may help you get closer to figuring out your problem...